ARROW WEIGHT | Which Arrow Weight Is Right For YOU?

Hey guys, this week I want to talk to you about arrow weight. I get a lot of questions on this every week and there's a lot of different opinions out there which is fine. Everyone kind of has their own preference. However, one thing that we look at here at Wild Arrow is I want you guys to be able to shoot the optimal arrow weight for your setup. So there's a lot of factors to take into consideration there. So number one is your draw length. Draw length has a lot to do with speed. So when you look at your bow and say you got a bow that's rated at 340 feet per second, well that's based off of a 30 inch draw length, 70 pounds with a 350 grain arrow. So let's say you got someone that's a 27 inch draw versus 30. For every inch of draw length that you shorten your bow down, you're going to lose 10 feet per second. So if you have a bow that starts off at 340 at 70 pounds 30 inches with a 350 grain arrow, but your draw length is only 27, right off the top you've already lost about 30 feet per second on that bow setup. And depending on your arrow weight, on average every three grains of arrow weight is going to change your speed by one foot per second. So if you guys go up 30 grains in arrow weight, you're going to lose 10 feet, but if you shave 30 grains of arrow weight, you're going to gain 10 feet. And you know I have customers that come in all the time that want to shoot a little bit faster and flatter trajectory, gets you a little bit more distance on your sight tape. So our general rule of thumb here is depending on your draw length, your poundage, choose the optimal arrow weight is I tell customers stay above 275 feet per second. Shoot as heavy of an arrow as you want, as long as you can stay above that threshold. So you know for a guy like me, I have a 30 inch draw, most of my hunting bows are between 75 and 80 pounds. I can shoot a lot heavier of an arrow and still maintain really fast speeds, you know 290, 295 feet per second. So I have no problem shooting a heavier arrow because of my draw length and poundage can push the speeds that I'm looking for. But if you have a shorter draw, lower poundage, don't be afraid to go to these lighter weight arrows. You know I use my wife as an example for this all the time. She's a 25 and a half inch draw. She usually hunts around 55 pounds and I've had her kill elk with 370 grain arrows before. And some of the guys are out there are going to see this and go man that is too lightweight of an arrow for an elk. But I have too many customers and too many experiences where I've seen that that setup works perfectly. So you know if you guys are kind of curious of what arrow weight should you be shooting, you know you can come in, shoot over our chronograph or find your local shop, go shoot your bow over the chronograph. If you're about that 275 or faster, you're right there in the sweet spot. But if you're below 275, I would highly recommend considering going to a little bit lighter weight arrow build, picking up some speed and you can do some calculations on you know a chart that will tell you what your momentum is. A lot of guys like to reference kinetic energy with archery. That's a terrible reference guys. Do not use that. I'm not a fan in it. What you want to look at with your arrow is momentum. Okay because we're not trying to get this arrow to hit and displace energy into the animal. We're trying to get this arrow to go through something. So momentum is a much more important factor to consider when you're looking at your setup. So you know what I prefer and what I recommend for a lot of customers is to shoot a little bit lighter weight grains per inch arrow and there's a lot of great options on the market now both from Easton and Victory. Like this new Easton 5.0 here. I've got the new Victory HLRs. Some fantastic options on the market. Start off with a little bit lighter weight arrow that's going to be stiff enough, the spine still correctly out of your bow and play around with changing different point weights. So you can try 100 or 125 grain point. Some of my customers even choose to shoot 150 grain point but play around with different point weights to control the total arrow weight and the other advantage you're going to see by doing that is you're going to increase the FOC of your arrow. I am a fan of FOC. If you guys haven't played around with it or tried it something I'd strongly recommend you look into but take a look at your guys' setups. Most customers for the average draw length average poundage we recommend about a 430 to a 450 grain arrow. That seems to be the sweet spot for the average shooter out there. If you have a longer draw or maybe you shoot a heavier poundage then you can go up a little bit more narrow weight but for kids or women or someone that maybe has a shoulder injury you're just not shooting a ton of poundage and maybe you don't have the draw length. Don't be afraid to get an arrow down to that you know 370, 380 to 400 grain range somewhere in there. We've had a lot of customers with a lot of success shooting a lightweight arrow and still you know out there harvesting plenty of animals great penetration that's not been an issue but I think you're going to enjoy the benefits of a flatter arrow trajectory. You're not going to have to be as selective on guessing the ranges to animals into the target so that's the biggest advantage I think you guys will see so if you have any questions about arrows give us a call or the shop leave a comment on this I want to know what your setup is and if you have any questions man we're more than happy to help you out so thanks for tuning in remember to subscribe to the channel we really appreciate it we read all the comments on there which has been great I love the feedback from customers to hear what's working and what's not so thanks for tuning in and remember to get wild