Is SPEED the MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR for Bowhunting?

Hey Afflicted Fans, does speed kill when it comes to archery? Let's talk about it. I will start by saying that speed is certainly an important factor when it comes to the killing potential of your archery setup. But it is certainly not the end all be all. And if it was, the Native Americans would have starved to death, I think. I don't really think that the old longbow was all that fast. In fact, it certainly favored momentum over speed. And that is a factor that probably is the biggest consideration when we talk about the killing potential of an archery setup. So let's talk briefly about a few of the good points of being fast, having a fast setup. The first and probably the most popular reason for speed is the flatter trajectory, meaning that at a long distance, if your arrow is traveling faster, it maintains a flatter trajectory without falling off, if you will, as fast as a heavier or slower arrow would. So as we consider, does speed kill? If you are equating that directly to the trajectory, then I guess that you could maintain that speed is a big factor. However, it is certainly not the primary factor. Speed is important. You want to get that arrow to the animal before it drops to the ground. If it's paying close attention, if it's wary, if it's going to jump the string, there's definitely consideration there for having a flat trajectory. And also, the biggest consideration for a flatter trajectory is your margin of error. You kind of have a little bit more wiggle room when you talk about something that's faster, meaning if you have misjudged your yardage slightly and you have a fast setup, your arrow will have a higher impact than if you had a slower setup. So if you have misjudged and you took a shot that was a little bit off on yardage and that animal was a little bit farther, there's still a really good chance that you are going to get that arrow into the kill zone. And that's probably one of the leading factors for people who favor speed. Another possible benefit to having a high speed bow and an arrow that's traveling at a high speed is that you also increase your chance of getting a fatal shot in on an animal that is jumping the string. This is a huge consideration for whitetail. I'm sure you've seen all the videos where the arrow's released, the bow goes off, whatever happens, and that whitetail bellies out and the arrow goes right over the top of the whitetail. So the consideration for favoring speed as far as a killing potential is that your arrow is going to get there a little bit faster as that deer is dropping, allowing you the chance to maybe get that arrow into the vitals. So those two things considered, there are some disadvantages to speed or some other things that you should really focus on rather than honing in on speed alone. And the number one thing you should be concerned about with any archery setup is your accuracy. Are you hitting where you think you're going to hit? And of course there's a lot of factors that go into that accuracy, practice being the number one part of it, but that accuracy is based on any platform. No matter how fast your arrow's traveling, no matter what kind of speed you have, it does not matter if you are accurate. Now a problem with having these lighter arrows and something that's super fast is you are sacrificing something. What are you sacrificing? And often that is your weight, your momentum, your real push power through your quarry. So you want to be very concerned that you have balanced your outfit out to where you are still getting plenty of speed, but you're also maintaining enough momentum to get a pass through on the animal that you're after. And oftentimes speed means I went to a really light arrow and that lighter arrow simply does not have enough momentum to get the job done. So you want to be very cautious of that if you are just focusing on speed. One of the main things to consider when we talk about the accuracy as well is speed does not make you more accurate. In fact, my favorite saying is speed will often just make you miss faster. So you want to be very sure that you are accurate with your setup, no matter how fast it is. So we talked a little bit about what we were sacrificing to gain speed and it not really being an advantage. And again, as we go back to talking a little bit about penetration, penetration is key to your hunting setup. If you don't get any penetration, you don't get a kill and you don't get a quick recovery and you may have a difficult time tracking an animal if you don't get a pass through. So those are primary considerations when you are looking at speed. Am I going to get enough penetration out of my arrow? And again, if we talk about that lighter arrow, you know, not having enough momentum to pass through your lighter arrow may not have enough energy for your mechanical broadhead. So another consideration is, am I shooting a mechanical? Is it open up really big and does it take extra energy to open? Because now my speed does not favor that broadhead. Meaning, if I have a broadhead that's a mechanical and I have to break a band, break a collar and also as it's entering, I am depending on those blades swinging out and losing energy as they come fully deployed. And if that cut is super big, two inches or more, I'm even losing a lot more energy. So you want to be sure that if you are shooting a mechanical broadhead that requires extra energy to open and extra energy to penetrate, you may not want to have a super fast set up if it requires you to have a light arrow because you're really going to need a heavier arrow with enough momentum to get that job done. Another thing to talk about when we are talking about speed and does it kill and some of the benefits and things that aren't so desirable about speed is noise. So inherently, a lot of times when you have a fast bow with a light arrow, you are going to be making a little bit more noise. If that noise isn't a factor for you in your hunting scenario, then that's fine. Some guys will say, hey, my bow is so fast, it doesn't matter how much noise it makes. Well, a whitetail at 30 yards will probably disagree with you. You can find out for yourself. But noise is certainly a factor to consider as well as wear and tear on your equipment. If you bought a premium performance compound and it's, you know, it's got all the bells and whistles on it and you get your arrow a little bit too light, not only is that going to be having a noise factor for you, but you are going to create more wear and tear on your equipment. In fact, if you go way too light, you could blow something up because those bows just are not made to basically drive fire when you're shooting a light arrow. So be sure that when you are taking speed into consideration, that you're looking at the factors that are best for you as a hunter and the best for the game that you're seeking to hunt.