gday. i'm in the final stages of bare shafting some arrows. bow is 58" howatt hunter 55#@28" i've come up with 4 options- (all with 240gr b/head)  1-  g/tip 3555, total weight 500gr.     2- g/tip 3555, with weight tube. total 590gr.    3- g/tip 3555, without weight tube but with 100g r brass insert, total 585gr(greater foc)        4- trad g/tip 3555 total 535gr.  all seem to shoot well especially the trad arrow. will be hunting pigs & scrub bulls. what would you recommend as i'm a new tradder. is 590 odd gr's to heavy? thanks!

I dont think 590 is to heavy. Usually they say 10 gpp is the happy medium between pentration and preformance. I will be shooting a 58@28 longbow, and will be using around a 650 gr arrow. Read  the good Doctors reports, you cant argue with them.    I know there are others on here that shoot a little lighter, and some that shoot alot heavier. Im sure they will chime in soon. Good luck.

If you can live with trajectory, there is nothing else to sacrifice with the heavy arrows.  I shoot 600-700 grain arrows out of such bows.

I shoot arrows that are usually a minimum of 600gns. on pigs they penetrate with authority. as for scrub bulls i have no experience but hope to travel nth and give 'em a whack!!!! let us know how it turns out

cheers
ben

I like a heavyier arrow on pigs.......never seen a 'scrub bull' but heavy arrows should work there too-are they ugly?. Anything ugly needs a heavier arrow!
About 13 gpp is where I draw the line...........650 works great with a 50# bow for me.

bulls are great fun. taken one with my xbow years ago at 10m. now it's recurve time! thanks for the replies.

hey, i slipped a wt/tube in the trad g/tip combo for 635gr. they fly like darts. and they shoot quieter. bonus. i may have found my arrow. the swamps await me!!!

sounds like that should do the trick mate. keep us informed on how it goes, good luck  

Are you sure those arrows are flying good? I've shot a lot of GT's out of tradbows and for me, I need to go WAY higher in spine and that is with using lighter head weight. Scrub bulls can be big, but not especially hard to shoot through, I would want a perfect flying arrow and a good two blade head. 590 grains is not to heavy, probably near perfect for big animals.

well i did some paper tuning today, and no matter where the nocking point was i would get vertical nock high tears. i settled for a nocking point of 5/8", from the shelf to the bottom of the nocking point. this gave the smallest tears. anyway, i can't decide what arrow to go with. 635gr or 590gr. both seem to fly the same and there is no noticable difference in penetration. (at least not from the foam box full of wet sand that i shoot). the 590gr has an foc of 41% and the 635gr has an foc of 39%. also i put a bowscale on the other day and i'm only pulling 52#(short draw i suppose). i don't know which one to go with. HELP! if i knew i could order some arrows and they would be here for the weekend and i could go for a hunt.  :(

I'd love to know how you worked out your FOCs of 39 & 41%!

That equates to around a 600gn arrow with about 450gn of it in the tip!

according to brian sorrells 'beginners guide to trad archery'- divide the distance between the balance point and the centre of the shaft by half the shaft length multipied by 100. my example- 6 3/8" divided by 15 1/4" X 100= 41%. is this incorrect?

Yep, 'fraid so. Divide the distance between balance point & arrow centre by total arrow length x 100

I think you'll find, given your measurements, that your FOC comes out at 20.5%

Have a look   HERE  for a good, simple FOC calculator.

cool, thanks.