foc question

[arrowsender]

considering the purchase of a vortex crossbow. the more bolt shafts, inserts, heads ect. i read about, the more i wonder. is there a general foc rule for setting up a bolt?

[Big John]

Anything from 7% up will work fine. 15% to 17% is what I prefer. Lots of opinions on this one.
But this is a good starting point for you.

[bkisel]

WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!!

I don't know if it carries over from vertical bows into crossbows but I would favor the higher range of what Big John just gave with larger feathers/vanes having helical for hunting arrows and just the opposite for strictly target arrows.

Good luck...

[Limbs and Sticks]

Big John in my opinon has it right, I've made them from 7% up to 22%, they all go where I aim, I have no issues with foc, most all the numbers work, it depends on what one wants.

Wes

[agingcrossbower]

Big John in my opinon has it right, I've made them from 7% up to 22%, they all go where I aim, I have no issues with foc, most all the numbers work, it depends on what one wants.

Wes

I agree with Wes. The FOC seems to be fairly flexible. A little or a lot of FOC its all good as long as the broadhead finds its mark.

[DuckHunt]

Ditto. I've noticed that it is much harder to get a fixed blade broadhead to fly consistently at the lower FOC. The lower FOC still works great with mechanical heads. If you plan to shoot fixed blade heads or mixed types of heads, then the higher FOC (~13%+) works best.

DuckHunt

[vixenmaster]

FOC the more weight on front of yer arrow the accuracy you get. As Bstout has said the vanes/feathers are the rudder the business end needs to lead the way. Example i have 5 GT II's with alum. inserts & 100 gr pts that are not real accurate as a whole. The 4" vanes tend too over-steer & i have to sight-in each arrow to the scope by itself! pia! They're short 18" & when i had smaller vanes or more front weight they shoot more accurate.

[Michael Stogre]

For a comprehensive discussion of FOC in the high, extreme, and ultra-extreme levels see
•Ashby On EFOC (Extreme Forward of Center). Ashby reports can be found on the Alaskabowhunter web site and at tradgang.com

MJS

[bob1961]

i have my exocet 200 shooting 295 fps with 550gr arrows dead on out to 50 yards with 125gr slick tricks....my arrows are 2117 easton XX75 camo hunters with 110gr brass inserts w/ two 25gr screw on weights added behind the brass insert....i also use an alum insert trimmed down to 7gr as a nock with 2" blazer vanes, with those two things done to the rear of my arrows i went from 27gr with 4" vanes to 18gr with the blazers....i also went from 25gr to 7gr on the nock for a loss of 18 more grs....i have 285grs of my 550gr total weight up front in my arrows that give me a 21.4% FOC at just under 300fps....two deer with two trigger pulls with the same arrow, not bad huh?......bob

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[wabi]

I use easton 2215s with aluminum inserts, 2" Blazer vanes, and 100 grain fixed blade broadheads. FOC is only 7-8% and they are very accurate!
I (personal opinion) feel like FOC is over-rated as a factor in arrow construction.
(Please note I said over-rated / NOT un-important!)

If a manufacturer sells you a product, then can convince you you need to buy after market components to improve it, a second profit can be made.
Today there is a trend of replacing aluminum insets with brass "after market" inserts, adding weights to inserts, and buying new heavy broadheads to improve FOC.
In many of the cases of our desire to improve our arrows, the decision to improve is instigated not by poor performance of the original product - but rather the surge of information leading us to believe that if FOC is not a huge number we might as well forget about hunting with those arrows.

Some argue (not intending to "pick" at any individuals) that FOC is less important in "blue bird" weather conditions, but in hunting conditions where high wind and pouring rain are encountered it becomes vastly more important. Might be true, but in high wind or pouring rain I'll stay home! Especially pouring rain, as I have no desire to track a wounded deer with the blood trail washed away!
As for high wind, I avoid hunting in severe wind and would keep shots very close in the wind (but then I consider a 25 yard shot long, anyway ).
In my practice sessions I have noticed very little being off target or groups opening up with my low FOC arrows and broadheads with what I would call light to moderate winds. Certainly nothing that would cause a miss of the "kill zone" at ranges out to 30 yards.

If I were making/ordering new arrows I would probably go for a higher FOC, but as far as my present supply of arrows/broadheads are concerned - I'm not going to spend $$$$ to fix something that isn't broke!
I've killed a good many deer with my Excaliburs and aluminum arrows with aluminum inserts and fairly low FOC over the years. I can't recall any misses due to low FOC.
(unfortunately the have been misses, but the majority have been scope failures - seems like I've been cursed with bad scopes )

[bob1961]

very true too wabi....but in my case, i couldn't get the firebolts with the alum inserts and 4" vanes with the 150gr bolt cutters that came in my package to fly good at all....here is a picture of 3 shots with the firebolts and the bolt cutters, the arrow in the bullseye is a target tip at 40 yards and below you can see in red the two shots with the bolt cutter bh with the yard range marked....



once i went to my alum 2117 arrows with more weight and smaller slick tricks up front then the bolt cutters i now have arrows that hit where i aim out to 50 yards with BH's....the 3 other BH holes you see above the bulleys are at 20 yards with the bolt cutters too....the arrows/BH's that came with my package were the only thing that didn't work out of my exocet 200....once i put some weight in my arrows from the 375gr firebolts i was super pleased, but then again i read a ton of stuff to find what i needed to do....the two deer i took were at 10 yards and 49 yards and went down within 15/20 seconds..........bob

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[arrowsender]

thanks everyone and sorry i took a while to get back. got a good idea whats up. there for a while it sounded like i was goingto need a boxing glove on the end of a bolt. ha. good luck and send em straight.