Need to increase arrow weight for moose
Moose
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Wanting to increase arrow weight for my first moose hunt in British Columbia. As I shoot 350 grains now at 26.5 draw length and 285 fps at whitetails without any problem of complete pass thru. Looking for suggestions on anything you think that might help with my hunt. Thanks for all your help.
Depends on how heavy you want to go. I also have a 26 1/2" DL and my FMJ 400's with 125gr tip weigh 444gr.
I just added quite a bit of weight to my gold tips with some weed eater line. They still fly extremely well out to 50 yards. Hopefully it'll work well for musk ox.
Weed Eater line is the way to go The 3 strands like Nick has give him about 120 more grains. Depending on the thickness of the line you will bet around 40 grains for each line. I went from 415 to 458 grains and they still fly great.
One easy way to do it is to look a some of the broadheads us trad guys use. Instead of those 85 to 100 grain heads many use there are lots of choices up to 300 grains.
I don't like tubes or weed eater line because I fine that it really messes with the arrow in flight. They also tend to make your nocks pop out when they hit a practice target.
When I am building my carbon arrows, I often slip a .243 bullet in the shaft behind the insert. It will stay there with the glue and give you an easy, and cheap, extra 100 gr. up front.
I think you are wise in looking into a heavier arrow. A .17 Remington shoots a 25 gr. bullet at 4,000 fps giving it a KE of 888.4 lbs. But you wouldn't at a .17 Remington moose hunting. You'ld take a slower gun with a heavier bullet so you would get PENETRATION. That's the name of the game, especially with big boned critters like a moose.
Good luck on you hunt and be sure to post pictures.
TBB
My normal setup: 415 grain arrow with a 3 blade thunderhead....63# Hoyt at 27 1/2" draw....put the moose down just fine.......
Joe
I haven't had any of the issues that TradbowBob mentioned and I've been shooting them for a month. There haven't been any noticeable differences in accuracy and the arrows fly great.
I could see what you mean about the nocks popping off but if you cut the line correctly and ensure a tight fit with your Nock it will be fine.
Go with FMJ 400 and the brass HIT insert and you'll be fine. The last moose I shot was with a 474 grain total weight and two blade Magnus broad head and had a complete pass thru. I have a 27 draw and only shoot 65lbs.
The bull only took two steps and piled up.
I add weight up front to my arrow. This adds weight and increases FOC which helps with accuracy.
I like using brass inserts. Or multiple inserts up front.
Currently using 60 grains up front with a 100 grain point. My arrow is short. 26" long but weighs 450
I shoot a .400 spine cut to 27.5"s and use a 175 grain VPA broadhead. I draw 27.5"s and shoot 66#s. Arrows weighs 476 grains and I would not hesitate to shoot a moose. I shoot GT shafts! Shawn
Disclaimer: THIS IS NOT A DIG AT ANYBODY!!!!
Im a recurve/longbow guy (not a big fan of the term "trad") :^)
In the 70's I spent a few years with compounds...shooting 2219's out of 70 to 89lbs. I never weighed them, but they were heavy and hit like a truck.
When I switched back to...OK...trad, my two main bows were Black Widows; 65 and 70lbs and I dropped down to 2117's. Still a hard hitting, heavy arrow.
Fast forward to today. At 63, with the ravages of time...lol, I'm shooting a 52lb WippenStick Phoenix with 2117 aluminum, and 155 to 175 grain Grizzly broadheads for a total arrow weight up to 570 grains...or +/- 11 grains per pound.
I see a lot of today's compound shooters cranking out light, fast arrows. In my day, the principle thought was heavy arrow with lots of kinetic energy...obviously, a principle I still adhere to today.
Anyway...being out of the compound loop for a goodly long time...when did this happen? For deer, yeah, advantageous. Moose 'n elk size critters, I'd wanna hit em harder...not necessarily faster.
Again...NO criticism...just wondering.
By the way, my stick was cronoed at 196fps at 9 grains per pound. Never cronoed at 11. But with my arrow weight and the 2 blade c.o.c. Grizzly I get great performance on whitetails...last year's was a quartering away shot at 23 yards (my son paced it off...lol), with the arrow stuck in the ground about 1/3 of the length. That heavy of an arrow is also very quiet.
Sorry...the Widows used 2217...Not 2117.
Sorry...the Widows used 2217...Not 2117.
What you should do now depends on a lot of things, like what your current spine is, and what your target arrow weight is for the moose hunt.
If your arrow spine is stiff enough, and you just want to add another 50-100grs, the simplest solution is to trade out your inserts for a 50-100gr brass insert. That would give you a 400-450 gr total weight which is just fine. I would combine that with a cut on contact viper trick broadhead for penetration.
As far as putting things in the shaft goes, I wasn't happy with rope, weed whacker material, aquarium tubing, or sand. I found using the above materials was associated with my groups expanding, especially when using a large broadhead like the snuffer. I found that every time I tried putting something in a shaft that didn't have a consistent spine, my groups weren't as tight, and that bothered me.
If you want to put something in a shaft, I found the "shaft within a shaft" worked best. However, you wont really need all that weight for moose.
I'd recommend you go with a stiff enough spine, equipped with a 50-100gr brass insert, and a COC broadhead. Good luck.
400 gr arrows zip right through them like they weren't there at under 300 fps.
Weedeater line and a good COC broadhead. No need to overthink it. I guided two trad hunters for moose this summer. The wife was shooting 48# longbow, 450 grain arrow, 150 grain COC tip. Arrow went through and out the other side.
I've shot weedeater line and weight tubes for years with longbows, recurves and compounds and have never had any issues with arrow flight. The nock problem can be rectified by kinking the weedeater string in a few places to hold it in place inside the shaft.
Or you can get really complicated screwing with EFOC, footing, heavy inserts, spine, etc. if you have a lot of time on your hands and money to spend.
Weedeater line & weight tubes here too! Works great & spine stays true, I've not had issues with arrow flight to date!
ElkNut1
Just because you have a short[er] draw length doesn't mean you have to shoot short arrows. Go up in spine and leave them longer.
Pretty easy to buy a dozen arrows with the weight you want and sight them in.
Where are you hunting? Way north moose are considerably bigger bodied than southern or central BC moose. You are going to have some exciting moments!!!!
4 strands of weed eater line will get you close to 500 grains. It WILL not affect spine or arrow flight if you cut the line to be tight length wise. If not the line moves around fouling up arrow flight. It isn't rocket science. And, there is zero need to pay hundreds of dollars for heavier broadheads designed for the efoc crowd, that would require another hundred plus dollars for a heavier spined shaft to shoot them. If weed eater line is cut correctly, your nocks will not come out upon impact either. The bad flight and the nock issue go hand in hand in guys testimonies about how t doesn't work well. Well, if you do it right, it does fine with no tuning issues or nock problems. If you leave the line short, it will shift around causing tuning issues and knock the nock out upon impact. God Bless.
Add 100 grains or so, or just get some fmj's and 125gr bh's and your good to go, I got a passthrough at 70 yards taking out ribs, couldn't even find the arrow on a very large bodied bull moose last fall
I shoot GT Kinetic 300's with 75 gr hits and a 125gr head they're around 490gr. 27" draw 70lbs. I'm going to Alaska next year for moose. I'm not changing a thing.
450gr. Easton axis 62 lbs @ 28 in. Funny how no one has mentioned shot placement. Moose are not particularly difficult to put down. If u hit a big rib on the way in it will certainly slow up the penetration a lot. Between the ribs you will go through with 400 gr easily. That is my experience.