[Ruben 1969]

Who else on here remembers shooting Omens and Safaris with 350 grain arrows. Now as time passes by we gotta settle for 60-65 pounders with smooth cams and abide by the Ranch Fairies recommendation of 500 + grain arrows. Na ,I still love to blaze-em.

 

[hoyt fo life555]

Never got tied up with the fast craze, nor have I with the heavy one.

 

[bigbucks170]

had an Omen and Omen Max ...still chasing speed with new bows pulling 70+ 400gn arrows

 

[enewman]

Who else on here remembers shooting Omens and Safaris with 350 grain arrows. Now as time passes by we gotta settle for 60-65 pounders with smooth cams and abide by the Ranch Fairies recommendation of 500 + grain arrows. Na ,I still love to blaze-em.

People been shooting arrows with some weight LONG before the fairy showed up. Do a little research here on Archerytalk. You will see it. Fairy has only been around 2 to 3 years.

 

[frog gigger]

Some have permanent reminders of shooting omens and safaris.
Doubt they miss it all that much.

 

[pinwheeled]

I remember those days and go back even earlier to overdraws and short arrows looking for speed. High Country Archery and those supper light arrows they made. Those were some good days. I like many others chased the speed. Then I went pig hunting about 10 or 12 years ago. My quest for speed came to an end. Back then I did not have money to spend on different arrow set ups so my pig arrows got used for deer. The results were pretty amazing for me so I have not looked back. I am not a math or science scholar. I did a little research on killing pigs and the fact that the outfitter I went with was a Trad guy and he had fish arrows with Zwicky's on the end. So I went with a heavy arrow.

What works for me does not work for the next guy. That's what makes this sport so fun many different ways to get to the same end result.

 

[SHPoet]

Back in the late 80's - early 90's I shot for Alpine. I had one of the bows that had the egg shaped cams. I shot very close to 5gpp Easton 2013 arrows with a 4" overdraw. I was pushing 320fps and that setup was so accurate is wasn't even funny. Of course I had to tune it every week but, hey, I was winning.

 

[SonnyThomas]

Who the heck is Ranch Fairy?

 

[Mallardbreath]

I got serious about bowhunting in the late 1980s. I had PSE bows and remember the Mach Flite 4 that had the overdraw. I opted for the Jet Flite Express w/o overdraw and shot 2317s. Logs that weighed a ton. So I didn't buy into the speed craze even back when it started. I shot heavy aluminums until 2008 when I bought a new Hoyt Vectrix XL and thought I had to try the carbon arrows. I bought a dozen ICS Hunters and Rocket Steelheads (400 grains TAW). Still not a speed demon, but much faster than my old aluminum shooting bows. By this time I was down to 60 pound bows and I didn't buy aggressive cammed bows because my shoulders started to go down hill. I don't think I've shot a bow that threw and arrow over 275 fps. Now I'm down into the 50# range and I've totally lost sight of bow speed as a factor I should be concerned about. In fact my arrows are creeping toward the mid to upper 400 range now and getting slower.

 

[automan26]

I was into the speed thing awhile back, so I picked up an 82nd Airborne which was smoke'n-fast. 314fps @ 53lbs with a 305gr arrow. I kept it for a few years, but eventually discovered that in order to get those speeds, Bowtech had to build a cam with a very aggressive draw cycle. My shoulders informed me that if I intended to keep shooting, that 82nd had to go. Speed is fun, but it often comes at a price.

Automan

 

[Ruben 1969]

I’m gonna stick with my 400 grain arrows. I finally bought a press to change out my PSE limbs down to 60 lbs. I finally convinced myself I am getting old but not washed out yet. Thankz AT Fellowship.

 

[Stash]

Before FITA set a 60# limit on target bows, I used to shoot a 29” 70# Hoyt Pro Vantage (cast riser) and shot 24 or 25” ACEs off a long overdraw. Around 250 grains. Didn’t have a chrony at the time. Reflexed riser, round wheels, so the bow itself wasn’t a speed demon by today’s standards.

I have to admit though, after my second riser cracked, it was probably a bad idea.

We did rig up an early 70# Hoyt cam bow of some kind once and shot an underspined ACE through a chrony, and hit 400 fps. This would have been over 30 years ago.

 

[SonnyThomas]

Speed? Thought never crossed my mind. I had plenty of it

 

[sharptrenton]

I was into the speed thing awhile back, so I picked up an 82nd Airborne which was smoke'n-fast. 314fps @ 53lbs with a 305gr arrow. I kept it for a few years, but eventually discovered that in order to get those speeds, Bowtech had to build a cam with a very aggressive draw cycle. My shoulders informed me that if I intended to keep shooting, that 82nd had to go. Speed is fun, but it often comes at a price.

Automan

That 82nd Airborne was definitely hard on the shoulders.

 

[Bourbon Boy]

Never had any Omens or Full Throttles, and I wanted either of them , but they never made them in long draws. I still use a overdraw on some bows, just to get the rest back to my wrist pivot point, like Sonny's picture above. Speed has always been free for me with a long draw, and I had my share of High Country bows (LOL), but the maintenance got old quick. Now I shoot my older bows, a Phenom DC, and Freak SP, at lower poundage, both at 65#, and get around 335+ out of both. This seems to be a good reliable speed, not any extra work to the bow, and just fast enough to have a little margin of error on yardage judgment. I did learn a lot about serving strings when I shot my HC bows.

 

[Dustoff707]

I am shooting faster now than I ever have, and I started in 1974---shooting the same relative DW & DL too---56-58 lbs and 28". My TAW is 525 gr and it is cranking downrange at 238-240 fps. Only thing I see changing is a gradual lowering of DW as I get older and more worn down.

 

[Daave]

If they made overdraws still I'd probably still be shooting short AL-Lu minimums!!

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

 

[Dewboy]

I still love shooting a flatter trajectory. I'm never going to purposely add more weight just for the sake of adding more weight. The only reason I would add more weight would be because of me going with a tougher shaft, like the CT Rhinos, for something like pig hunting, so they won't be as apt to break. If I am in a situation where my shots will be short, I usually go with the tougher Rhinos, since there is no disadvantage to shooting slower at close range. But for longer range situations, I'm still going to go with my lighter shafts, like the Victory RIP XV's or CT Cheetahs. Those lighter shafts give me good speed and with 125 grain broadheads and also give me an FOC with good accuracy.

That said, I have recently said goodbye to the Omen UF and Full Throttle FT cams. I get great speed out of PSE GX cams with a much, much more hunter friendly draw and let-off. If the UF cams didn't have the hump, and felt like the GX cams, I would still be shooting them, probably til the day I die. I'm so glad I tried the GX cams on the center pull risers, despite so many saying it wouldn't work, they work fantastic! That was the best move I have ever made, other than changing from feathers and vanes to FOBs. It's going to hurt a little to see my Omens go because if the incredible accuracy I got with those bows, but I sure won't miss the hump & dump.

My light arrows usually run close the 350 grains and my heavier ones usually run around 400, but with less FOC. I don't have a habit of weighing my arrows. I also don't have a habit of speed testing my arrows. I owned a Chrono for two years before I ever used it. I just shoot a fast bow so I don't have to worry about arrow weight. I definitely would NOT want to shoot a slow bow.

 

[johnno]

I've had most of the fast bow - and still do. I would never shoot 350gr toothpicks out of any bow - unless it had a 50# draw weight. IMO there is nothing to be achieved by shooting such light weight arrows out of a 60-70# bow - and the trade off is greater strain,shock and other forces placed upon the limbs at the shot. Heavy provides a quieter shot and greater momentum which provides greater penetration and the speeds generated are still more than sufficient to harvest any game - there is no down side.

 

[turkeyhunter60]

I still shoot them.