Ok I just finish building my first board bow from red oak pyramid style, its 64" ntn and at my draw length of close to 27" is about 50 to 53# . I backed it with blue Jean material (will post pics when I get a chance), anyways, my questions what kind of speeds are you guys getting from bows built similar to mine, I brought it the archery shop nearby and chronoed it, and was surprised when I found it only shooting about 125 fps with a 660 gr. Arrow is this about right I was expecting it to shoot a little faaster than that or is it because I backed with such a heavy material like blue jeans?
For a 660 grain arrow, that sounds about right to me. What were you expecting?
Blue jeans are a thick, heavy material so I would think it would indeed rob you of some cast. 660 is a heavy arrow so yea it's going to be a bit slow. According to the Bowyers Bibles and other publications a bow will usually shoot close to it's draw weight plus 100 pounds in FPS. In other words a 50lb bow will shoot around 150fps on average. I believe that is with a 500 grn arrow weight. This can be made better or worse by the design of the bow and how much mass it has, especially at the tips. So 125 fps with a denum backing and a heavy arrow sound pretty spot on.
Be happy! You made a red oak board into a bow that CAN be drawn. Speed means notta' in this game.
Pearl is right as usual.
Add in the fact that your arrow is really heavy and you have a recipe for slow....but I bet it hits like a hammer.
It does hit hard. I'm not into the hole speed freak thing, this being the first one I have built it just seemed like it was to slow. I'm still learning on this bow building thing I ordered the bowyers Bible #1 hope this will help I want to build a stave bow one day I think they look awesome. I guess the next one I build I will try backing it in something else like brown paper or snake skins
As a general rule on a simple wooden bow, I aim for the following with a 10 gpp arrow:
Arrow speed (in fps) = 100 + the draw weight
You are shooting an arrow that is 160 grains over the 10 gpp mark (i.e. 13+ gpp). That's quite heavy and will slow it's speed considerabl, but will hit with tremendous force (that latter being more important).
Your bow is right on target (pardon the pun) :) Congrats on getting a hunting weight shooter!
I'd suggest waiting on the snake skins until yo uhave poerfected your skills. They are expensive and why waist them on training bows? Besides, they are ornimental and too thin to really add protection. I consider my first 5 bows "training bows" because they aren't perfect and I learned from them what not to do. Not that I'm perfect now but my fit and finish is at a place I'm happy with now. for Backing I'd suggest real linen cloth or silk instead of paper bag.
Thanks guys for the input, I think ive got about 100 shots through it right now having heck getting used to shooting that far outside of a center cut shelf after I got done shooting I picked my recurve and first few shots were way to the right lol one of them hit the angle iron of the target glad I just got through footing my shafts