I have been doing some digging on FOC. If y’all have not seen “the ranch fairy” on YouTube, look him up. I know a lot of people
Think heavy arrows are dumb etc.... but he makes some good points. I have always shot your regular arrows (goldtip 5575 400spine with 100grain swacker)... I am strongly considering moving up to what
“the ranch fairy” considers a man arrow. 550+ grains. I’m not completely sold, but it has my interest and something I may play around with.. y’all opinions????

I’m a heavy arra slinger. I’m @ 575gr +/-. It’s purely my opinion but I feel like my bows tune easier and I get a cleaner arrow flight with heavier arrows w/ a high FOC. I pushed the limit til I started seeing some drastic negative effects from the added weight and then I backed off to a sweet spot that my bows liked. PLUS it will quieten your bow down more than any string whiskers or limb dampers.

I’ve watched some of his videos. I have no desire to shoot anywhere near as heavy as what he does. I did change my arrow setup for this season. I had an idea of where I wanted to be weight wise. I ordered his field point set cause it was the easiest way to change the weight. Once I got to where I wanted to be, I built my arrow in the aggregate of that weight.


Right now I’m trying to decide which weight to shoot, a 406 grain or 438 grain. That puts me in the weight range I want to be and both shoot broadheads great to 50 yds.


Somewhere between 9-15% FOC is what I’m after.

i have killed 16 elk in my lifetime. 11 of those were with a 388 grn arrow with 12.6 percent foc. i have complete pass thru on elk out to 60 yds with that same 388 grn. arrow. accuracy is what kills.i think ranch fairy should focus on becoming a better indian. we have far superior equipment compared to 30 yrs ago.60 pound bows today shoot much faster and have way more kenetic energy than what 80 pound bows did 25 yrs ago. they are much more effecient at transferring that stored energy in to the arrow. i have 350 to 400 people per year come to my shop for strings and tune and i can tell u this i can spend 20 hours working on indians for every one hour i spend on the bow. his reasoning is if u hit em in the shoulder you have the momentum needed for penetration.dont shoot there put it behind the shoulder and it dont take much to kill em. Acuracy is what kills!!!

This probably isn’t going to be very popular..... BCLC, your bow tunes easier because you’re shooting slower. FOC matters, but this latest fad of shooting super heavy arrows is just that, a fad. Along with that, it’s now cool to pull 75 and 80# again. 🙄 Today’s compounds are approaching the 90% efficiency mark. So the heavy arrow means better penetration argument is null and void now. If any of you have Facebook, look up Joel Maxfield. He’s worked at Mathews since it was formed. He took Gold Tip Air Strike Shafts and tested various weights from 400gr up to 650gr. He had to use 2 different spines to accommodate for the different point weights. All arrows were shot for the same bow and the bow was re-tuned for each arrow set up. Going from a 400gr to a 650gr arrow you’d be giving up 25.6% of your speed with only gaining 3% more energy. When shot into ballistic gel, the 400gr arrow penetrated deepest.

I’m pulling 60.3# with my VXR with a 26.5” draw. My Gold Tip Pierce set up weighs 377gr and I’ll put that up against the “ranch fairy’s man arrow” any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I’ll use that set up on any animal I hunt, with confidence. If shooting a super heavy arrow gives you more confidence, then go for it. It isn’t a necessity though. A 375 to 450gr arrow is all you need. It’s all about shot placement. One of the excuses I hear for the super heavy arrows is being able to shoot through a deer’s shoulder in case they make a bad shot. Sorry but that ain’t true either. I’ve got shot a bunch of them in the shoulder and passed through, but there’s one spot on that shoulder you ain’t putting a 1000gr arrow through. Anyone who’s shot a lot of deer with a bow will tell you that. Again, shoot what you’re confident with and can shoot accurately. You don’t need a super heavy arrow to kill anything in North America.

Those are some cool photos and statistics. Hard to argue with science.

I like experimenting with my setup too. I’ve built arrows from as low as 5gpi all the way up to 21.5gpi and ended up where I am. I dang sure ain’t pulling 75-80#, 62# is plenty for me.

Love it guys!! I love reading this feedback. Like I said. I’ve been shooting your run of the mill
Setup my whole life... but this FOC has got my attention!

Shaw I respect your opinion, I really do. It seems you know your stuff.

I've been debating this myself awhile.i bought into the super light stuff ten years ago and had amazing pass through on a couple deer to the point one arrow went threw the deer and stuck in a tree behind it and almost couldn't pull it out of tree stump then bought another bow using heavy arrows and shot some deer 2-3 and it looked like the arrows just barely popped out the other side it was strange I could see arrow exiting and dumping out just past deer it seemed on em?I'm still not sure which way to go myself.

I started to order some heavy arrows this year but I've got some light weight speed arrows over a dozen I'm going to go with and up the point weight.we will see🤙
Hopefully they tune well or I'll be ordering some anyways

That sonuvagun makes me sick. He’s probably forgotten more than most folks will ever hope to know about archery. He really is a great asset to everybody on the site. Builds a mean stringset too. He’d be hell on them deer if he had a full-sized draw length.

I just watch “the ranch fairy” and he seems to know his crap!! And I am huge fan of “the hunting public” and they are right there with him.. and when I watch them shoot
Heavy arrows It look like light sabors.. it makes me think. But at the same time, I just went in the back yard and shot my new bow, with my new arrows, and was blowing arrows through the back with 340 spine... lol

I will say I've had better luck with light arrows and this makes me feel better about using the ones I was planning on

Great read. The 26.5" draw made me🤣. Had to bring that up before Perch got you!

He ain’t bad at packing an elk off the mountain, either.

Was he talking about overall arrow weight or FOC? There's a difference.

kinetic energy doesn't kill shitt, it all about momentum and penetration. Heavy arra have more of both.

I shoot a 570 gr arra, 30", 300gr up front. They fly like darts and penetrate like crazy. High FOC is the real deal.

it it needed for 120# whitetails broadside? NO, it is not. but I don't make perfect shots all of the time and every now and then I take on a 250# boar so I use a heavy arra.

I finally recovered from that ordeal a couple of months ago. 😳

Troy, heavy arrows mean more in the trad world than they do for the compounds. And yes, FOC matters.

I shoot the same arras in a couple of compounds. It does make the bow quieter.

very good points shaw!! i agree totally. accuracy kills!!!

Yes, that is true.