Chronographed my go to selfbow

[razorsharptokill]

My 65lb  @ 28" Osage selfbow is shooting a 611 grain arrow at an average 154 fps. The fastest out of 10 shots was 161 fps. I think that will do everything that I need it to. Thoughts?

[Pat B]

Jim, that will do everything you want it to do.

[HH~]

I promised I would never chrono any selfbow a long time ago.

That's all you'll ever need to kill anything in this continent.

HH~

[bradsmith2010]

Yes...
Also keep in mind a smaller fast flight..would probably put u 160's..I shoot a dacron for hunting,,.but sometimes for fun I test with fast flight,...the chrono is a great learning tool,..my main hunting bow,,.is pretty average speed...I have shot through deer,,and killed a fox,..what it lacks in speed it makes up in being deadly,,.I still love my chrono for testing...

[jeffp51]

sounds like a great bow.  I am kinda in Hedgehunter's camp, though.  I like the way my bows shoot, and I don't really want to know how crappy they might be if I measured the speed.  I don't have anything against chronos, I just choose to measure mine differently.

[George Tsoukalas]

Sounds good. Enjoy your bow. Jawge

[Hawkdancer]

Got to learn how to set up the chrono!  May do some testing at dry altitude, then the same equipment at MoJam!  About 4,00 ft change into heavier air.  It would be my luck that the weather here would be high humidity, then super dry at MoJam!  May use Ol' Glass One as a control - I seriously doubt it is affected by humidity changes!  !
Hawkdancer

[artcher1]

I loved my chronograph! Word to the wise here, don't try to shoot saboted bullets through them. Did I mentioned I loved my chronograph😢...…….Art

[bassman]

Will B,and I built a 68 inch Osage self bow at 60 lbs at 29 inch draw that shot 155 fps with an arrow in excess of 600 grs, so your findings sound about right. Better bowyers could probably do better than that, but he had no problem shooting a nice buck with it this year.With that arrow mass at that speed your good to go.

[bownarra]

It's fast enough
I see a lot of this 'I don't chrono my bow because' etc.....it is what it is and always will be! Shooting an arrow and getting a reading doesn't change anything. It is always best to be totally honest about things and not let a few numbers hurt the ego haha. Examine why your feelings would change about a bow simply because a lower number turned up on a screen...…

[HH~]

I have had a chrono for 40yrs and never once shot an arrow from a selfbow thru it. Your absolutely right its just a number. Why bother just for a number?

Example, I was at farm yesterday. A fella brought in a west KY killed doe and it was the biggest doe I have see in a few years 141lbs dressed. I looked and it had a great shot made on it. My buddy says "what ya think about that shot? I replied preety dern good, no exit hole. He says yeah he killed with one of little all glass bows form Bear or Pearson when he 12yrs old!. Then I looked into chest cavity and was amazed"

if green small diameter hickory orelm staves worked for northeast coast natives I'm thinkin they were concerned more if their weapon was true and could kill. Not so much how fast the arrow left the bow.  Killed a couple deer over last 20yrs with a selfbow. Killed a bunch with elm that the arrows were prolly only lethal on deer sized game to 15yds.

But, hey theres nothing wrong with sending arrows thru a chrono I see the wheel bow guys getting checked at every big 3D shoot all the time.

Shawn~

[bjrogg]

I don't have a chrono. If I did I'd probably have to shoot a bow or two through it occasionally just out of curiosity. I wouldn't let those numbers worry me though. If you put your arrows in the right spot that's plenty enough razorsharptokill.

The only bow I've ever shot of mine through chrono was my third selfbow and the first bow I ever hunted with. It's a straight limb HHB 52@26" and I was really only drawing to about 24" maybe a tad less. My brother wanted me to show it to his buddy who owns a bow shop. He had chrono and I shot three 595 grain red osier arrows through it. Very consistent 129fps. I gotta admit that number worried me. Guys here told me it would work. A couple weeks later I found out with a double lung pass through and an beautiful blood trail. I'll take accuracy over speed any day. I don't know how fast or slow my bows are now. Sometimes I'm curious as I'm certain they are noticeably faster than the ones I started out making. I'm totally confident that they are all more than adequate to get the job done though.
Bjrogg

PS good clean arrow flight to. Get your arrows tuned to your bow. Do some bareshaft testing and get them to straighten out as fast as possible. Greatly improve your penetration.

[aznboi3644]

If the arrow flies straight and true at 15 yards and hits where I am looking I am happy. 

I am more worried with how quiet the bow shoots.  If it still makes a loud twang at release I don’t want my deer to jump the string.  My 45-50lb hickory hunting bow is dead quiet even without string silencers and it shoots where i look

I still want to invest in a chrono just for testing sakes.  I also shoot guns so I and curious to the velocity of my carry guns

[burchett.donald]

   +1 on that arrow flight bjrogg!     If it's @ 300fps and wobbly it ain't diddly squat!

[DC]

I'm a speed freak so I chrono every bow. The thing to remember is that there are ideal conditions for chronoing. I made a shooting machine so the release is the same every shot. My manual release is inconsistent, so is my draw length(I'm a lousy shot) so if I manually shoot through the chrono I can get results that are 15-20 fps less than with my shooting machine. Manually, shots can vary a lot. If I shoot a group of ten arrows I will get ten different speeds, again with the 15-20 fps range. Through the machine, no more that 1fps difference for as many shots as I care to fire.
I may be an extreme example but I would say that if you can't get groups that are within 2-3 fps of each other then you're not getting good results and I wouldn't have a lot of faith in them. One good thing is that there is(as far as I can see) no way to cheat when shooting manually so the best result you get is probably closer to the real speed than the worst result you get. Don't average your shots. Take ten shots. The fastest one is probably the truest one and through a machine it would be faster.
There are some guys(very few) out there that can outshoot a machine and if you are one, pat yourself on the back and ignore this post.