FOC and Wood Arrows

[SELFBOW19953]

Any other wooden arrow shooters besides me tried playing with FOC?  I am shooting 80-85# Supercedars (barrell tapered poplar) that I got from Don Stokes, 28 1/2" to BOP, out of my 57# Stotler Gamegetter II.  Today I tried different point weights to see what the total arrow weight and FOC would be.

   Pt Wt      FOC      Tot Wt

   160       12.75       701
   200       14.91       742
   250       17.54       793
   300       20.18       853
   350       22.37       894
   400       24.12       946

I have shot the 4 lowest weights and like all but the 300 gr point, it needs a stiffer arrow.  I'm sure for short yardages the heavier weights would be okay, but past 20 yards and they'll fly like a stone.  I'm starting to think EFOC is great for aluminum or carbon, but not for wood.  Using a 300 gr point for a total arrow weight of 850 gr just to get my FOC above 20% seems like a bit of overkill for whitetails.  I've always had great success with 160 grain Snuffers or Grizzlies.

[SlowBowinMO]

I've been messing with and shooting point loaded woodies for several years now.  I find they work great as long as you make the proper spine adjustment.

Here's a pic of a doe I shot last year with one.  A Surewood shaft tipped with a Snuffer, but using a Woodie Weight total point weight was 250 grains, total arrow weight 730 grains.  The head was well into the ground and lodged in a tree root on the other side of her.



Also shot a doe the previous year with a Surewood shaft and a Tusker Delta loaded to 220 grains with the same kind of penetration results.  Here's a pic of that one.



Point loading woodies works!

[SELFBOW19953]

I guess my question/concern is-when do you reach the point of diminishing returns?  When does the total weight of the arrow negate the advantages gained with point loading?

[Orion]

Pretty fast, in my opinion.  A 600 grain arrow is great plenty for deer. Just about any moderate weight head will get you to that weight fairly quickly with wood.

Another thing you'll find is that you will quickly run out of spine if you have a long draw or are shooting a moderate to heavy bow. I.e., you can't find spine heavy enough to handle a lot of extra weight on the end of the arrow.  

I've been playing around with it for a half-dozen years or so and have gone back to more traditional point weight/arrow weight combinations.  I shoot some arrows with a little more up front than I have in the past, for example, 160-175 grain heads, vs 130-135 grain heads, but I no longer internally foot shafts to get additional weight up front.  By putting a 9-inch tape on a 11/32 shaft, using a hardwood footing and 160 grain head, I reached 19% FOC.  That's as far as I'm going to go with wood.  Heavier heads and internal footings (or woody weights) can get you to 22%-25%, but the arrows become heavier than I want at that FOC.

[Javi]

I'm pretty happy with 14gpp and 15% FOC see no reason to go above that point for anything I can kill in Texas including Red deer and big hogs..

Get there with 460-470 grain 65/70 Surewood cut 29"bop and a 215 grain ACE STD.

[Rob DiStefano]

i built some nail footed 29.5" surewoods for a total mass weight of 670 grains and 19% foc.  they flew very well out of a 55# mohawk, with some serious excelsior bale penetration.  but out past 20 yards the trajectory felt too high - i'd need to up the bow holding weight and i can't effectively go past 55#.  the same shaft but built at 585 grains and 15% foc yields far less trajectory and gives me more accuracy confidence.  i'll go with the better accuracy confidence factor.  

[Davesea]

I have a very similar set up to Mike.  And very pleased with the way they fly and penetrate.
Surewood shaft- 430 grain
70/75 spine for a 63@28 longbow
29 BOP but with a screw adapater which I include in the BOP measurement
The adapter adds about 30g
Point-
screw in 200 grain field tip
magnus vented 125g plus 75g insert for hunting
judo tip 135g with 75g insert for warm ups
17% FOC total weight 650grains

PDP just remachined the screw in adapters with a normal taper.  Like them alot.

Just built a dozen of these and once I fletch I will post them on Rob's woodie slide show.