arow flight

[brad dryden]

SEEN THIS IN A ARTICLE.

If you make a paper airplane and it flies unsteadily, how do you fix the problem? A lot of people would try putting a paper clip on the airplane's nose.

British researcher Andrew Middleton says that's what many archery hunters should be doing to improve their accuracy - adding weight to the front end of the shaft in the form of a heavier broadhead, and perhaps replacing the ubiquitous plastic vanes on their arrows with larger feather fletching.

Middleton's controlled tests also add weight to the argument for mechanical broadheads, which have cutting blades closed in flight, open as they penetrate animals' skin.

Middleton's research found that the length of the arrow shaft had less effect on accuracy than did its stiffness and the way the weight of the arrow was distributed.

But more weight at the front increased the arrow's resistance to moving, so increasing the weight of the arrowhead might call for a stiffer arrow shaft to decrease flexing.

Archery hunters now tend to focus on arrow speed and things they can do to increase it, and for all the talk about arrow speed, penetration and the cutting diameter of various arrowheads, the crucial element is still accuracy.

Or as Middleton found: "A large blade may cause more damage to the target, but only if you hit it."

[magnatecsteve]

Re: arow flight

Thanks Brad, makes you think huh? I shoot 100 grain tips, would like to try feathers this year...