290 fps

Darth Tom

Member
So I've signed up for the 3DA competition, which should be great. My only concern is that maximum speed of 290 fps. I normally shoot Nano Pros off my Apex 7 at 28.5" and about 58lbs (I don't have access to an accurate or even consistent bow scale); and I have no idea what speed they would be. I have shot a different compound with different arrows through a chrono before and that came out at 290, so I'm a bit concerned.

Any cunning plans or advice? What arrows do you guys use, or should my Nanos be ok? They are around 330 grains.
 

bimble

Well-known member
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the Apex 7 isn't a particular speedy bow, is it?? Wasn't the IBO ~311fps, and that with all the cheatiness that IBO allows for speed claims. I would have thought you'd of been fine!
 

AndyW

Well-known member
So I've signed up for the 3DA competition, which should be great. My only concern is that maximum speed of 290 fps. I normally shoot Nano Pros off my Apex 7 at 28.5" and about 58lbs (I don't have access to an accurate or even consistent bow scale); and I have no idea what speed they would be. I have shot a different compound with different arrows through a chrono before and that came out at 290, so I'm a bit concerned.

Any cunning plans or advice? What arrows do you guys use, or should my Nanos be ok? They are around 330 grains.
I would say you will be close to that. I shoot a similar speed bow with 330grn arrows and get 285 off fingers so you will be appreciably quicker at 28.5. If you're shooting a release it will be even quicker I would have thought. Why not buy one of the doppler type stab mounted chronos?
Keep in mind that those guys will be shooting at 290 so you want to be as close as possible or you will be at a massive disadvantage. Once you've got the speed sorted I would spend some time getting your distance estimation close for a number of terrains. I don't want to terrify you but these guys won't miss, they might have a slightly worse placement 1 in 5 or 10 targets the rest will be on the button even with unknown distance let alone marked.
To put it in context I don't use sights, release and I'm allowed a single stab of 12''. Over a day I will average close to a first arrow kill per target and I class myself as fair. Not good, just fair - there's plenty out there who can kick my bum - and then you move up to sights etc. A mate of mine got 50% spots over a two day shoot unmarked - he had a 5 pin sight. Then you go to scopes and release aids.
Good Luck.
 

Darth Tom

Member
A stabiliser chrono isn't a bad idea; I used one about 12 years ago in a recurve speed test, but I had no idea they were still made. Will have to take a look around. As for the competition, I am under no illusions, I consider myself a half-decent target archer and I know most of the guys doing this series are the ones I'm happy to hold my own against in a head to head match... and the last time I shot my compound was at Vegas in January. I'm going because despite being an out-an-out target archer I'm always looking to try something new, I've done a couple of Field competitions and loved it, so this should be fun if nothing else. Also shooting up and down hills isn't something I can practice, despite the best efforts of our club's moles.

Good point about the sights, I think I may want to go with a single glow dot instead of my usual open ring.
 

AndyW

Well-known member
Genuinely, Good Luck. You could always pay the NFAS ?30 and do it every weekend. :cloud9: For hills and dips just shoot the horizontal distance not the linear and if you're not sure of the distance shoot long. If you've never done it find the other side of the ballistic arc - what I mean is you may get sub 10yrd shots so find what your longer distances equate to on the near side of the curve. For example you may use the same mark for 5 yrds and 30 yrds etc. etc. It's always useful to know for that one pig of a shot they put out to confuse the sighted archers. Any of this that was granny and eggs - sorry.
P.S. Vegas traumatised me - I got married there.
 

Darth Tom

Member
I wanted to get married in Vegas (it seems so much simpler than the normal way) but my significant other didn't want to go. When you say shoot the horizontal distance, do you mean that if you consider the line of sight to the target to be the hypotenuse of a triangle, then you take the distance along the bottom of that triangle? If so, does that really apply both up and down hill? I would have thought arrows would go high shooting downhill but low shooting uphill. Fascinating.
 

AndyW

Well-known member
Yes, that's what I mean. Counter intuitive but yes, it applies up or down as gravity acts wrt flight time. If it's an extreme downhill angle then take a bit extra off as the arrow will be going quicker. In practice there's lots of other factors like drag and parallax but for 15 - 50 yrds there isn't much wrong with it and for long stuff just put a bit on. There's a justification for it somewhere on the web but I couldn't find it at the mo. Unless you want to go out and practice these sort of shots in the real world it will get you 95% there.
 
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