Lethality testing

[kensei10]

#5794

I don’t have access to a chronograph but I want to be sure my bow is throwing arrows hard enough to be lethal. Does any one have a good way to test lethality with out a chrono?

[James Harvey]

#44709

Hey Kensei,

You might be able to get some confidence at least if you share details about your bow (type of bow, draw weight) and arrow set up (weight, materials, broadhead) and what you intend to hunt with it. That way you can at least draw on the experience of others here and folks could tell you how that stacks up with their experiences.

I think you’ll find out pretty quick that there are a lots of factors more contributory to lethality than arrow speed 😉

Jim

[Alexandre Bugnon]

#44998

What Jim said, Kensei! Good luck!!

[Doc Nock]

#45033

When I was learning to drive (about a zillion years ago) our driver educ teacher would chime, “Speed Kills”. I would agree that speed is a poor indicator of lethality.

Work on form and accuracy under bizarre conditions and positions. Make sure your broad heads are super sharp. Placement and sharp heads will increase your lethality way more than speed!

If you go to the Friends of EFOC forum here and read there, you’ll find that penetration gives best double hole blood trails and best penetration isn’t speed either, but good tuning of arrow to bow and enough mass weight at the front to Pull (drive?) the arrow thru the animal target!

Have fun. Good luck. and, BTW, congrats for being concerned about lethality! That is the making for a conscientious hunter but speed won’t be the ticket!

[Stephen Graf]

#45282

I would guess that any glass laminated bow 40lbs or more will kill a deer. As others have said, good arrow tuning and sharp broadheads are the key. Not to mention hitting the intended spot.

The real question is, will you look good doing it 8)

[kensei10]

#45833

Sorry to be getting back to this so late, here’s what I have:

45lb at 28inches hickory longbow from gibows.com

I was planning on using bamboo shafts (natural taper) that I have hand fletched, and a two blade single grind broad head at 100 grains based on the ashby studies. Arrow total weight is around 500 gn. With out a chronograph I can’t accurately measure velocity for the KE Calculations. What I am looking for is a practical test of penetration to reassure myself that this thing is actually leathal.

[Patrick]

#46514

Hi there! I think everything you’re looking for is in this article:

https://www.tradbow.com/public/245.cfm

[Author]

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