How Much Speed Is Really Needed

[sproulman]

I shot this bruiser of a buck @ 35 yards with my old Ibex shooting around 275 fps with the arrow I was using. So more speed is not really needed....

Jeff

most of us never shoot over 35 yards ..Used a recurve all my life NO a crossbow is MORE than you need ..keep shots to below 40 yards and stalk closer to your Buck..

[sproulman]

Another way of looking at the advantages of speed is this. Where I hunt upnorth baiting is not legal. I primarily hunt the rut because that is my best chance to actually see some of the larger bucks. With that said it is not uncommon for me to have a buck that is chasing a doe around and therefore is changing his distance between himself and me far to fast to keep ranging. He may stop and present a shot 25 yds from me for a few seconds and be 30-35 yds away from me 5 seconds later and on and on. It happened to me several times last year.
So my point is I don't have a deer coming in to a known yardage such as a bait pile and standing there for any length of time I have to have a bow that shoots flat and will give me a one point aim between 10 -30 yds and a second point of aim 35-45yds. My 380 will do that for me and give me a fighting chance to make a good clean kill using just two crosshair's on my scope. A flat shooting bow in my opinion creates more opportunities for me to be successful hunting under the conditions I am forced to hunt under.

Good info.. Sight your bow in at 25 yards good to 40 yards..Use your range finder to show the 40 yard max ,use the 20 yard recticle ONLY and that buck is yours......To me playing with different yd marks on scope is not for me I use only 20 yd one out to 40 yards ...

[sproulman]

I agree with Jeff . Nice to have but don`t have to have it .
I have had passthroughs with my slow Wolverine doing maybe 250ish .
As Bill T. said to me one time . " It all comes down to how far do you want to put the arrow into the dirt on the other side " .
He harvested some of his biggest game with a exocet before the advent of the Matrix`s .

Look what Fred Bear/Chuck Adams did with recurve bows with cedar arrows..It was all getting close for shot[me] and using a big point like Zewickey /bear and heavy arrow....

[sproulman]

I am trying to keep my Bows between 330 FPS and 380 FPS from now on. Having tried them all, with any speed between these numbers using a 400 gr. arrow, you are not going to have an issue with wind, bone, or accuracy out to 40 yds. You will still be able to shoot "much farther", and keep good accuracy, even kill , but, those same items mentioned above may impede you on a "clean kill" farther out than that.
IMO anyway.

Big John

Very good..No need to take shot over 40 yards in my opinion and old school I used to never shoot over 30..

[sproulman]

More variables come at the additional yardage. IMO gaining a few more fps wont make much difference when you consider everything else that comes in to play.

Will it hurt, no. Is it a good excuse to get a new crossbow... Of Course!

X2
IMO you owe the animal a quick clean kill if I have a shot over 35 yards I pass
JMO

Diesel fun of Buck hunting is getting close enough to smell the ass of big buck that is what gets your heart going...I remember when I hung from tree limb and big buck walked under and I dropped on his back to see if I could ride him..Well when I got home and my brother told dad what I did he said ,DONT EVER LET ME CATCH YOU DOING THAT..Boy I was bad at times..

That act almost ruined my Crown Jewels .

[Pinpoint]

Sounds to me you're just looking for an excuse to get that bull dog!! I say go for it!!

[Michiganhunter]

When I was 12 years old and finally old enough to bow hunt in Michigan(1964) I had a Bear 48 lb recurve. I used cedar arrows fletched with feathers and 145 gr Bear broadheads.That was a good solid hunting setup back then. I killed a couple of small bucks with that outfit until I was about 15 or 16. Then I went with a 62 lb recurve and shot many more deer using it but they were no deader than the deer I shot with the 48 lb bow.
So when we ask how much speed do we NEED the answer should be about 150 feet per second maybe even less. The cedar arrows with feathers back then were all we had and they were heavy as were the broadheads. If I recall one company came out with fiberglass arrow shafts and then shortly after that aluminum became a big hit and of course now we have carbon and hybred aluminum and carbon. Things have changed a lot since 1964...LOL
All we have to do is look at history book and see pictures of indians shooting and killing 2000 lb+ Bison with a wood bow, arrows and stone broadhead to see that arrow velocity is a nonissue for the most part.
Sometimes I look back at those days I spent hunting with that old recurve and think it was the best time of my life. Things were simple. You hunted off the ground as no one used treestands yet or popup blinds or bait piles or even sights on our bows it was all instinct shooting, the challenges were many but boy the rewards were great even when you took a doe using that equipment.
Those were the days..

[wildcatter]

It's like anything else, the need has long been covered. It is not about what you need anymore, it's all about what you want. 25 years ago was killing deer at 40 yards and picking my arrows up outta the dirt on the other side of where they were standing. That was with Hoyt of course back then, but at 540 grains around 255 fps.

It's more about knowing your own limitations, understanding your equipment, and understanding not every broadhead or arrow is suited to all bows. Today to many think they need 400 fps and it will give them something more than a bow,,, sorry it ain't happening!! Kinda like thinking jumping the string at 300 fps they can't happen at 350 or 370 fps. The difference in the arrow arriving at 40 yards is .060 seconds I'm sorry 6/100ths of a second didn't save you at 360 fps if 300 fps didn't,,, or like 20 extra ft lbs KE will penetrate on ill advised shots, and it does you no good and won't penetrate more if you go from a 1 1/4" COC head and go to a mechanical that needs more energy just to waste opening your blades, or a larger cut chisel point, etc etc. etc.

The big exaggeration some use thinking more speed will make them have a flat shooting bow,,,, is BS! Bows will never be flat shooting, they are bows, and that increasing speed just makes it harder to tune arrows to, harder to pull from targets, harder on servings, pickier with what broadheads will work in them, etc, etc, etc! If I am shooting in the sweet spot (325 fps to 360 fps) the facts are 50 fps is nearly meaningless faster or slower!!

@ 350 fps I zero at 30 yards,,, I am never more than 2.5" high getting there and at 37 yards I am .366" low

If I was shooting 400 fps zeroed at 30 yards I would never be more than 1.9" high getting there but would drop .367" at 39 yards....

just for chits and gigiles,,,,
@300 fps a 30 yard zero, is never more than 3.7" high,,, and at 35 yards only 3.44" low,,, still in the boiler room when taking quality archery shots at what most consider responsible angles and shot placement,

That's 100 fps scenarios, and in reality,,, to me anyways makes it clear 100 fps is not a lot, and 50 fps in bows is, well I just don't make it something it isn't! The main thing is if you think you need 400 fps instead of 300 fps, maybe that 4 yards is a lot to you,, I would rather understand how much I can gain with a 50 grain heavier arrow and a COC broadhead, and have triple the string life to practice hitting where I aim, and not worry about something so trivial,,,,

My point is far more time is spent thinking about speed than is spent how to make what speed you have more affective than what 50 or so fps will gain you, and in my opinion,,,, that aint squat!

[sproulman]

When I was 12 years old and finally old enough to bow hunt in Michigan(1964) I had a Bear 48 lb recurve. I used cedar arrows fletched with feathers and 145 gr Bear broadheads.That was a good solid hunting setup back then. I killed a couple of small bucks with that outfit until I was about 15 or 16. Then I went with a 62 lb recurve and shot many more deer using it but they were no deader than the deer I shot with the 48 lb bow.
So when we ask how much speed do we NEED the answer should be about 150 feet per second maybe even less. The cedar arrows with feathers back then were all we had and they were heavy as were the broadheads. If I recall one company came out with fiberglass arrow shafts and then shortly after that aluminum became a big hit and of course now we have carbon and hybred aluminum and carbon. Things have changed a lot since 1964...LOL
All we have to do is look at history book and see pictures of indians shooting and killing 2000 lb+ Bison with a wood bow, arrows and stone broadhead to see that arrow velocity is a nonissue for the most part.
Sometimes I look back at those days I spent hunting with that old recurve and think it was the best time of my life. Things were simple. You hunted off the ground as no one used treestands yet or popup blinds or bait piles or even sights on our bows it was all instinct shooting, the challenges were many but boy the rewards were great even when you took a doe using that equipment.
Those were the days..

You are right most of our hunting was on your knees crawling to Buck to get close shot on fieldsetc..Back in 60s it was nothing to see 8 bucks in field easy..We used apple trees to hunt out of...INSTINCTIVE was where it was all at..If you used any device to make it easy you were classed as a SISSY...No one ever told anyone that you shot a doe you would be made fun of it had to be BUCK...They were days with great hunting and no one bothered you to much ..

How things have changed it still breaks my heart to see button buck in back of pickup and hunters happy as h..They never really knew what hunting was .....

[georgiaboy]

The fastest crossbow i've owned was my Vortex at 318fps, the slowest was my old Horton at 242fps. Killed just as many deer with one as the other.
I hunt mostly with my Vixen now at 281fps and i don't feel under gunned.

[ROGER THAT]

I`ll Take As Much As I Can Get

[Possum]

I want speed as mush as the next but the most important thing to me is accuracy and kinetic energry. This is archery ("arch" - ery). Every bow is going to cast an arrow with an arching trajectory. Myself, I want the fastest bow that I can easily and without bodily injury, bring to full draw or cock without the use of a crank, shoot accurately with an arrow that will maintain as much momentum, kinetic energy and stable flight as possible while personally keeping my shots at animals below 40 yards. When I shooting at targets its fun to stretch it out some.

[coolhl]

He specifically asked about shots between 40 and 50 yds!!!!!!!

even a 350 FPS bow drops one inch/yard between 40 to 50 yds.
a 300 FPS bow drops 1.5 inch/yard between 40 to 50 yds.
a 250 FPS bow 2 inches/yard
(all with 400 gr arrow)

especially at low light in the evening it is difficult to get an exact range on a deer....the arrow drop rates may not seem like much on the archery range with known distances but I bet I am not the only one here who has missed a deer only to go to the spot it was standing and scratch my head as to how I could have been over 5 yds off in ranging it....

norm

[SEW]

I`ll Take As Much As I Can Get

I do also (M380 & 405). Yes, greater care has to be taken to get a xbow to shoot consistently @ 350+'/sec and group well past 50-60 yards but is relatively easy to do. The faster the xbow, the flatter the trajectory and the greater the effective hunting range.
Have bow hunted since 1957, starting with a self bow(flat 48" bow) and quickly graduating to a Bear recurve.
There are stick bows, compound vertical bows and xbows. Each is different. Compound vbows and xbows have much closer performance than v traditional and compound. Putting one category's limitations or performance on the other isn't reasonable to me.
I still hunt with my Palmer White Tail Classic as well as my 380 & 405. My Max range with my 405 is a lot farther than my more expensive Parmer recurve. A 405 has a greater Max range than a 330. Just how it is. .
These endless discussions concerning "maximum personal range" should be just that, "personal". I'll not push mine on others And won't accept others' ranges.

Still, all else equal, a faster bow has greater Max effective range.

[sproulman]

At crossbow shop what sells is SPEED...First thing out of hunters that were never any good at hunting is SPROUL HOW FAST IS THAT BOW AND WHAT DOES IT DO AT 60 YDS..You would not believe the PM I get on my Horton crossbow for sale and they only ask, SPROUL HOW FAST IS IT..