HOSS
Well-known member
I was thinking back today on the changes that I have made in bow draw weight over the last 18 years. As a younker I thought draw weight was the key to great penetration. I started out shooting at 70 pounds then went to 80 and finished up at about 91 pounds of draw weight. Reality hit me when on a black bear hunt up in Canada I shot a big blackie at 15 yards with my 91 pound Golden Eagle Pro Formula 3-D. The arrow passed through the bear broadside and penetrated through 6" of dirt and into a tree root that was under the grounds surface. It buried the broadhead so deep that I couldn't pull it out and had to unscrew the shaft from the head and leave it there. It was obvious that I was pulling all of this weight for nothing. I backed off back to 80 pounds. A few deer, hogs,elk and one moose later I realized that I was still blowing arrows clean through even on the moose. I backed off down to 75 for a year or two with the same results. To make a long story short both bucks that I shot last year I had my bow set on 70 pounds with the arrows still blowing through like I was shooting paper. This year I have bought a new Mathews Switchback XT and I have it set on 62 pounds. Every year the performance of bows increases so the 62 pounds that I am now shooting is out performing the 75 pounds that I was shooting a just a few years ago. At 91 pounds I was chrono's about 315 fps with the Golden Eagle. At 62 pounds I chrono about 270 with the Mathews. I have found that over 280-285 fps it takes a heck of a lot more tuning to get a fixed blade broadhead to fly straight. I am having more fun now then ever by getting to shoot more than I tune, equipment holds up better and so does my shoulders. The icing on the cake is that things get just as dead with much less hassle. Has anyone else went through this same metamorphisis?
