How slow is too slow?

[Jdeck09]

Next years bow will be better, every year

Yeah. I do my best not to chase the shiny new too much. With a couple kids the budget for new stuff has gone the way of the dodo.

 

[dyrtnappn]

Fast enough and heavy enough to kill. I had a complete pass through on my last big bull with 265fps and a 400gr arrow with a not top-of-the-line head. I upgraded bows, heavier arrow and now am at 285 with a 440gr arrow. It’s definitely more pleasant to shoot and I can really stretch that thing out, tighter pin spacing, etc. Worth the upgrade for me but your bow will kill just fine at reasonable distances and good shot placement.

 

[Bump79]

This is a fantastic breakdown. I really appreciate it. The spots I am ambushing elk generally are 50 or less. The rest of my hunts are whitetail.

We shot a nice bull at 42 yards on this hunt a few years back.

I am going to check the tune on my bow today or tomorrow so that I can eliminate that as a cause of the slowness.

My goal for the fall will be 60 yard max.

Happy to help! I would definitely consider lightening your setup with that's the case.

My general recommendation would be an Easton 5.0 Match Grade 340 or Terra Firma Sicario 350.

 

[Zking]

Are you having problems? If the answer is no then change nothing.
People kill stuff all the time with traditional bows going 100fps slower.
Would a faster set up be more forgiving of range estimation errors? Absolutely! But if you’re successful with your set up then it’s not “too slow”.

 

[wildwilderness]

As mentioned have the bow checked out to see if it’s in Spec- string stretch, cables, cams, limbs can all be off.

 

[Jdeck09]

As mentioned have the bow checked out to see if it’s in Spec- string stretch, cables, cams, limbs can all be off.

Cams are good and it's a new string. I did make a mistake in my post on draw length. I'm at 27.5.

I did max the limbs bringing it to about 71 pounds, which brought my speed to 248-251ish.

I shot my arrows against the new AX-33. The AX was about 15ish fps faster.

I'm moving to a victory Rip TKO. At 27ish length and 175 upfront, I expect it to come around 460.

That should give me a little more speed without sacrificing too much.

 

[Coveyleader]

I’m shooting about the same speed. I’ve done well, but knowing your distances is key as your up down room for error is very thin. I’d personally drop arrow weight and pick up some speed. I’d like to, but have quite a few arrows still so I’m not changing anytime soon.

 

[Wilderlife]

Besides being a part of the equation that makes up the energy of your arrow, the only thing speed is good for is making sure you have a trajectory that you're comfortable with. What I mean by that is, if the arrow is going fast enough that you're happy with your pin gaps, or shooting out to reasonable difference, call it good.

If someone were using a 50# recurve shooting a 500gn arrow, people would say "more than enough for what you want" and it'd be lucky to be doing 170fps.

240fps is fairly slow compared to most of what you read on the internet, but there is no reason a 500gn arrow going that speed wouldn't be plenty to kill most things.

 

[Jdeck09]

Besides being a part of the equation that makes up the energy of your arrow, the only thing speed is good for is making sure you have a trajectory that you're comfortable with. What I mean by that is, if the arrow is going fast enough that you're happy with your pin gaps, or shooting out to reasonable difference, call it good.

If someone were using a 50# recurve shooting a 500gn arrow, people would say "more than enough for what you want" and it'd be lucky to be doing 170fps.

240fps is fairly slow compared to most of what you read on the internet, but there is no reason a 500gn arrow going that speed wouldn't be plenty to kill most things.

That's a good point. I was surprised at how comparable an 8yr old bow was to a brand new flagship. I know 15fps could be considered a lot when shooting the same arrow but it wasn't enough to warrant $1500 for a bare bow.

I'm going to lighten my arrow by about 50 grains and see what speeds/ pin gap I've got.