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    Shot Noise And Speed

    I thought I was going to be doing something else today, so I didn't go hunting this morning. Plans got cancelled, so I'm setting here pondering things.

    Thought I would share this:

    Quite a number of years ago, a friend of mine, and I did some probing into how animals react to both bow noise, and how they react to arrows "coming at them" noise. This test also involved the banging of 2X4 boards together.

    The probing/testing was specifically conducted on free range, and heavily pressure/wired Texas whitetail deer.

    Without going into any great detail: In "every instance", the reactions of the animals were greater (much greater) to the arrows, than to the bows, or the board banging noises, and the reactions to the arrows reduced as we took the steps to quiet the flight of the arrows.

    No, you can't beat the speed of sound, but you can greatly reduce an animals reaction time to that sound, especially if your arrows are quiet, and (within reasonable adjustments of course) as fast as you can get them.

    Do it how you want, but listed in order of importance (for me):

    (1) I get my in flight arrows as quiet as I can get them, which is pretty darn quiet.

    (2) I get my arrows flying as fast as I can get them while staying in the 9 - 10 gpp window.

    (3) I get my bow as quiet as I can get it, which is pretty darn quiet.

    The primary reason I use plastic vanes for my fletching has nothing to do with the weather. I can shoot wet feathers just fine. It's all about the in flight arrow quietness, and the vanes are quieter in flight (by far) than the feathers are.

    Stealth, and speed all rolled into one very lethal package.

    Rick

    #2
    Thanks for sharing your insights, Rick. Have tried to do most of what you suggest above, and everything is pretty dang fast and quiet with that Weathers recurve and heavy arrows (right around 9 gpp), but I haven't really tried vanes. So happens I have some Beman 340 spine arrows with vanes that I got at Academy a while back. May experiment with those for sound and flight.

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      #3
      Originally posted by tradtiger View Post
      Thanks for sharing your insights, Rick. Have tried to do most of what you suggest above, and everything is pretty dang fast and quiet with that Weathers recurve and heavy arrows (right around 9 gpp), but I haven't really tried vanes. So happens I have some Beman 340 spine arrows with vanes that I got at Academy a while back. May experiment with those for sound and flight.
      Ellis, I was only explaining why I use vanes, but not necessarily saying you need to use them.

      Vanes are definitely quieter, but just the type & size of feathers can make a big difference as well.

      Rick

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        #4
        Shot Noise And Speed

        Agreed! I’ve watched enough slow motion footage of critters getting shot with a bow to convince me that the noise from the arrow coming at them causes more reaction thanthe sound of the bow at the shot.

        And Ellis, the type of vane makes a huge difference in the ability to tune with vanes!

        Bisch


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          #5
          Originally posted by RickBarbee View Post
          Ellis, I was only explaining why I use vanes, but not necessarily saying you need to use them.

          Vanes are definitely quieter, but just the type & size of feathers can make a big difference as well.

          Rick
          Oh, I understand that. I can definitely hear the difference between various fletchings I've actually used. From loudest to quietest: 4" shield cut, 4" parabolic, 3" parabolic, 2" (cut like darts). Have kind of settled on the 3" parabolics. Still going to see if I can tune up those vaned Bemans for fun and compare for noise. Always fun to tinker with this stuff!

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            #6
            Tagged for future reading

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              #7
              So, have any of you guys ever used the short vanes, like Blazers ? Or are you using the standard long vanes ?

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                #8
                I shoot Blazers on my compound arrows. Pretty stiff.

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                  #9
                  Interesting thread. Seems to me that I read something a few years back that a study showed that some of the noise that the deer were reacting to when shot at with archery equipment was a whistling noise created by the broad head.

                  Are any of y’all familiar with this? Or have you experienced it first hand? Seems like the good old Muzzy 3 blade was the noisiest one of the bunch.



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                    #10
                    Rick, are you using trad vanes or something else?

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by CamoQuest View Post
                      Rick, are you using trad vanes or something else?
                      Marco Soft Vanes.

                      They are out of business now, but I have a good supply of them.

                      The Trad Vanes are good, but once you fletch them to a shaft, they are no more flexible than the Marco, and the Marco are way more durable.

                      The Allen (or Allan) vanes are very similar to the Marco. I've used them, and they work fine.

                      Rick

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                        #12
                        Can you tune vanes to shoot off a shelf? That’s the reason I’ve gone back to feathers. I could not get read canes not to slam into the shelf and kick left. I’m not huge fan of elevated rests.


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                          #13
                          Kinda weird, the nosiest arrow should be far quieter then slamming two, 2x4s together. It must be the “ tone” or something rather then the “loudness. “ I feel a lot of their reaction is what people do immediately after the shot, movement of the bow, body , and yelling.

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                            #14
                            Shot Noise And Speed

                            Originally posted by critter69 View Post
                            Kinda weird, the nosiest arrow should be far quieter then slamming two, 2x4s together. It must be the “ tone” or something rather then the “loudness. “ I feel a lot of their reaction is what people do immediately after the shot, movement of the bow, body , and yelling.

                            It’s not the “noise” it’s the noise moving toward them. If a bird flies overhead and you hear it’s wings you think “that’s an interesting sound”. If the bird flies by your face you flinch.

                            I video most of my hunts because I like to see where the arrow hits. Without fail the animal does not react at the sound of the shot but when the arrow gets close enough for them to hear.

                            I really think that if you could completely silence an arrow deer would not react nearly as much.

                            That’s not to say they don’t react to the bow sound. They do. It’s just not the same reaction. If you need proof find a video where several deer are in the frame and watch how the bystanders react compared to the target.


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                            Last edited by PigOPs; 10-17-2021, 10:25 PM.

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by PigOPs View Post
                              Can you tune vanes to shoot off a shelf? That’s the reason I’ve gone back to feathers. I could not get read canes not to slam into the shelf and kick left. I’m not huge fan of elevated rests.


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                              The short answer is - yes.

                              The long answer is - You have to achieve total/complete fletching clearance at pass, and you always need to shoot "cock fletch in" to do that, but even then, some shelves need to be modified a bit to get them good to go with vanes.

                              Believe it, or not - Hill style longbows are some of the easiest to shoot vanes from due to their narrow shelf.

                              Rick

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