Can someone please help me understand FOC a little better, how do you measure for FOC and how do you go about getting the most out of your setup. ..my setup is as follows. . I have a 26 inch draw my bow is 50# @ 26 I am shooting a 27 inch 2114 arrow with a 125 grain steelforce traditional broadhead total weight is 452 grain...my fletching is 4 3"shield cut bear paw feathers will be hunting deer and hogs.....

Hello Florida Bowhunter. I go to
http://www.alaskabowhunting.com/Webpage.aspx?WebpageId=67

this link for the calculations. It's basically a measurement of moving the Center of your balance arrow towards your point by adding a heavier BH. There are studies that suggest by adding a higher FOC, one will achieve higher penetration. I drink the koolaid personally and have had sufficient results.  good luck

James, Joebuck has a good link about measuring FOC.  If you go to the Tradgang Archives and look for the reports of Dr. Ed Ashby  http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=24  you will find more information.  It will take time to get through it all but it is facinating IMO.

Briefly, Dr. Ashby has done many years of research on the effect of high FOC on penetration including info on heavy bone breaching, broadhead viability, etc.  

While many will argue that it makes little difference for them when hunting deer sized game, with a well tuned bow/arrow combo, the facts remain that high FOC is a way to optimize your set-up.  

Like JoeBuck, I too drink the koolaid.

Thanks guy's for the links I will check them out

There are also FOC calculators where you just input a couple measurements,like this one:
http://www.tuffhead.com/education/formulas_FOC.html

fwiw, you may be interested to know there is a thread happening right now that talks about foc ...

http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=139763

Wow guys.... The good people of Trad Gang never stop surprising me. One of the most basic questions and here is a bunch of guys ready to help right off.

Well done fellas.

ak

Hello Al....

Well guy's my FOC for my set up is 16.93% now is that considered good

As long as your foc is positive your arrow will fly well. For the efoc crowd 19% seems to be the lowest they want to hit.

I'm with Joey.  I'm a tinkerer.  And I have tested the FOC thing and I find it to be an advantage.  The rise of increasingly heavy broadheads leads me to believe that others have determined the same thing.  I think the FOC thing really came about when carbon arrow shafts began to be accepted by traditional bowhunters.  Carbon shafts were both way to stiff, and way too light for most guys.  Adding weight up front helped for better flight as well as penetration.  Bob Morrison was really one of the guys to test this the most in the early stages I believe.

I don't shoot past 30 and 20 for hunting.  I have not gone the real heavy head way.  I shoot a 145 tip and it flies well for me

Not sure how much you want to learn... I just got done reading all the Asby studies done on FOC. There was a free section on the  Traditional Bowhunter site
http://www.tradbow.com/public/department56.cfm

Interesting enough read that I ordered some 200gr heads that will be combine with  the 100gr inserts for a whopping 300gr on my 30in GT 5575 trads. I am shooting 68# @29 out of a  HH weakly special .and the heavier I go the tighter the groups have gotten.