# Noise (bow vs arrow) my .02



## skeet4l (Sep 11, 2007)

I’ve heard so much emphasis on bow and string noise but nothing about the arrow, sure, you may have some twang to get over but a noisy arrow can’t be left alone. With some of the new vanes and broadheads out there you might as well add a clothes pin and card to the arrow and tell them it’s on its way. If you’ve ever stood off to the side and closer to the target while someone is shooting you’ll know what I mean, deer and elk not only duck the string but will hear your arrow coming especially at greater distances. Personally I think the arrow is the greater of the two evils because the arrow revs up and continues until it hits something. How does the whisper of the wind or the falling rain effect the short burst of the bow vs the flight of the arrow, deer and elk are very sensitive and alert to approaching sounds. What are your thoughts?


----------



## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

My thought is the "pop" will startle the animal more than the "whoosh" of the arrow. But that's just me. I am no archer expert by any stretch of the imagination.


----------



## bwhntr (Sep 12, 2007)

I agree...the arrow is by far creating the most noise.


----------



## alpinebowman (Sep 24, 2007)

This is why I don't use blazeer type vanes. They are extremely noisy.


----------



## MarkM (Sep 7, 2007)

GaryFish said:


> My thought is the "pop" will startle the animal more than the "whoosh" of the arrow. But that's just me. I am no archer expert by any stretch of the imagination.


I agree, I have heard some pretty noisy bows (have owned a couple as well) and have heard some pretty noisy arrow flight. I think both will scare deer although I think the pop of a loud bow is the biggest offender. I like to shoot feather fletching which has some noise, I call it the hiss of death . I have noticed more deer jumping the string from a noisy bow I had. When I swtiched to a new bow that was much quieter I noticed less deer jumping the string when using the same arrow/fletch/broadhead combination.

Mark


----------



## elkfromabove (Apr 20, 2008)

GaryFish said:


> My thought is the "pop" will startle the animal more than the "whoosh" of the arrow. But that's just me. I am no archer expert by any stretch of the imagination.


I have to admit the sound of an arrow in flight hasn't been one of things I've considered when talking about archery noises, but I'm inclined to agree with GF. The "whoosh" is likely to be more of a familiar sound than the string/bow "pop" due to the wind in the trees. But it would be interesting to see if the theory has been studied and has any merit. In any case, it could be just another reason that bowhunting is so challenging.


----------



## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

I think it comes down to how poorly your bow is tuned. If your bow doesn't need vanes like my bow you will have a pretty silent arrow. Now if its comes out flying crooked, or proposing you might get a little extra noise. Ive also found if its flying faster then about 280 fps the vanes might actually be waving or cavating so to speak which will cause some noise. So if your shooting a speed bow use a stiffer vane and it should quite it down.

I use the vantec blazer style vanes and they are pretty quite combination. 

The deer that have jumped my string jumped it because of the sound at the release not the sound of the arrow in flight.


----------



## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

A quiet bow is WAY more important than quiet arrows. Lets pretend the deer aint got a clue yer there. The pop of the shot goes off and he's instantly alerted to your bow. Now he's hearing the whizz of an arrow closing the gap. If you're 50 yards out and shooting 290 fps he's got about two seconds to make up his mind. And if any of you have shot at deer and had them jump your string you'll know that's oodles of time. If you have a quiet bow the animal will be less apt to jump because the FIRST thing he'll hear is the arrow closing the gap and by then it's too late. Course you could always shoot a longbow and a big heavy wood arrow and never have them hear a thing...


----------



## bullsnot (Aug 10, 2010)

TEX-O-BOB said:


> If you're 50 yards out and shooting 290 fps he's got about two seconds to make up his mind.


Hey Tex,

Where can I get one of these calculators that you're using to come up with those numbers? :mrgreen:


----------



## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

bullsnot said:


> TEX-O-BOB said:
> 
> 
> > If you're 50 yards out and shooting 290 fps he's got about two seconds to make up his mind.
> ...


It's easy, step out there at 50 yards, let Tye shoot at you with his bow, and count the seconds till the arrow gets there. 8) What's so hard about that? :mrgreen: Notice I said "about" two seconds. You know me, I do everything the S.W.A.G method. :twisted:


----------



## elkfromabove (Apr 20, 2008)

Hmm! 50 yards is 150 feet! And the arrow is going 290 feet per second which is almost twice that distance so, yeh, about 2 seconds. No, wait, we didn't factor in the elevation, the wind, the moisture in the air, the phase of the moon, the size of the antlers, the weight of the deer, which way he is facing, and the time of day, so it could be anywhere from 1.8965 seconds to 2.01176 seconds which gives the deer plenty of time to unplug his calculator from the nearest current bush and calculate his next move. Geez, no wonder archers have a low success rate with all the time these deer have to figure things out!


----------



## NHS (Sep 7, 2007)

According to the math I learned at Carbon High. 50 yards is 150 ft. If you are shooting an arrow 290 fps (feet per second), it would take about, uhmmmm, about 1 second to travel 290 feet. Now it would actually be longer than 1 second, because the arrow is constantly decelerating after it leaves the string. So if it takes roughly 1 second to travel roughly 300 feet (which is 100 yards), intuition tells me that it would take roughly half that time (.5 seconds) to travel roughly half the distance (50 yards).


----------



## Flyfishn247 (Oct 2, 2007)

TEX-O-BOB said:


> A quiet bow is WAY more important than quiet arrows. Lets pretend the deer aint got a clue yer there. The pop of the shot goes off and he's instantly alerted to your bow. Now he's hearing the whizz of an arrow closing the gap. If you're 50 yards out and shooting 290 fps he's got about two seconds to make up his mind. And if any of you have shot at deer and had them jump your string you'll know that's oodles of time. If you have a quiet bow the animal will be less apt to jump because the FIRST thing he'll hear is the arrow closing the gap and by then it's too late. Course you could always shoot a longbow and a big heavy wood arrow and never have them hear a thing...


Everything TEX said is "close" to true except for the long bow thing, that is for ****** and old farts stuck in their senile reality


----------



## Flyfishn247 (Oct 2, 2007)

elkfromabove said:


> Hmm! 50 yards is 150 feet! And the arrow is going 290 feet per second which is almost twice that distance so, yeh, about 2 seconds. No, wait, we didn't factor in the elevation, the wind, the moisture in the air, the phase of the moon, the size of the antlers, the weight of the deer, which way he is facing, and the time of day, so it could be anywhere from 1.8965 seconds to 2.01176 seconds which gives the deer plenty of time to unplug his calculator from the nearest current bush and calculate his next move. Geez, no wonder archers have a low success rate with all the time these deer have to figure things out!


You gotta understand that TEX is shooting an arrow at around 100 fps and got mixed up in his calculations.


----------



## elkfromabove (Apr 20, 2008)

Flyfishn247 said:


> elkfromabove said:
> 
> 
> > Hmm! 50 yards is 150 feet! And the arrow is going 290 feet per second which is almost twice that distance so, yeh, about 2 seconds. No, wait, we didn't factor in the elevation, the wind, the moisture in the air, the phase of the moon, the size of the antlers, the weight of the deer, which way he is facing, and the time of day, so it could be anywhere from 1.8965 seconds to 2.01176 seconds which gives the deer plenty of time to unplug his calculator from the nearest current bush and calculate his next move. Geez, no wonder archers have a low success rate with all the time these deer have to figure things out!
> ...


Roughly speaking, he should have gone to Carbon High! (Or Cyprus where I went.)

50 yards is indeed 150 feet and an arrow going 290 fps will go 150 feet in .5172413 seconds, not in approx 2 seconds. (If we use 300 fps it's easier to calculate, so let's use it.)

The way it actually works out is that at 50 yards the sound of the release at an estimated 1100 fps (depending on the elevation, wind, moisture in the air, etc) gets to the deer in .1363636... seconds (1/7th) but the arrow takes .5 seconds (1/2) to get there. So the deer has .363636... seconds (1/3rd) to react. Slow motion studies (and some of my videos) show that a deer can drop 12" to load its legs for flight in less than .05 seconds, (1/20th) so at 50 yards that deer can move about 7 times faster then the arrow after he hears the release.

Aim for the top of the bottom 1/3 of the deer! If he drops, he'll drop into the arrow and you'll get the top of the lungs. If he doesn't, you'll get the bottom of the lungs and the heart! Either way, he's down! Congratulations!

Edited: Watch the races (swimming, track, rowing, etc.) this summer in the Olympics and pay particular attention to the winning times and distances between the gold and silver medal winners and you'll see how this works out!


----------



## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

Flyfishn247 said:


> elkfromabove said:
> 
> 
> > Hmm! 50 yards is 150 feet! And the arrow is going 290 feet per second which is almost twice that distance so, yeh, about 2 seconds. No, wait, we didn't factor in the elevation, the wind, the moisture in the air, the phase of the moon, the size of the antlers, the weight of the deer, which way he is facing, and the time of day, so it could be anywhere from 1.8965 seconds to 2.01176 seconds which gives the deer plenty of time to unplug his calculator from the nearest current bush and calculate his next move. Geez, no wonder archers have a low success rate with all the time these deer have to figure things out!
> ...


Hey! My bow shoots at least 140 fps! 8)


----------

