I'm curious because I was looking over the ASA rules for this year and noticed that the speed limit for traditional is 280 fps, the same as my compound class.

I have a Damon Howatt Mamba recurve that I play around with and I feel like it's quick for a stick but no where near that fast.

What are you guys getting?

I shoot heavy arrows, 570gr , out of 52-57# longbows and recurves. Speed is 140-165fps. 200fps is pretty hard to reach with a hunting weight arrow shot from a 40-60# bow, no matter the design of the bow.


Those guys are shooting very light arrows, prolly 3-4grains of arrow weight per pound of bow pull. I shoot 10-12gr/pound.

light arrows are faster, penetrate less, stress the bow more, and are waythehell louder. Speed is only an advantage on paper targets in my opinion. I can't shoot accurately enough at longer ranges(30+yards) to gain any advantage of a flatter shooting arrow. Much less giving up penetration. Placement and penetration is what kills.

Hey guys, I am shooting a 45# Samick Sage, but only pulling 40# because of my short draw length (26.5"), and shooting a 512 grain arrow.

I shot through a chrono last year and got a reading of 142 fps. I can't wait to get good enough to hunt with it! Thanks.

218 with my ILF rig and 5gpp. It's my target rig and I hunt with heavier arrows.It is also designed to be safe to shoot those weights. Most wood and fiberglass bows would fail after a while with such light arrows.

I honesty don't know.

I got back in traditional archery to quit worrying about stuff like that.



God Bless,
David B.

Good point

Thanks BFred, Poohbear and RH for answering my question.
That's what I was looking for as I've never seen a stick that would get close to 280.
Guess I can quit worrying about it now too.

You won't see a stick bow get that. I have shot 65# on a Widow in the past and I bet it barely hit 190 with the heads and heavy arrows I used. That is just from calculation and not official so I may have not even gotten that.

With your average stick bow I think you may be looking at 150. That is just from personal observation and isn't an actual statistic. The important thing is, any 50# stick bow with the right heads and arrow weight will kill any animal you wish to kill.

In my experience the best stick bows with longer draws will shoot in the 180's to around 190 with 9gpp arrows.

That's probably right. I just have never really worried about it. My draw is around 29.5

I don't worry too much either. I want an efficient bow but there are a lot of qualities in a trad bow I value more than speed.

Yep. My shoots plenty hard enough and is as quiet as you could possibly want. A properly tuned trad bow only produces a thump instead of high pitched noises. In my experience, I get very little if any reaction to the thump. It has never been enough to affect my shot. I can't tell you how many multiple shot chances I've gotten on a deer.

Here is what I am getting out of a 45# Samick Sage with a 440 grain Beman 600 Centershot. Killed a 183# nine point in October with a 40# Samick Sage, it was probably in the 140 fps range.

nothing wrong with that speed.

That's, what I've been looking for is actual numbers.

Still can't figure out why ASA traditional class is set at 280. Seems unrealistic.

I've never heard of any trad bow/arra setup reaching anywhere near 280fps

My thoughts exactly.
That's why I couldn't figure out why the traditional class was set up that way.
Why put an unattainable speed limit out there if you're trying to level the playing field.

Man I have no idea. I have googled and yahoo'd every phrase/question/statement I can think of to find an explanation of why it is set up to a speed unattainable - as far as I'm concerned - for traditional shooters with absolutely nothing. It's all about wheel bow fps.

I sent a text to Toby @ Black Widow to see if he knows. He's a guru, so if he doesn't know, we'll just call it a very arbitrary rule where the ASA said "screw it."

Sounds good to me.
Thanks for going to the trouble.

I have a Samick Sage and 2 70s vintage Bear Grizzlies.
Sage and the Grizz I shoot the most are 45lbs, I do use fast flight strings on these bows which bumps up the speed.
Really haven't chrono them but probly around 170 if I had to guess.
I shot right over a deer's back 2 weeks ago, she jumped when the arrow fletching brushed her back but she never heard the bow.
Quietness is what I'm after. Yea, I've never seen a recurve or longbow shoot 280.
Poohbear..good look , just keep practicing.
Maybe you'l do better than me and not shoot over their back.lol
I only been shootin recurves for 42 years..cant hit em all.