The man that taught me to shoot my bow always said to me if the arrow flies like a dart shoot it. We never talked about arrow weight vs. bow poundage vs. what your using it for.
here are my questions that people have got me thinking about.
1. if i shoot both 3d and hunt should i get a lighter bow for 3d so i can take lots of shots or use my hunting bow and limit my shots?
2. 3d arrows should they be lighter then hunting arrows so i shoot a flatter trajectory?
3. if i shoot a lighter arrow can i hunt with this arrow and still be able to cause the same impact and damage?
All this has come up because i have a bad shoulder which comes from my father and me playing football. I love to shoot both 3d and im getting into hunting. I have a 63 pound damon howatt but i cannot shoot it to long with out my shoulder grinding and i start losing accuracy. roughly 2-3 dozen good shots. Please give me advice, i learn from others and like bouncing my ideas off of them for help.
By the way i can shoot a 45 same accurate if not a little better at times. then im stuck with arrow weight decisions. its a lot to think about because im on a mean budget.
Well, first, don't injure yourself any further. Shoot the lighter bow until you feel you can move up in weight. Truth be told, you can kill any deer alive with a 45# bow and a 450 grain arrow.
I take it you are pretty young, so you might want to talk to a qualified person about getting your shoulder fixed now. It might only require physical therapy.
As far as arrow weight goes, it's more important for you to pick a weight (within reason) and stick with it. Your mind will become accustomed to the flight and that will carry over to your hunting. You want your arrow to hit where your expecting it to and not have to make any aiming adjustments while your under the stress of making a killing shot.
practice with what your going to hunt with
For me I always shot my hunting weight bows and arrows but with field points instead of broadheads.You are only shooting one arrow at a target and move to the next one.But shoot what you feel comfortable with.I like to use arrows at 9-11 gpp and that is what I used for target shooting also.I used 3D for hunting practice so I used bows I hunted with.
on the shoulder, few years back i thought i was looking at surgery for my shoulder but a member on another bowhunting website, archerytalk, is a chiropractor and threw some emails got me to give a local chiro a try. fixed me quick, no surgery! might be something to look into...
Which arrow is going to fly faster or flatter?
1. Arrow of 450 gr. from a 45# bow.
or
2. Arrow of 630 gr. from a 63# bow.
I am under the impression that both should fly close to the same from bows of same make.
So use the 45# bow and save the shoulder.
I use my 3-D shooting to practice for hunting, thus I use my hunting bows for all of my 3-D shooting. Don't have a 3/D bow as such.
However, 63# is pretty stout. If it starts to affect your body and accuracy after only a couple dozen arrows, you might be better dropping in weight some, say to 50 or 55# for hunting as well as 3-D. Good luck.
QuoteOriginally posted by Orion:
I use my 3-D shooting to practice for hunting, thus I use my hunting bows for all of my 3-D shooting. Don't have a 3/D bow as such.
However, 63# is pretty stout. If it starts to affect your body and accuracy after only a couple dozen arrows, you might be better dropping in weight some, say to 50 or 55# for hunting as well as 3-D. Good luck.
This sounds like pretty good advice.
I don't know what most will say about this but here is the way I do it. I shoot a bow to hunt. 3D to me is another form of practice and there is a social factor too. I shoot a lot of 3D (just ask my wife) and I use the exact same set-up for 3D that I take into the woods. This sometimes shows as my heavy arrows are not always perfectly on target at the longer ranges. I don't like the idea of changing back and forth between set-ups.
JMHO,
Bisch
there is a huge difference between target archery and bowhunting, if both are to be taken seriously.
if yer a bowhunter first and foremost, you'd wanna play the target games with your hunting bow(s) as the more you shoot, the better you will be in the field where it counts more sticking critters than foam or paper.
as to bow holding weight, don't overbow yerself! that's a prescription for disaster on many levels!
you have much to learn. click on the 'new to trad archery?' link in my sig line ....
And i know about my shoulder and there is nothing they can do for it, i've had a MRI and the doc says it cannot be fixed. I have a blunt Labrum (i think it is spelled this way).
With all due respect, All is fine and dandy but.... everyone says shoot 3D with the bow you hunt with. Then why may I ask does almost everyone own more than one bow? Does that make all your other bows wallhangers?
I shoot a 36 pound recurve for practise and hunt with a 50 pound recurve. I don't think it is a whole lot of difficulty going back and forth from bows. Shoot a lighter weight bow and shoot longer. Most 3D ranges have a practise field you can use to keep in shape with a few shots everyday with your hunting bow as well.
Sounds like you might be getting ready to enter the crossbow world.
Good luck and happy hunting.
I have only one bow that I hunt with, which is in my signature below. I have another bow that I use for bowfishing. I also have one final bow which I made out of osage that is too much draw weight, so I don't shoot it anymore, although I intend to reduce the poundage on it someday in the future.
I enjoy competing in 3D events but I use my hunting bow with a bow quiver attached, filled with relatively heavy, broadhead tipped arrows. My 3D arrows are carried in my side quiver and are the same arrows as what are in my bow quiver, except they have target points installed. I am competitive with my hunting setup and can hold my own, but I don't usually win trad only 3D events. But I have loads of fun and gain much valuable practice for when deer season rolls around in the fall by using my hunting bow for shooting 3D.
Save the shoulder!!!
Risking giving up this wonderful experience and one you share with many is in no way an option to be considered.
If you can work up some in the future..then great.
Don't leave out medical advice.
3D for the vast majority is for honing hunting skills, identifying weaknesses and developing the concept of your own personal effective range.
If you must practice lighter and then hunt heavier then have your trajectories nearly identical.
Highly developed skill sets are necessary to be able to switch back and forth w/o a glitch when shooting bows of noticeably different trajectories. At the moment of truth and you are on automatic, which set of trajectories will your mind choose or it will it be confused?
Don't over look improving the overall arrow design. Much more can be gained from a penetration stand point by maximizing the overall arrow design vs. adding a few pounds to draw wt.
Best of luck in your decision and may you continue shooting years into the future.
This is simply my opinion but I feel unless a shooter has an exceptional release it can be difficult to drop down much more than 5 lbs. or so to shoot a lighter bow for 3d. Also I like to keep my bows/arrows within 5 f.p.s. of each other. The same trajectory makes shooting different 3d classes easier, again in my opinion.
I've been thinking long and hard about this matter. I think I am going to get a 50 pound bow, but my next thing is what arrow weight would yall recommend for hunting and 3d. I of coarse am going to shoot the same arrow but I would like something with a rather flat trajectory and some knock down power. I know a big part of it is to go ahead and get a bow and then figure this out, but I have to sell my other bow first. Just trying to get a price idea?
You did not say what you are hunting but 500-550 grains would have a reasonable trajectory for 3d and certainly do well for deer and probably more. Not to seem abrupt but "knock-down power" is a term invented by centerfire rifle shooters who advocate large caliber and heavy bullets but neither bullets nor even less so do arrows "knock" game down.
well I mean a high kinetic energy...
one can also setup a pair of dissimilar holding weight bows to make both have about the same arrow trajectories, using the lighter bow for target stuff.
Daniel, I am truly not trying to argue but arrows kill by penetrating with a sharp broadhead causing hemmoraging. A deer is the same dead from a 40 lb. bow and a sharp broadhead tipped 400 grain arrow properly placed as from a 70 lb. bow and the same broadhead on a 700 grain arrow. In fact as an example of how little kinetic energy has to do with it, take the same bows just mentioned and put a blunt on the heavier one, it will have much more kinetic energy but will proove useless in killing a big game animal.
I shoot the same bow for target and 3D. Way cheaper and you can get one arrow set up and stick with it. If you can comfortably shoot the lighter bow then stick with it. No reason to damage yourself trying to shoot heavier. Spending your time learning to shoot what you can perfectly will go a whole lot farther than spending money on bows and extra equipment. Once your brain memorizes the trajectories and you have great form your 3D scores will go up.
ok well i think you all solved my problem, im going to look for a way to sell my damon howatt bow, and look for a sweet shooting 50 pound bow. Any suggestions?