• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

FPS really that important?

Weldabeast said:
If the deer reacts (we all know they will) the way I look at it is .....the vitals are dropping lower as the thing loads up to bound off so maybe if u lucky that low shot becomes a low shot into the vitals
Click to expand...

You've got a couple things going on here....missing low vs aiming low and deer dropping or not dropping.

Your point of aim and your error are intrinsically linked. So, you've got to define the margin of error and the point of aim to analyze the result. Then you need to quantify how far a deer drops or not and factor that in.

That begets very case by case comparison.

But, to keep things simple and tie this into the topic at hand, is FPS really important, consider:

The drop experiment (data below). While it didn't measure inside of 20yds or arrows slower than 258. The max drop at the closest range was 2.5", and for the faster bows, only about a quarter of an inch.

High angle shots are typically closer to 10yds than 20, which is even less time for the deer to react, with even less drop possible.

With the faster bows, drop is almost ruled out, in this sort of shot scenario.

A high miss on a properly aimed shot means a double lung, spine hit, meat, or miss over the back (depending on measure of error). A low hit has the possibility of compensating for some drop, but it doesn't take much to get into single lung low, and it's a ways before you shoot beneath the deer.



8631542F-2348-43D8-BC1A-199DA6999309.png
 
Last edited:
I’m 100% on pass throughs since going trad and my arrows are sloooow. 13 gpp. could be the foc, range, combination? No idea the fps, but it hasn’t mattered.
 
54lbs 27.5” draw and a 500 grain arrow going who knows how slow. Think I’m using the 3rd or 4th slowest sight tape on my spot Hogg and it’s accurate. Dropped one stone cold at 50 on Saturday and stuck it in the offside shoulder, quartered away just slightly. Speed can matter but a slow arrow will kill a deer just as dead as a fast one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thetrueredneck said:
So math was never my strongest but, I probably should have asked a more specific question regarding FPS. Like at what point should you change decrease ToW or increase DW to increase FPS? what is acceptable for ethical shooting of a deer sized animal 150fps? 200?
Click to expand...
Arrow Speed Calculator | Sirius Archery Products

Math was my degree and while im not a archery expert this calculator lets you play with combos. The best kinetic energy is what you are going to want with a strong metal cut on contact broadhead. This will give you better chance of breaking bone and doing max damage even with a off shot placement and the arrow not losing momentum as much once it strikes the target. Speed will obviously give you flatter arrow trajectory so if you lose significant speed you might need to make adjustments. For anything under 30yds though I dont think youd have to make huge adjustments.

Edit: The Ashby foundation has some really good metrics on this thats worth the read on their site.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top