Field Notes

Notes from the range and the codebase.

Real-world testing, formula calibration, and the physics behind bowhunting. Written by the people building ArrowForge.

Field Notes · July 2026

We walked the chrono out to 60 yards. The model held.

Two mornings, three different arrows, five distances each. The vane-drag fix promised a verification run — velocity within ±2 fps and kinetic energy within 1.5% at every distance. Plus: what a chronograph teaches you about your own build entries.

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Field Notes · June 2026

Your fletching is a brake. What 30 yards of chrono data taught the drag model.

The launch speed was dead on. Downrange, the arrow kept too much of it — because the drag model had never seen the vanes. Plus a balance-point fix from the same session.

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Field Notes · June 2026

Your bow is an energy source. What four chrono sessions taught the formula.

A new 454-grain build read 8.5 fps low on a freshly calibrated formula. The fix wasn't a new constant — it was a new model.

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Field Notes · June 2026

Your draw weight isn't what the limbs say — and it moved my FPS estimate.

My limbs are labeled 80 lb. A scale said 84.6. Here's how that 4.6 lb let us add a draw-weight term and put two builds within 0.3 fps of the chrono.

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Field Notes · June 2026

How accurate is ArrowForge's FPS estimate? I tested it.

3 builds, a Garmin Xero, zero wind. Here's what the numbers say — and what we updated as a result.

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