New Chronograph results

[ThunderXB]

Since my deer stand is being terrorized by a 400 lbs+ black bear who is scaring everything in the county off (bear season over and no permit anyway), I thought I'd play the new Caldwell G2 chronograph that showed up today instead of sitting in my stand throwing things at the bear, like this past weekend.

I did some brief, non-scientific shooting through the chrony with my hunting set-up "just to see".

I was shooting my Bulldog 400 with Dr S silencers and bumpers, airbrakes JBK string, shrink wrapped retainer, rubber strips under the string at the limb tips and Trigger Tech. Shooting a 420 gr Zombie (including 100 gr point, Nufletch Ignitor nocks)

Brace height is set exactly 2" from juncture line. (SEW's sweet spot for speed on the BD400)

The 420 gr arrow goes out at 358-359 FPS consistently.

The same arrow without the battery (6 gr) in the Ignitor nock goes out at 362 FPS.

Another Zombie with the factory plastic nock (30 gr less than the loaded Ignitors) was 373 FPS.

SO what I learned in 20 shots was that in this weight/speed range, I am losing around .5 FPS per grain of weight.

I have 4 or 5 different makes of strings that I'll eventually weigh and test, along with some different brace heights.

The ballpark 360 FPS with my hunting arrow is exactly what I set the HAA Optimizer initial marker for selecting the right tape and at 60 yds it was right on.

SO based on losing .5 FPS for every one grain of weight and the plastic nocked Zombie (weighs about 390 gr) going 373 FPS, if I shot a 350 gr arrow, 40 gr lighter, it should go 20 FPS faster and be around 390-393 FPS, which would be right around what Excal says and that's with all the other stuff hanging on the bow/limbs.

I'm OK with that as at my normal hunting ranges, the heavier 420 gr arrow is what I want.

Now I'll get crazy looking for the perfect set up , but accuracy trumps all and the current set up is pretty good.

[VTbowman]

This is great info. Thanks!

[Normous]

To fix the problem you might be able to borrow a paintball gun and pepper that black bear full of pink dye rounds or have more fun and put a tennis ball at the end of longer arrow and shoot him in the butt.

[gerald strine]

To fix the problem you might be able to borrow a paintball gun and pepper that black bear full of pink dye rounds or have more fun and put a tennis ball at the end of longer arrow and shoot him in the butt.

Just make sure you are with some one you can out run when you try this idea !

[ThunderXB]

[quote=
Just make sure you are with some one you can out run when you try this idea ![/quote]


I have a concealed carry permit and have my Sig with an 18 rd mag with me as WI DNR allows.

This bear has wrecked my deer hunting for 3 years. We've tried to get him in the bear season, but then he's almost 100% nocturnal and smart, which is why he's big.

I borrowed a wrist rocket slingshot and will give that a try.

[VTbowman]

Does anyone have simular info on a Micro 335? Id be interested to see what it can do.

[SEW]

I have the answer to your bear problem. Here's what you do. Take your BD400, some nice, heavy STs or Zs tipped with FOCs and shoot him in the neck. It won't kill him; rather, it'll just get him in a bad mood and he'll leave. That's all there is to it.

I can't take credit for the 2": that was from Peter. I then tested all over the place and the 2" was verified.

Retest your blue, factory(99g) string once again. Surely it's faster.

I love my BD400.

And my M405 as much or more.

I like my M380.

[ThunderXB]

Well, like Yogi, he's smarter than the average bear!!

Sort of bummed out as I was really looking forward to trying to get my first Xbow buck, it may drive me to start looking for a place to hunt out of state.

I have to say, I made the right decision to buy Excalibur.

I really like both my BD400 and 380/405 blackout.

I just gave this speech to a friend this afternoon.

Aside from being good to shoot, the ability to work on them yourself is outstanding!!

The Excal warranty & service, I wouldn't have anything else at this point.

I got lucky and a guy from my smokeless muzzleloader website pointed me in that direction.

Oh yeah it was SEW!!! THANKS again!!

BTW, so far the Caldwell G2 is working great and the download to my phone is awesome!

[Pinpoint]

Thanks for the detail on speed and arrow weight! I find this stuff very interesting!!

[acreek]

Your bow is faster than mine. My Bulldog averaged 385 fps with 350 grain setup, 376 fps with 370 grain setup, 367 fps with 400 grain setup, and 358 fps with 420 grain setup. Those speeds were with the stock string and nothing on the bow. I'm shooting a slightly heavier Flemish twist string now that slows the speeds down to 378 fps for 350 grain, 372 fps for 370 grain, 363 fps for 400 grain, 356 fps for 410 grain, and 353 fps for 420 grain.

Based on what I've pulled before, I don't think the limbs on mine are 280 pound limbs, but I don't have a draw scale that goes that high to test it.

For reference, my PSE compound bow pulls 65 pounds and shoots a 420 grain arrow 303 fps, while my Bear Kodiak recurve pulls 56+ pounds at 28.5" and shoots a 430 grain arrow at 210 fps.

[SEW]

Just a comparison: my M405 with DrS limb silencers, Air Brakes, 140g Flemish string(40 st 8190),415g arrow, shoots a 415g arrow at 373'/sec.
My M380 with a 26g lighter F10 string and no ABs is shooting the same 415g arrow at 350'/sec.
The BD 400 stays right about 5'/sec faster than the M380 when using same string, etc.

[Goose52]

well, thunder, you've got til Jan 08 so you've still got some time to hunt after yogi & booboo go ni-ni for the winter

[ThunderXB]

well, thunder, you've got til Jan 08 so you've still got some time to hunt after yogi & booboo go ni-ni for the winter

Yeah, maybe not, last year a local trapper we had come out to try and trap beavers and coyotes after the gun season told us that the bear was walking around stealing his coyote baits until AFTER Christmas.

I'm going to give up on that spot and try and find another place on the property that doesn't interfere in anyone elses current set up, which on 80 acres won't be easy.

[ko4nrbs]

If the Bear is causing that much grief on Private Land see if the Wildlife dept. will trap and remove him. I would not harass it in any way since that is probably illegal and definitely dangerous.
Bill

[ThunderXB]

SEW/acreek,

As I have more time I'll be trying out the different strings, etc., but at this point it looks like my speeds as is are really in about the same basic ranges as yours are.

(358-360 FPS for a 420 gr hunting arrow out of a heavily silenced bow with lots of junk hanging on the limbs is acceptable to me.)

One thing I should point out is that the JBK string has a 9" wide serving, which I like because it hits the bumpers with the serving, not the string. (While I like that idea, maybe I have it backwards and would be better off having the string hit the bumpers with a little less string weight )

In the big picture, there is still plenty of speed and the accuracy is great!