I’d been jogging for nearly a mile across the tundra,zigzagging streams and jumping blackish-looking“arctic pools” in fear of getting grossly wet or evenlosing my legs. I was going fast, stalking caribou, whichwere now hidden from a swell in the terrain. Soon they

would resurface, though, and I knew I had to keep going inorder to reach a row of boulders; otherwise, I’d be spottedout in the open.

Moments later, as I tucked in behind solid granite, Icould barely see the fuzzy, bobbing antlers coming out frombeneath the ripples in the ground. Safely hidden, I was now

inside 60 yards from the bachelor group of bulls, includingthe largest Quebec-Labrador bull I’d ever put my eyes on.He was huge, with all the “goodies” that make a near world-record-type qualifier.

Hoping for a shot inside 50 yards, I began crab crawling,dragging my binocular and clothes through the spongyenviron. “No pain, no gain,” I kept telling myself, as Icontinued to encounter lichen with my face.

Five minutes later, I reached the last bit of cover left—asmall boulder about knee height. Now all I needed was theshot range and a well-placed arrow, and I’d be done.

BOW&ARROW HUNTING 43

JOE

BELL

PHO

TOS

Looking at today’s speed bow and what it can do for you. By Joe Bell

(Above) Good shooting formis required with fast, low-brace height bows.

(Right) Today’s speed bowscome equipped with smooth-drawing cams; these arenecessary for shooting inawkward positions.

(Below) One way to makeyour speed bow moreaccurate is to choose anultra-smooth release aid.Fletcher’s Fletch Hook is agreat choice.

(Right) Speed bows have low-brace heights that rangefrom 6 1/2 to 5 inches. The shorter the brace height, thelonger the power stroke for a given draw length, whichyields more speed and energy output.

Fast bow setups can help you scorea hit when the distance is unknown.Pictured is the Mathews Reezen6.5—the fastest one-cam bow onthe planet (340-fps IBO!)

42 BOW&ARROW HUNTING

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Reaching for the rangefinder, Inoticed the bull was already in theperfectly quartering-away position. Iheld the unit to my eye, waiting forthe magic number. But what I got wasa flashing LCD screen with two hash-lines. I tried again … same result.

Panic was setting in as I tried totroubleshoot. It wasn’t long beforecaribou eyes homed in on my bobbinghead. Within seconds, the animalsbegan sidestepping backward,obviously becoming alarmed.Switching to plan B, I began eyeingthe shot distance. “Forty or 45, ormaybe even a low 50,” I calculated.“But hurry …”

About 10 seconds went by as I

pondered the distance over and over.Soon the bulls turned and went into agallop across the sea of tundra. I couldonly watch as massive antlers bobbedout of sight, never to be seen again.

WIDENING THE HIT WINDOWWe’ve all been there. Legit, but

fleeting shot opportunities appear inthe field but, for various reasons, wedon’t react in time. One commonreason why we delay shooting is dueto not knowing the shot distance.When this is the case, and theresimply isn’t enough time to use arangefinder—or as in my case, itbreaks or malfunctions—a fast bowsetup can really help save the day, andpossibly turn a “maybe” situation intoa successful one.

Fast bows can help because theyflatten arrow trajectory, which lessensthe chance of the arrow striking thetarget high or low when the distance isunknown. In other words, a fast setupwill tighten your bowsight’s pin gaps.Less pin gap simply means moremargin for vertical error.

Let’s take the shot scenario at thecaribou, for example. My setup at thetime was shooting a decent 250 fps.Uncertain of the shot distance, Iobviously felt a level of discomfortabout taking the shot without areading from my rangefinder.

On the other hand, had I beenequipped with a much faster setup,say, one that shot an arrow at around300 to 310 fps (easily achievable bytoday’s standards), my confidence level

could have been much different. Afterall, this kind of setup would allow agenerous hit window of about 11yards, compared to 6 or 7 yards from a 250-fps bow rig.

To bring real-world validity to thehit-window concept, let’s plug it in tomy encounter with the caribou. Let’sassume I had guessed the caribou to beabout 45 yards away—a split between40 and 50 yards, which I was confusedabout. Figuring a caribou’s vitals areabout 15 inches in diameter and mysetup allows for a plus or minus 5 1/2-yard error in shot distance.This means that I could kill the bullas long as he was standing somewherebetween 39 1/2 and 50 1/2 yards!Eleven yards of error built in to a 45-yard shot? Now that’s very doable,and awfully convincing.

At the time of that caribou hunt,about eight years ago, the thought ofhunting with a speed bow appalled me.They were notoriously noisy andcritical to shoot. However, that wasthen, and this is now. Due to advance-ments in engineering, many of thesebows are now extremely quiet and ultrauser-friendly (little vibration at theshot). They also perform exceptionallywell in terms of accuracy, especiallywhen the archer demonstrates con -sistent shooting form. Today, I considera speed bow a deadly weapon for mostbowhunting situations.

SPEED BOW: ANYTHING RATED330 FPS OR MORE

A speed bow gets its power fromtwo distinct places: First, lowerbrace height, and second, moreaggressive cams. Both areproven to make a bow moredifficult to shoot, especially inbowhunting situations. In mymind, any bow with a 5 to 6 1/2-inch brace height isconsidered a speed model,and/or one that comes with anIBO speed rating of 330 fps ormore.

Why is brace height soimportant to speed? Simple. It

extends the power stroke of the drawcycle without affecting an archer’sdraw length. The shorter the braceheight—which is the measureddistance between the bowstring andthe throat of the grip in the undrawnposition—the longer the powerstroke. Of course, more power strokemeans more power and faster arrowspeeds if all else is equal.

The downside, of course, is that, asthe brace height is decreased and thepower stroke is increased, the arrowremains on the bowstring longer duringtakeoff. This further magnifies anysmall mistakes the archer may make,such as gripping the bow incorrectly,roughly releasing the arrow, etc. Theresult can be a gross loss of accuracy.

More aggressive cams are a way to transfer more energy from the draw cycle to the bow’s limbs and,eventually, to the arrow. However,overly aggressive cams make the bowless user-friendly to draw and shoot(sometimes causing excessive strain tothe archers muscles), especially in abowhunting situation where a slowdraw may be necessary. Also, aggressive“bumpy” drawing cams tend toheighten shot noise—another minus.

These two factors have alwayshindered the speed bow’s popularity.However, here are four engineeringdetails that have eliminated most ofthe downsides. As a result, the speedbow is back for good.

Advent of Parallel-Limb Angle:Thanks to Matt McPherson, whoowns Mathews Archery, we haveparallel-limbed bows. He invented thistechnology back in 1996, a creationthat effectively reduces limb vibrationafter the shot. With each opposinglimb tip parallel to the other, the oscillating forces move in equal andopposite directions, effectivelycanceling each other out. Thisingenious design makes a bowextremely quiet, more efficient(faster), and drastically cuts down onshot recoil. The end result is an easier-to-shoot bow. All of today’s bowmanufacturers use extreme-styleparallel limbs, and this is why today’sspeed bows function so well.

Slim Grips: Ultra-slim bow grips

44 BOW&ARROW HUNTING

Darin Cooper used a Hoyt Katera to harvest thisblack bear last spring. Despite this bow’s low-brace height, he finds this bow extremely forgivingand accurate.

The string stop, such as this one by Hoyt, has madethe low-brace height speed bow more user-friendly,since it eliminates string slap and minimizes shotvibration.

Some of today’s most popular speed bowsinclude the BowTech 82nd, Hoyt Kateraand Martin Warthog.

BOW&ARROW HUNTING 45

Steepshootingangles arecommonwhen outbowhunting.Becausespeed bowsprovide flat terarrow tra -jectory, itmakes theseshots easierto manage.

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3. Balance the Bow: Speed bowsusually have radically reflexed risers,which don’t balance all that well whenyou screw in a mid-length stabilizer. Ifthis is the case, do what you can tobalance the bow. Use a small V-barand various counterweights to makethe bow hold nearly plumb in yourextended hand. This will increaseaiming comfort, make the bow almostmotionless after the shot, and increaseaccuracy.

4. Shoot a Better Release: A“rough” release will be more obviouswhen using a low-brace bow. To |make your releases smoother, use a comfortable, high-quality release.Experiment to see which offers thebest trigger and cleanest arrow takeoff.A release with a polished hook willoffer a super-smooth take off whenusing a string loop. One of my

favorites is the Carter Quickie andnew RX Series. I also like Scott andFletcher hook models.

5. Maintain a Relaxed Bow Hand:Be sure the pressure of the bow’s grip isin line with the bone in your forearmthat meets the base of your thumb. It’scalled the radius. If not, then it’s easyfor the hand to collapse or impart twistto the bow grip, resulting in variationfrom one shot to the next.

There’s no question that speed canbe a good thing. Of course, you’ll haveto do your part and shoot with goodform and execute a good release.When you do that, a speed rig canreally save the day when you’re unsureof the shot range. In many cases, youcan simply rough guess the range tothe target and shoot. Then let thebenefits of using blazing-fast arrowspeed come to life.

BOW&ARROW HUNTING 47

come standard on of today’s speed bowsand reduce torque, since they force anarcher’s hand into the same spot oneach shot. This effectively makes themmore accurate, more forgiving, andmore consistent to shoot.

Use of String Stops: Low-braceheight bows are notorious for causing“string slap,” since the bowstring oscil-lates so close to your forearm/wristarea. However, with a good string stopon the bow, it stops the string fromoscillating—period. As long as there’sample clearance, no string slap willoccur. A quality string stop quiets thebow, too, and helps to eliminatevibration. Just one more reason speedbows are more shootable than ever.

According to longtime Hoytengineer, Darin Cooper, “As long asyou have bowstring clearance for yourhunting clothing and a string stop isinstalled to keep the string from hittingyour clothing, the accuracy difference

and forgiveness between a 6- and a 7-inch brace-height bow will bedifficult, if not impossible, to notice.”

Better, Smoother Cams: Today’sspeed rigs come with smooth, but fast,cam systems. I know, I hunted withthe 6-inch brace height Hoyt Kateralast year and was impressed with itssmooth-drawing Z3 Cam & 1/2System. The bow pulled and shot like a dream; it put field points andbroadheads in the same spot.

New cam systems also deliversmoother arrow cycling, since nocktravel is cleaner and extremely level.“Level nock travel makes a bow moreforgiving and generally easier to tune,”commented Craig Yehle, Bow Tech’schief engineer. “It does so in twoparticular circumstances: when thearrow’s spine tolerance is not tight,and when fixed-blade broadheads areused. Poor nock travel causes thearrow to flex considerably. If spine isn’t consistent, the arrows will flex invarying amounts and the arrows withthe most deviant spine will fly as ifbent. Fixed-blade broadheads willmagnify this effect.”

WHEN SPEED ISN’T GREATAlthough today’s speed bows are

sweet-shooting, a more forgiving bowmay be a better bet for some archers.Basically, the less polished your shoot -ing form is, the less likely you’ll enjoya speed bow’s accuracy.

Also, consider your nerves whenshooting at game. If you tend to besomewhat controlled when shooting atgame, a speed bow can really give youan edge in certain bowhunting situa-tions, as alluded to earlier. However, if you have a tendency to get overlyexcited and more erratic when tryingto execute a smooth shot on game, a more forgiving bow is probably abetter bet. In this case, choose a relatively fast bow, but one with abrace of around 7 to 7 1/2 inches.

“There is no question that lowerbrace-height bows may be morecritical,” says Derek Phillips, Mathewspro-staff manager. “They simplyrequire the shooter to be moreconsistent with his form and otheraspects of the shot.”

To figure out if a speed bow isintended for you, when testing one atthe bow shop, try to shoot the bowfrom your knees and by rough-releasing the arrow a few times. Besure to wear your hunting jacket andfacemask, too. Conduct this test withseveral bow models, including thosewith more forgiving brace heights, andexamine the results. Such comparisonshould give you some indication onwhether a speed bow is right for you.

Also, consider your normal huntingapplication. If you’re a western guy,and frequently hunt in mild tempera-tures, you won’t have to worry aboutextra layers of clothes colliding withthe bowstring. However, if you fre -quently hunt in cold weather from atreestand, lots of clothes can cause youtrouble with a low-brace-height speedbow, which will place the bowstringcloser to your arm and have a slightlylonger power stroke, which meansmore pulling back, as well.

WAYS TO MAXIMIZE ACCURACYAfter extensively test-shooting a

variety of speed bows over the pastyear, I’ve discovered five things thatcan really make or break your accuracywith a low-brace height bow.

1. Use a Drop-Away Rest: Oncethe arrow-holding arm on a drop restgoes down, it can no longer disruptthe arrow if torque is applied to thebow grip. For this reason, using a droprest on a speed bow is a no-brainer.

Be sure to choose a quality model.I like the flexible Whale Tail holdingarm on the Arizona Archery/CavalierAvalanche, which seems to dampeninitial arrow oscillation, resulting in asmoother, more accurate shot. Othergreat choices include the QAD Ultra-Rest, Ripcord and VaporTrailLimbdriver.

2. Avoid Ultra-Light Arrows: Iprefer arrow shafts that weigh at least8 1/2 to 9 grains per inch when usinga low-brace height bow. Lighterarrows tend to “whip” out of the bowmore, causing tuning issues and lossof accuracy. Also, I notice less shoot -ing vibration when using slightlyheavier arrows. The result is asweeter-shooting bow.

46 BOW&ARROW HUNTING

TUNING YOUR SPEED BOWDon’t attempt to shoot beyond 300 fps using non-compact fixed-blade broadheads unless

you’re yearning for a headache. Instead, using one of today’s ultra-compact models such as theMuzzy MX or 90 4-Blade, Wac ’Em, Wasp Boss Bullet, NAP Nitron, G5 Striker, Slick Trick orsimilar head. Or, use a proven, top-quality mechanical.

Next, be sure to align the broadheads perfectly to the shafts. Screw them into some arrowsand spin-test across rollers. Any wobble near the base ofthe broadhead and insert/tip of shaft is not acceptable.Continue to mix/match the broadheads and arrows untilconcentricity is precise.

From here, shoot several three- or five-arrow groups(from 30 or 40 yards), noting their size after each session.Do the same with your field points, and then compare anygroup size differences.

Accuracy should be nearly the same, despite point-of-impact difference. If not, I would recommend usingmore fletching offset or helical, or trying a differentbroadhead brand altogether. I use a Bitzenburger jig andmax out vane offset using Arizona Archery Max Huntervanes.

Once I’m happy with a broadhead’s level ofaccuracy, I follow this up with some long-range grouptuning. I shoot from about 50 yards, but this time I shootfive-arrow groups and begin making micro adjustmentsto my arrow rest in hopes of improving accuracy. Aftereach group series, I move the arrow rest slightlyoutward (to the left for a right-handed shooter), about1/32-inch out. Then I shoot again and record the results.

I do this two more times and note which setting producesthe very best groups. Sometimes a slight tail-left or slighttail-high-left arrow departure yields a more accurateoutcome.

With long-range group tuning, I’ve sometimestightened arrows groups by 10 to 20 percent. —J.B.

Choose compact fixed-blade heads forspeed setups. Good examples includethe Slick Trick 100, G5 Striker and NAPNitron. After some fine-tuning, theauthor shot this 50-yard group using aHoyt Katera. How’s that for low-braceheight accuracy?

Cold weather can pose a problem with low-brace,speed-minded bows. The more clothing you wearalong your forearm, the greater the chance ofbowstring collision, which can cause an errant shot.

Faster setupsgive you tighterpin gaps. Thiseffectively widensyour hit window,giving you moreconfidence ofhitting whatyou’re aiming at.

Even from atreestand, deercan pop up whereyou least expect.In this case, youmust sometimessimply guess thedistance by eye,and then shoot.This is where afast hunting bowcan be agodsend.

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