Hey guys, I'm curious if anyone has actually choreographed a carbon bow vrs. glass bows.
I've had all sorts of bows from various bowyers. Some say carbon make little if any speed advantages, others claim that it's 10 fps faster..
I'd be curious if anyone has real choreographed results with 2 bows of the same make (especially centaur longbows) with same poundage and arrows etc..
Thanx..
design is just as important as materials.
my border recurve is great. it's 58#@28" but i only draw 26". it shoots a 680gr arrow at 175fps. that's excellent IMO. my 70#@28" limbs shoot the same arrow at 190fps.
were talking a nearly 700gr arrow at 26" draw. not 450gr arrows at 30" draw like most who can boast 200fps.
Never had the chance to compare apples to apples, same draw weight, length etc.. Have some of the same brand limbs from a company that's unmentionable on here and there's not enough speed difference between the two to warrant the cost difference, I think design has more to do with performance than materials within reason anyway!
Good design to start with. Carbon and a few tweaks here and there may gain you 3-4 feet PS. Not enough to worry with in my opinion. I would rather have quite and stable any day.
Correct me if I'm wrong,but besides the speed difference doesn't carbon add to the stability of the limbs?
I qwn a Sarrels Blueridge longbow. I am real good friends with Bob (the bowyer) and when I ordered a second set of limbs, I told him I wanted them exactly like the first set so I would have a backup incase something happened while on a hunt. He called me one day and said "Come get your limbs - they are ready!".
I get to his shop and he shows me the limbs, and says "Look, I put carbon in them for you!".
I was almost mad, because I wanted identical to what I had, but realized he was just trying to do me a favor, so I did not say anything.
Those limbs, and my non-carbon limbs were .1# differnce in weight. They chronoed the exact same, felt the exact same, and hit in the same place on the target. The only difference I could note was that the carbon limbs had a tiny bit of a different sound.
While it may be true that the carbon adds some strength to the limb, this bow convinced me that there is not enough of a performance difference to justify spending extra money on carbon in a bow, and I doubt I will ever order one with carbon!
Bisch
I dont think I have ever seen the choreographed dance of Bows but I am sure there have been some chronograph results somewhere. ;) :p
Hey Steve, look on the Centaur website in the Q&A section, Jim talks about the increased performance for the different models.....
Jr.
You beat me Charlie. I'd also like to see the dancing bows :)
I'm sure we are all learning to love the automatic spelling correction :confused:
If the carbon is central to the limbs it will be doing hardly any work at all. If it is lighter than the core wood, the weight reduction will help a bit. I'm not clear on why bowyer's use carbon in the core.
Thnx everyone who has chimed in..
Yes, I saw on Centaurs page, Jim did the test.. My question is what length bow and draw on those test?
Reason I ask, is .... I've got a glass model centaur, I've had the triple carbon (sold it) and honestly I can't tell any difference.. But, I'm drawing 29" and its's a 62" bow.. Maybe I'm not in the sweet spot of the bow to tell the difference???
I was pondering getting another centaur and was curious..
I think I'm gonna get the glass model as I enjoy the beauty of the wood look..
Again, thanx guys ...
At least in my bows, carbon back makes about 4-5 fps difference. When I've done carbon on the belly as well, which I don't do anymore, I picked up another 2-3 fps. I've also tried just a carbon lam in the core and couldn't really tell any difference.
Did you actually chrono your triple carbon Centaur or are you just going by feel?
Lets keep the arch in archery guys..!!! Most bows in the 170 to 190 fps range with a 10 gpp arrow works fine. I used to think I needed more speed, found out otherwise.....just not so. if we were talking about a difference of 180 vs 230 fps...that would maybe be different.I think your better learning the cast of your bow/arrow combo......jmo
QuoteOriginally posted by jackdaw:
Lets keep the arch in archery guys..!!! Most bows in the 170 to 190 fps range with a 10 gpp arrow works fine. I used to think I needed more speed, found out otherwise.....just not so. if we were talking about a difference of 180 vs 230 fps...that would maybe be different.I think your better learning the cast of your bow/arrow combo......jmo
Yeah jackdaw, but I'd like to hit those speeds at higher than 10gpp which I am at 170fps at almost 12gpp, I'd love to be at 180 though, not so much for hunting but for target shooting. I love to drop arrows into the sweet spot from 50-60 yds, it's much much easier to do that in the 180's than the 170's
When Blackie Schwartz conducted controlled tests for Traditional Bowhunter Magazine he used a 9 to 1 arrow at a 28" draw. There may have been one but I don't remember a bow he reviewed that chronographed 190 f.p.s. with fingers. I suspect that quite often on the numerous posts about bow speeds we are seeing chronograph comparisons, as obviously they do not all record the same.
Carbons effect in bow performance and stability would depend on type of carbon used, limb design and how much glass it is replacing,imo. The bowyers I have spoke with on this said it helps some of there designs better than others. For me 5fps is not worth the extra $ and the pitch of the sound at release seems higher and more noticeable to my ear. However if your looking for all the fps you can get and bowyer agrees, go with the carbon.
Now I believe you can take 2 identically looking glass bows, same design/bowyer/poundage and they will probably vary in speed several fps. It is the nature of materials and build.
I have not chronographed 2 bows like you ask. Only carbon limbs I have are because that is the only way the bowyers make that design.
Agree with Ozy, design and build is most important.
Not certain, but pretty sure the Predator ( recurved) bow topped 190 with fingers. I don't recall another that did though.
Just as a reference, has anybody chronographed a 300+ fps compound bow, but using 10+ gpp arrows ? What happened ?
ChuckC