A couple of the boys at my archery club in Sydney took the plung and opened up a new archery store near Olympic Park.  I went and checked it out today.

They run a good show out there and have a good expensive Chrono - one that plugs into the mains power.

I was finally able to compare and test my two bows side by side.  The results were very interesting.

Both bows are almost identical in weight - the Firefly is 43# @ 28 and the Turkey Creek is 42# @ 28.

The arrow I used (35/55 Goldtip with 70 grains of brass weights and 125 field tips) weighed just on 450 grains - so in my book that makes it about 10 1/2 grains per pound.

I used a Martin leather finger glove and shot with a finger sling (my hand does not grip the bow).

I fired off three shots on each bow and they were almost identical - showing consistancy.

Here are the results:

Jim Jones Firefly 62" 43# @ 28 - 179 fps

Turkey Creek 62" 42# @ 28 - 183 fps

Here are my questions:    

Unfortunately the strings were not the same - the F/F has a Rod Jenkins 10 strand 812 with cat whiskers.

The Turkey Creek has the same string but without cat whiskers.

The guy at the archery shop said that the cat whiskers would make a difference of about 5 fps.

Does that mean if I were to take the cat whiskers off the F/F that it would shoot the same as the Turkey Creek (the difference between the 179 and 183 us 4 fps)?

My final question - and the big one - do both of these bows represent good performance.  In fact is their performance for R/D longbows up there with the best - 183 fps for 10.5 grains per pound??

Sutto

Ask the dead feral cat, Sutto!

Good to see you back here worrying too much!

Happy shooting to ya!

sounds good too me and shootin' a good 20fps quicker than my gear. And my set up has seen the quick demise of over approx 30 pigs and goats over the last 4 yrs.....

They are real good numbers on both bows.You won't find many that will shoot over a very little bit faster but will find a boatload that won't touch those two.:)I have not run across anything that is as good mannered as my Turkey Creek with the lighter weight arrows either.

Those are very good numbers for the weight arrow you're shooting. Yep, cat whiskers do make that much of a difference. I had a bow that with cat whiskers tuned best with 1916's. I replaced the cat whiskers with wool puffs and the 1916's tuned way weak. I had to go up to 2018's.

That's interesting, SpikeMaster, thanks.
I'd rather hunt and rove with the 2018s anyway.

I don't think you are going to live or die because of 4fps difference of those bows. If you are looking at which one to buy, I'd buy the one I liked best & shot best for me. Frank

Thanks Frank

You may have missunderstood - I alreday own both bows and was just comparing because I am a techno head - no other reason.

I was just asking if I took the cat whiskers off the F/F would I make up the extra 4fps on the T/C.

Sutto

Swap strings between the bows since they are the same length and shoot through the chrony again.

Did the guy watch to see what your draw distance release actually was?  Whatever it is, it sounds consistent.  

I have trouble pulling to what used to be my actual draw length of 27".  Probably due to dual shoulder surgery.

Just got done shooting 2 of Jack Harrison's bows I received.  They are the composite handled HSS models.

1 is 54# and the other 56# at 28".  I was not very consistent, but got about 180 and 190 out of them at 27".  The arrow was 470 grains.  It sounds like your numbers are comparable.  Maybe even better

Now is I could actually draw 27" and shoot well.

i'd played around with chronos and bow speed numbers 'til i finally realized none of that anal nonsense matters.  

the best chronograph money can buy for checking arra speed is that gray matter computer 'tween yer ears.  

and in the long run, it ain't the arra speed that kills critters, it's a sharp broadhead attached to a decent weight arra that's delivered to a critter's vitals that counts most.  

nothing about trad bowhunting needs to parallel rocket science.

sometimes the slightly slower arra is the better tool to get that job done.  i'd surely wanna hunt with a bow i felt most confident with.  ymmv.

Curiousity is why we fool around with this stuff.  That, and trying to find out what works best.  I haven't done enough to figure out why, but it appears I can jump one of the bows up to a 560 grain arrow and only lose about 10fps.  Will try again and reduce the draw to what' is consistent for me.  

If it really didn't matter, we wouldn't comment on it.

Sutto, got ya, Enjoy, those chrono's are a hoot. Experiment with different arrows & string silencers. I haven't chronoed any of mine without the silencers might be fun to see the difference. Frank

You might want to put both bows on a bow scale to check the poundage. You might be surprised at what you find.