Good post, Roger. Short bows have a place in some special situations. If you shoot it well, keeping it for those situations makes a lot of sense.

60" is my sweet spot as well, but have been hunting a 66" Moosejaw Razorback lately.  It all depends on the flavor of the day.

Congratulations BRONZ;  well done.

Shick

I think you would be happier with the shorter 17" riser if you truely have a 26" draw length.

How are you measuring your draw length? to the back of the riser? or the belly side of the shelf? or deepest part of the grip? The deepest part of the grip + 1.75" is where it should be measured, or to the back of the riser shelf. Most traditional bow grips are real close to 1.75" deep from belly to back of the grip.

50# of bow will kill anything in north america. Shooting traditional bows is all about shot placement. but that's true for any bow you are shooting.  I'd concentrate on arrow tunning, and shooting form more than crunching numbers on KE and arrow speed.

With that being said, a faster arrow does have a flatter trajectory and helps a lot shooting different yardages with accuracy. I prefer an arrow with a 12-15% foc myself, and use brass inserts for extra up front weight. If you keep your arrows shorter, and use more up front weight, your spine requirements will change. I think you could easily tune either 500 or 400 spine arrows in that draw weight. I wouldn't worry about getting down to 9GPP arrow weight either. You'll still blow right through a deer hit in the right spot.     

BTW.... There are options available to have custom ILF limbs built too that are higher in performance. Feel free to contact me if that might interest you. I build some pretty nice static tip ILF limbs, as well as hybrid long bow design. These can be built draw length specific too.

Kirk

Congrats, nice buck!

If you want to go to a shorter arrow, you can easily increase arrow weight by changing insert and or point adaptors as well as broadheads, and likely increase your FOC in the process, which most consider a good thing.   

Keep in mind, too, that arrow charts are starting points.  They get you in the ballpark. From there, it's trial and error, bare shafting, paper tuning, etc. My recommendation is based on about 70 years of experience. A 500 spine is about 63#@28 inches. The extra arrow length you're considering at 29 inches, softens the dynamic spine.  I misspoke a bit in my previous post.  If you shortened the arrow, the 500s would likely be just fine  But if you keep them long, I agree the 500s might be a bit soft and the 400s might be necessary. A 340 is 92#@28 inches.  I can't believe that would ever work. 

How much kinetic energy does one need to kill a deer? I don't know, but I do know there is not agreement on the figure.  Those coming from the compound point of view suggest a KE that a lot of trad bows can't even reach. And, of course, various figures are profered depending on the species of critter being hunted. 

I'm not anti-science.  As I said initially, things like fps, kinetic energy, momentum, etc., are useful parameters on which to compare equipment. However, things get wierd when one starts specifying/believing that a certain level of one or the other is needed to kill a critter  There are a lot of opnions as to what those levels are, but I've seen very little research to back them up. All I'm trying to suggest is that one not let that override common sense and experience in making decisions about bow/arrow combinations.  Good luck. 


Quick edit/addition.  Regarding the graph above, it looks like it uses arrow length as a surrogate for draw length.  There's a substantial difference in spine requirement between a 29-inch shaft drawn 26 inches vs that same shaft drawn 29 inches.     

 

Thank you for your reply. Yes, the riser does come in a 17 or 19-inch version. You brought up an interesting point, and I'm looking at the possibility of the 17-inch riser and short limbs (58-inch bow) to get as much performance as I can out of my 26-inch draw length - pending string angle isn't crazy. It would seem the 19-inch riser with short limbs (60-inch bow)  gives the bow a little more zip while still providing a hospitable string angle, so I may go this route instead.

I was interested in a 29-inch arrow because it fits a decent mid-weight arrow profile (500-ish grains), puts the broadhead well in front of my hand, and still allows for 15% FOC. Sort of a sweet spot. If I change that, then arrows become too light, FOC gets wonky, and I sacrifice somewhere else in the setup.  I'm planning to shoot 175-grain broadheads with the standard 12.1-grain accu-lite inserts, so that's a total of 187 (with the insert) up front, not 150.

I've attached the Gold Tip chart for reference - a 500 spine arrow would likely be severely under-spined in this application. it calls for a 400 with 150 up front - but again, I plan on shooting 175-grain broadheads, hence the reasoning in jumping to a 340 (which also gives me the GPI I'm looking for). 

I wasn't going to respond to this part - but I feel like I need to. This is the internet, this forum and topic will be indexed by the web crawlers and returned in searches, likely by new shooters looking for advice. I would disagree about not getting too wrapped up in FPS, kinetic energy, or momentum. These numbers are the science behind the shot. You have to make a decision about the shaft, insert, broadhead, knock, and fletching. I don't see any reason not to use the information that's given to you (and that can be readily plugged into an online calculator) to make your setup as efficient and lethal as it can be. By doing so, you're making data-driven, informed decisions as opposed to just accepting 'good enough'. Don't get me wrong, 25 years ago I didn't care at all about any of that, but times have changed, and the information age is upon us. We as bowhunters put in too much time and effort, and spend too much money on this sport, not to have physics on our side when it matters most in the woods.

-Travis

Quote from: MYSTIKBOW on November 11, 2025, 02:32:52 PM Very Nice ! My hunting bow is also a Fox High Siera TD 52#@ 28" great shooting bows!

Amen!!

Well done, sir!

  Way to go!