The Hunt for Performance & Penetration

[BT]

Mar 8, 2009 11:49:01 GMT -5 voodoofire1 said:

Hey!....... put some feet on them arras BT, no carbon arrow is strong at the ends......and still smoke free I see.....

I am waiting to hear from ABS about getting some made for these taper shafts.
Still...I have never broken one until going to these long ratio heads and what I am seeing says to go back to a 2.25 as I have used in the past.

[BT]

April 6th is the Penetration test.
I have selected an Elk cow for this and will be using a 730grn. (total weight) Alaskan Grizzly Stick @ 26.5" tipped with the 315gr. Ashby Head.

While I will not be basing any findings on a scapula shot, I will have an absolute guideline for penetration on a desired shot location.
Maybe I will blow it and get a scap shot...who knows ;D

Anyway...that will be the first round and then I will work backward to the whitetail scapula.

This arrow weight is within a few grains of the stuffed shaft that started this test format.

[voodoofire1]

Doctor B ......Care to elaborate on the cow Elk?... Live or dead?......Whole or just parts?, and are you using a clicker to insure the exact same draw length?

[BT]

Dead if I do my part ;D
I'll start live and if I need additional input, I will do some more once we have Her proped up.
If I hit my anchor, I literally cant draw more or less than 1/4" which amount to less than a pound difference.
Even at a 1/2", thats a bit over a pound which once again wont amount to any real change.

[BT]

The 300gr. Heads are history along with the high FOC theory
I am guessing that I have in at least 100 hours and likely more with the 300gr. heads and although they are great shooting....they dont shoot great

I cut and built over 2 dozen shafts of varying lengths and spine ranges, from to stiff to not stiff enough....from too long to not long enough.
I ran the entire gambit

While I did achieve good flight, the need for a perfect release was absolute.
Since nobody gets 100%...thats not a rig that I want to enter the woods with.

The high forward weight definitely assist on bringing the arrow home for the instinctive shooter in me but it hinders the ability to take point of aim much past the area of flat flight.
Also, the high forward weight is a bear on flight and tuning

Going to the standard 14% FOC is a delight by contrast and thats where I will stay going forward.

[BT]

3 hours of shooting today with very little down time showed a few constants.
First of all, the Grizzly sticks can be pretty much shot over the widest weight range imaginable
I used the Sitka, the Alaskan and the Safari shafts, all performed well with only head changes
Thats something like a 40# weight range controlled with nothing more than length and head weight adjustments!.

There was (of course) differences between good and great but the fact that I could grab pretty much anything and build around it gives me a good warm feeling inside

The final bests were a sitka with a 100gr. head and a Alaskan with a 200gr. head.
The bucket test showed that although both flew perfectly, the Alaskan was the out performer by 15% consistently .
(6 shots for 6 shots = 4" x-tra penetration compared to the sitka)
The weight differences between the two are so minimal, I suspect that it is the larger tapered shaft and the weight that is giving me the edge with the Alaskan.

While I cannot get the perfect point of aim....I am not going to blame that on the shafts at this time.
Suffice it to say that it's close enough

[voodoofire1]

I'd like to see a durability test between the Grizzly sticks and the Axis or Mfx's, yesterday I had the extreme pleasure of doing something I've never done before, seems I get a little testy when I quit smoking and yesterday was one of those days when everything I touched mechanical gave me fits..... and my Toyota woodhauler/ trail rig was the last straw... so I shot it... on purpose ...3 times. once with a gun, twice with my axis arrows and found out that when shooting it that my arrows snap in half on impact..... hmmmm..... imagine that, guess I need stronger arrows...... but it sure felt good,lol,lol... oh and don't worry the toyota is fine, takes more than a bullet and a couple arrows to hurt that thing, it's been rolled 3 times, been in water/mud over the hood more times than I can count, and after each time I was still able to drive it the 140 miles home from the Badlands RV park here in Indiana... they should have named them timex ....they are that tough!

[Doegirl]

I'd like to see a durability test between the Grizzly sticks and the Axis or Mfx's

I would like to see that test as well. FMJ/Axis have been regarded as very tough shafts, and personally, I've found that to be the case.
Perhaps there could be the "toughest arrow" contest.

[Buckshot06]

This is not a penetration test, so something the arrows wouldn't go through would be a good media.
This would be an interesting test.
This site does have BH testing but if the best BH in the group is shot with a weak arrow the performance of the BH would be affected.
To keep the test as scientific as possible a standard would have to be set.
All arrows the same length, there weight recorded, and shot from the same bow would be suggestion.
I have wondered about this same question for some time.
I went through a few dozen arrows before I found one that would hold up shot after shot.
I was sick of shooting an animal and the arrow was trashed and never ever to be used again.
I lived by, One shot one kill and last time I would ever shoot that arrow again.
There are allot of different types of arrows manufactured out there and it would be to expensive for one person to buy the arrows just to destroy them to see how they hold up.
As I see it if some one would be up to it, all you would have to do is send them a 2 of the arrows you what tested.

[Greg Krause]

I love my Beeman MFX shafts and they are tough but Grizz sticks are way tougher hands down