Bow performance.... curious

[coaster500]

What kind of arrow speed do you expect from your straight up Osage "selfbow" with a ten grain per pound of draw weight arrow say at 28 inches of draw?

I know speed is not the goal but it might have a bearing on how well a bow is made??

What would be a normal expection???


Bow performance

[DarkSoul]

A hundred feet plus the drawweight in pounds.
So for a 50 pound bow, 150 fps is a rough estimate what you can expect.

[George Tsoukalas]

You know...I don't know the fps speed. I don't own a chrono. I can tell after shooting if the bow makes it. Jawge

[RyanY]

I believe at 10gpp good speed would measure above 160. What speed do most people get out of their bows? we'll probably never know.

[Badger]

 The 100 plus draw weight doesn't work, they used it for a mojam contest but really has no business being used as a guage. I think at 10 grains per pound anything in the 160's is respectable. This is just opinion based on averages observed.

[johnston]

Borrowed a chrono just last weekend and put all my bows thru for the hell of it( borrowed it
to test some rifle ammo) and was surprised at what I got out of it.

As George said I knew or felt like I did , when a bow worked and the speed tester backed it up.
I have six deer weight bows and they range from about 45# to 55# and the length ranges
from a 53" shortie to a couple of 64 inchers. I draw 25" and shot a 510 grain arrow thru all bows.
And most likely overdrew a little.

53" 53# hickory-   151 fps.
62" 49# red oak-   161 fps
64" 55# hickory (finished last week)- 169 fps
62" 45# red oak(finished last week)-156 fps
64" 51# red oak- 163 fps
62" 50# hickory (made by Rudderbows)- 169 fps.

[coaster500]

Those number tell a pretty good story, Interesting

[Badly Bent]

I'm with george, I have never shoot one of my bows through a crono but can tell if I like performance and speed by shooting it. My best gauge is if I'm at the range and my bow looks ok while shooting near someones fg recurve or longbow especially if shooting at the 80yd
target butt I can gauge from trajectory.

[H Rhodes]

I have never measured any of mine...  I would be curious to see the fps numbers.  I know when I have one that I like.  I have a fg recurve I shoot every once in a while for comparison purposes.  If one of mine seem to be close to that speed, I figure I made a good one. 

[dbb]

Just as a sidenote,I was visiting Eastons website yesterday (yeah im lazy and shoot alu and carbon arrows)and found a "kinetic energy calculator".
According to them a 550grain arrow at 170fps delivers 35.3 ft,lbs and isnt recommended to anything bigger than deer or antelope. 
To get it up to the 42 ft.lbs they think is needed for elk boar and black bear you need to get it flying at close to 200fps.
Im no bowhunter ( its against the law where i live)but it looks like they cater more for whelie bows.

  /Mikael

[Holten101]

2 tings:
Ill discard a bow doing less that 160 (10 gpi)...simply because I can do better.
160-170 are keepers...>165 and im happy. 170-175 and I start thinking "will this bow hold up".

Second point: 10 gpi is way to low to get the most out of selfbows imo!

Cheers

[coaster500]

I asked this because I thought it would give me an indicator as to how well the bow was built....  it's design??? I don't abide by the idea that you need this much weight to do this or that when hunting....  I just returned from Africa and though I did not hunt with a self bow I hunted with 11 GPP arrow launched from a 47@27 longbow and got two holes on everything I shot???

I just want a gauge to know I am getting the most from my design....  where can I improve and make a better bow

[PEARL DRUMS]

Eliminate as much set as possible, retain as much reflex as possible and the rest will take care of itself. Design is second to those two aspects in my work.

[coaster500]

Drums how much reflex? You know the type of bows I favor what would you want at rest, how much?

[PEARL DRUMS]

You and I like the same type of bows.  A nice, smooth flatbow. If I get more than 1" of set I know I can do better, regardless of how much reflex I started with.  I still have bows that follow the string a inch or less that shoot lights out. However I like my string to be SUPER taught at brace. Thats my personal guage. You can tell alot by plucking a bows string.