THE Perfect hunting arrow

[North Idaho Stickbow]

I’ve been playing with it all night, and I gotta say that bare shafting these wood arrows was much easier than anticipated!

After 2 cuts, I got them (I tested two out of the batch) flying pretty darn straight at 15 yards. I’m shocked at how quiet they are.

EDIT: I do need to raise my nock point quite a bit. I’m consistently nock-high from those fat arrows bouncing off the shelf.

 

[Beendare]

Good to know. I'm going to do my best to bareshaft but if I can't get it to work I'll just make sure broadheads and fieldpoints impact the same at 40 and call it good.

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[bjfoxhoven]

@Beendare it would be fun to shoot a little lighter arrow with a 2 blade broadhead to test performance. I plan to get a doe tag, so I may try it. The one concern would be a forward hit shot, if the single bevel 2 blade would be able to get through a shoulder/humerus.

 

[GLB]

I’ve been playing with it all night, and I gotta say that bare shafting these wood arrows was much easier than anticipated!

After 2 cuts, I got them (I tested two out of the batch) flying pretty darn straight at 15 yards. I’m shocked at how quiet they are.

EDIT: I do need to raise my nock point quite a bit. I’m consistently nock-high from those fat arrows bouncing off the shelf.

What wood are you using?

 

[North Idaho Stickbow]

Surewood shafts doug fir, 70-75.

 

[Beendare]

@Beendare it would be fun to shoot a little lighter arrow with a 2 blade broadhead to test performance. I plan to get a doe tag, so I may try it. The one concern would be a forward hit shot, if the single bevel 2 blade would be able to get through a shoulder/humerus.

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[GLB]

Arrow weight is definitely a balance of what you’re hunting and bow performance. You guys that have the long draw lengths can for sure take advantage of that performance and shoot a lighter weight arrow.

For someone like me that has a pretty short draw length and going down in poundage because of age has to find that performance another way. I need some weight on my arrow to make up for it.

Everything in archery is the right balance and understanding the trade offs.

 

[bjfoxhoven]

I've killed a couple hogs- about 70# and 120# with my light setup; 40# ILF recurve, 370gr arrow that had a tiny 2 blade...and the I had a buddy shoot a giant boar through the shield with a 45# Das recurve and a 425gr arrow, Woodsman BH- all full pass throughs and the arrows never slowed down through the animals.

Small sample^ size- but I've seen it work.

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Nice! I’m sure a doe wouldn’t be a problem then with a good shot (might be easier with the faster bow). Tim gillingham is a huge proponent of light and fast because of the accuracy and less ability to duck the arrow. I know he isn’t trad, but I would argue those principles are exponentially kore important in trad.
Maybe we can add to that sample size this year some then. Problem is my PO with those light arrows is out there a ways, and I dunno if I feel like setting up a few arrows lol. My 450 gr arrows are going 199 fps with a 54# ilf/warf setup. I haven’t killed a big game animal with a recurve, so the first doe coming in this year is going to be in trouble.

i shoot weekly with some old timers that have killed a lot with traditional equipment. The one has pretty much shot 3 blade COC heads for the past 20 years with a light arrow (no more than 450) and says he always gets the broadhead out the off side of the deer, but never has the arrow fall out. So that adds to the sample size for light arrows a lot (if those were 2 blades they would have all stuck in the ground).

 

[Beendare]

Arrow weight is definitely a balance of what you’re hunting and bow performance.

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[TaterTot]

Nice! I’m sure a doe wouldn’t be a problem then with a good shot (might be easier with the faster bow). Tim gillingham is a huge proponent of light and fast because of the accuracy and less ability to duck the arrow. I know he isn’t trad, but I would argue those principles are exponentially kore important in trad.
Maybe we can add to that sample size this year some then. Problem is my PO with those light arrows is out there a ways, and I dunno if I feel like setting up a few arrows lol. My 450 gr arrows are going 199 fps with a 54# ilf/warf setup. I haven’t killed a big game animal with a recurve, so the first doe coming in this year is going to be in trouble.

i shoot weekly with some old timers that have killed a lot with traditional equipment. The one has pretty much shot 3 blade COC heads for the past 20 years with a light arrow (no more than 450) and says he always gets the broadhead out the off side of the deer, but never has the arrow fall out. So that adds to the sample size for light arrows a lot (if those were 2 blades they would have all stuck in the ground).

Speed of sound in air 1100 fps ish

I don't care how fast your bow is you will never be fast enough to beat the reaction time of an alert whitetail deer. Ever.

Speed shouldn't even factor into your trad hunting setup. It doesn't matter. Get your equipment quiet.

 

[North Idaho Stickbow]

Ok, so this nock high thing with the wooden shafts is making me insane. The spine is on, but the dumb things impact nock high every time. I’ve moved the nock point up because I thought it may have been bouncing- worse. I moved it down instead - better, but still not great. Guess I’ll try brace height and a second nock point next.

 

[GLB]

The second nock point should clean some of that up.

 

[TaterTot]

I run all my bows with two tie on knock points after seeing a video of how much an arrow can slide on the string at release. It was in ultra slow mo, crazy stuff.

 

[North Idaho Stickbow]

I dropped the brace height a 1/4” and put a second nock point on. Infinitely better.

 

[roosiebull]

I’m liking that 10gpp, or a hair more. I was shooting 12, and I wasn’t bummed with accuracy, but I was happy with the accuracy of the lighter arrows... more forgiving in real world, big gaps are a concern to me in a hunting situation... you need to be on point guessing range. I want to feel confident to 30yds, and gaps with heavy arrows cause inconsistency for me at various yardage

 

[bjfoxhoven]

Speed of sound in air 1100 fps ish

I don't care how fast your bow is you will never be fast enough to beat the reaction time of an alert whitetail deer. Ever.

Speed shouldn't even factor into your trad hunting setup. It doesn't matter. Get your equipment quiet.

Yeah I know that…and I try to quiet everything as much as possible for that reason. It’s why I shoot trad vanes too.
A deers reaction is fast, but not that fast…all I’m getting at is I could maybe improve my impact even by 1” if they drop, which might be worth it. Last year 1” would have gotten me my first trad kill. Plus the speed would shrink grouping at further distances just due to flatter trajectory.
All great points and things to consider. Everything is a give and take. Find the happy point and harvest some animals.

 

[TaterTot]

Yeah I know that…and I try to quiet everything as much as possible for that reason. It’s why I shoot trad vanes too.
A deers reaction is fast, but not that fast…all I’m getting at is I could maybe improve my impact even by 1” if they drop, which might be worth it. Last year 1” would have gotten me my first trad kill. Plus the speed would shrink grouping at further distances just due to flatter trajectory.
All great points and things to consider. Everything is a give and take. Find the happy point and harvest some animals.

You are mistaken. They are superhero level fast. Go watch some slow motion videos of deer jumping the string.

My first deer I ever shot with trad equipment was an alert doe at about 6 yards. That deer went from broadside slightly quartering away to spinning about a 110 degrees and facing me. I aimed at her left shoulder and ended up hitting her in the right shoulder. I got lucky and the arrow slipped between the inside of her leg and her ribs and ended up cutting off the top of the heart and logging in her left ham.

Think about that. 6 yards and that deer managed to spin all the way around in the time it took an arrow to reach her out of a 55lb bow with a 580grain arrow.

 

[Beendare]

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[bjfoxhoven]

You are mistaken. They are superhero level fast. Go watch some slow motion videos of deer jumping the string.

My first deer I ever shot with trad equipment was an alert doe at about 6 yards. That deer went from broadside slightly quartering away to spinning about a 110 degrees and facing me. I aimed at her left shoulder and ended up hitting her in the right shoulder. I got lucky and the arrow slipped between the inside of her leg and her ribs and ended up cutting off the top of the heart and logging in her left ham.

Think about that. 6 yards and that deer managed to spin all the way around in the time it took an arrow to reach her out of a 55lb bow with a 580grain arrow.

I am not disputing that lol. I know how fast they are. They do matrix shit all the time. Hence why I’ve spined 3 deer with a compound…and why I don’t stop them anymore. I am not trying to argue that with you. I was being literal in the fact they aren’t 1100 FPS fast, so maybe an extra 50 FPS might make a slight difference if you go moderately heavy arrow compared to water Buffalo heavy arrow.

Tuned/quiet are main 2 things I care about.

And to your point, I believe quiet is much more important than speed. It’s one of my favorite parts of trad. The deer just don’t respond at the shot like they do with a compound.

 

[North Idaho Stickbow]

I agree wholeheartedly on having a quiet setup. I am blown away by how silent the woodies are coming out of my longbow, even with the broadheads. That alone might satisfy the “perfect hunting arrow” for me.