Comparing a Fiberglass and Wood Horsebow to an All PVC Longbow

This is a quick speed test between a solid fiberglass horsebow with wood siyahs and an all-PVC longbow. They are both 65 pounds at 28 inches. The PVC bow is made of 1-1/4 inch schedule 40 pipe and is heavier than the fiberglass bow. I expected the fiberglass bow to do better because of how much reflex it has, and expected 1-1/4 inch pipe to do a lot worse.

They both stored about the same amount of energy, the horsebow storing 58.6 foot-pounds and the longbow storing 59.3 foot-pounds. The horsebow was a bit faster at 164FPS with a 10gpp arrow and an output of 39 foot-pounds. The longbow was slower at 162FPS with a 10gpp arrow and an output of 38 foot-pounds. This makes the horsebow 67% efficient and the longbow 64% efficient.

Honestly, they both performed about the same. While the longbow was slower, it performed about where it should be. It's actually slower than I usually like for a 65 pound PVC bow. Compared to 1 inch pipe, it is very slow. The horsebow is doing about baseline, I honestly expected it to do better with all the reflex it has.

So that's it. Thanks for watching and enjoy!