Arrows The arrow used is another important factor in the performance of a compound bow. The higher the draw weight of a bow, the higher the required weight of the arrow. This rule holds because lighter arrows are not stiff enough, nor rugged enough, to withstand the acceleration a heavy bow produces. Another consideration to keep in mind is that heavier arrows dampen vibrations, and resist acceleration more due to their increased mass. This actually protects the bow from damage, since firing a light arrow in a heavy bow can have almost the same negative effect as dry firing it. There are minimum recommended arrow weights for different draw weights. In all actuality, setting the bow up properly and firing the correct minimum weight arrow actually levels the playing field quite a bit, speed wise. This is because lighter arrows are significantly faster, so being fired by a less powerful bow these arrows still perform very well. "Knockdown" power is also a consideration to keep in mind. The impact between an arrow and it's target contains a certain amount of force. The amount of force is proportional to the amount of mass of the arrow, relative to the speed. An experiment conducted by huntersfriend.com showed the following results regarding arrow speed vs. arrow weight:   Kinetic Energy Developed by Arrow Weight FT-POUNDS Trail 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Trial 5 Average 250G Arrow 47.99 47.99 48.32 47.99 47.99 48.06 ft-lbs 300G Arrow 50.02 49.30 49.66 49.66 49.66 49.66 ft-lbs 350G Arrow 50.95 50.95 51.34 50.55 50.95 50.95 ft-lbs 400G Arrow 52.03 52.03 52.03 52.46 52.03 52.12 ft.lbs 450G Arrow 53.33 53.33 53.33 52.87 53.33 53.24 ft-lbs 500G Arrow 53.75 53.26 53.75 53.75 53.26 53.55 ft-lbs 550G Arrow 54.39 53.87 53.36 53.87 53.36 53.77 ft-lbs 600G Arrow 54.38 53.84 53.84 54.38 54.38 54.16 ft-lbs 650G Arrow 55.46 54.90 54.90 54.90 54.33 54.90 ft-lbs http://www.huntersfriend.com/bowselection.htm#energystorage The chart above shows that while speed does make up for arrow weight somewhat, the weight does make a bigger difference in the end. It should be noted, however, that the average difference in speed between the lightest and heaviest arrows in the test ended up being over 100 feet per second! So there is a drawback to going to heavy.