Wind Drift - Is diameter really that important & does FOC make a difference?

oxberger

FNG
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
42
Location
Wisconsin
With an arrow with "good" (not extreme) FOC, is there going to be a huge difference between a .204 & .246 arrow in regards to wind drift?

Arrow examples: Axis 300 with 75 grain brass and 100/125 grain head & Gold Tip 300 Hunter XT with 100 grain brass and 100/125 grain head

Also, at hunting distances, can most shooters tell the difference?

Does FOC play a role in drift?
 
You're going to receive a gamut of answers on this; if the people get invested. The shortest answer possible is, No
 
Personally believe that wind on the shooter is the biggest variable. Decent FOC cant hurt, but wouldn't hang a hat on that or OD of arrows.
 
You're going to receive a gamut of answers on this; if the people get invested. The shortest answer possible is, No
I would agree.

Our range has a strong prevailing cross wind- good to test setups. My observations;

Big fletching is more of a factor than arrow diameter...and a BH will drift more than a FP [pretty obvious]

A 5mm shaft vs a 6mm shaft- all else equal- will get a little less drift on longer shots. A WAG on this is if the 6mm drifts 4" at 60 yds, the 5mm would drift 2".

The cross wind affects your ability to hold on target as much as anything when you have a bow with quiver of arrows attached.

In winds of 25-30 mph or more...you can actually see the tail of your arrow flying with the tail off to the side

I tired the uber FOC thing years ago when making up an arrow for an Australian buff hunt. Those arrows flew like crap in general...but worse in a cross wind for sure. I abandoned the uber FOC for better arrow flight.

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In 5-10 mph breeze at 100 yds i will only see about a 2 inch average difference in impact between .204 and .246. Generally the .204 dia arrows are very expensive and require more components. I dont really see the reason to ever use anything other than a standard .246 for general hunting use.
 
Wind will impact your ability to hold on target 10x more than it will effect your arrow POI. I don't see the benefit of a .204 diameter arrow when you consider expense and other potential components you may need for the switch (quiver, broadeads, etc.).

Your above arrow/components don't seem like they would give you a "high" FOC, unless you have a really short draw length. I'm at 10.3% with 50 gr brass, 100 gr point, and a 25 gr IWO impact collar.
 
Adding up all the factors that result in .5%,1%, 2%, 5% increases in both accuracy and precision lead to you generally being more accurate and precise, on a more regular basis. Picking and choosing one or two out of the dozens of options will not make a material difference in your shooting results.

Your results will vary - if you're someone who is doing many things to improve your shooting, the % difference it makes for you versus someone who does nothing could be drastically different.

I think about it like this - do nothing, and accept the shooting ability that comes along with that. Or do as many things that are within reason that you can, and accept the shooting ability that comes along with that.

I can shoot a Walmart bow with Walmart arrows and mechanical broadheads, no tuning, biscuit, no peep, practice for a week before the season, and shoot deer inside 20 yards from a tree with a high success rate. I know if I attempt anything beyond that I'm essentially throwing dice.

I can shoot a tuned up bow, with tuned up arrows built for efficiency, COC fixed heads, utilizing most of the little tricks to improve accuracy/precision/repeatability, shoot once or twice a week all year, and shoot deer out to 40 with a high success rate.

For elk - the spread grows a little for me, but plug in 30 and 70 respectively.


Walmart bow example above, with only switching in micro diameter arrows, doesn't get me anything.

Efficient bow example above, going from standard to micro diameter arrows on an elk hunt in 30mph wind might be the difference in a gut shot or shoulder shot elk.

Yes, micro diameter shafts will drift less in strong winds. Does this mean anything to you? You can only make an educated guess with all the information given. There's no way to measure results, the experiment is too dynamic, and if you're like 99.99999% of hunters, you'll never shoot enough times to learn anything.
 
All I can say is that I’ve shot in full value wind that was fairly stiff and I shoot a .240 OD shaft with 230 up front and aae max stealth vanes on 4 fletch and my point hits great. So I can tell you they do a great job compared to older lower foc setups I’ve had.
 
I would say shooting the shortest arrow possible along with low profile vanes would have a much greater effect.


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