Minimum arrow mass and velocity for hunting small and medium game

[ozyclint]

My son wants to start hunting with his bow, a Hoyt Satori riser with uukha limbs. He's pulling around 30#@24.5"
We're yet to finish arrow tuning but the arrows are at 360gr with a 145gr point. this might go up to 400gr with a 180gr point yet.
I haven't chrono'ed it yet though.

So what would you consider the minimum for small game up to stuff like fox, small pigs and feral goats?

BH would be a small COC 2 blade, skinny shafts etc. Shots will be no more than 10m for the pigs and goats.

 

[bowhuntercoop]

Will be fine. I’m at 25.5 draw. Shot my first mule deer at 40lbs on my fingers with a 500 grain arrow. These days pulling 50lbs but dropped arrow weight to 475 grains to flatten trajectory, every year I go lighter and lighter with arrows. With a sharp 2 blade or the vpa 3 blade I almost always get 2 holes. Shot placement is king.

 

[Beendare]

Its an interesting question.....

Im my experience, it doesn't take much energy to kill stuff with a sharp 2 blade. They penetrate effortlessly thus you can almost throw out arrow factors. Much different than the guys shooting inefficient BH's.

I have blown arrows through deer and hogs with a 40# recurve and 11gpp arrow- but I have a long draw so that adds to arrow energy. Now I use a 9GPP arrow, 50# recurve and a 2 blade- crazy effective.

I would go with 11gpp-12gpp plus on a low energy setup.

 

[ozyclint]

I would go with 11gpp-12gpp plus on a low energy setup.

Might be a good idea.
I have some 200gr 2 blades which would make the arrow 420gr or 14gr/#.
For close range shots the trajectory doesn't matter.
I'll get him to shoot through the chrono on the weekend.

 

[ozyclint]

We are just about settled on the arrow tuning. Got BH's flying pretty good. Tuning is limited by form and for a kid he's doing pretty good.

I had a grizzly single bevel already at 200gr which is 1" wide. It penetrated the 3d target far better than any other head we were tuning with.
I have a few Magnus 2 heads that I will modify to 1" wide for him.
I also ordered a 6 pack of Tusker concordes that I'll make 1" wide. These will be a similar profile to the grizzly.

looks like arrow weight is 410gr.

 

[LostArra]

We are just about settled on the arrow tuning. Got BH's flying pretty good. Tuning is limited by form and for a kid he's doing pretty good.

I had a grizzly single bevel already at 200gr which is 1" wide. It penetrated the 3d target far better than any other head we were tuning with.
I have a few Magnus 2 heads that I will modify to 1" wide for him.
I also ordered a 6 pack of Tusker concordes that I'll make 1" wide. These will be a similar profile to the grizzly.

looks like arrow weight is 410gr.

Keep us posted on his hunts. Sounds fun. 10m shots are in my wheelhouse.

 

[willfrye027]

We are just about settled on the arrow tuning. Got BH's flying pretty good. Tuning is limited by form and for a kid he's doing pretty good.

I had a grizzly single bevel already at 200gr which is 1" wide. It penetrated the 3d target far better than any other head we were tuning with.
I have a few Magnus 2 heads that I will modify to 1" wide for him.
I also ordered a 6 pack of Tusker concordes that I'll make 1" wide. These will be a similar profile to the grizzly.

looks like arrow weight is 410gr.

The tuskers are a damn good head. Shot a lot of whitetails with those back when I was shooting trad and living on the east coast. Had a few go through two shoulder blades and still exit from a 50lb recurve at 20 yards.

 

[ozyclint]

...and reasonably priced too.
Picked up a 6 pack for A$45 delivered.
I'm not in for the US$50/3 pack that BH's seem to be these days.

I'll get it chronographed soon.

 

[ozyclint]

With a 410gr arrow the average of a 9 shot string was 140Fps.

Low 137, High 143, SD 1, ES 6

 

[Taudisio]

I don’t foresee any issues with that setup and shots under 20 yards. Definitely setting him up for success! I expect some dead critter photos to follow.

 

[Quailchaser410]

One of the biggest things I would do is make sure your point matches the quarry. I’ve shot rabbits with my bow and had them run around with a blount hanging out of them. Had to use my dog to track it. I like old beat up broad heads.