The Arrow Ballistics Study
2026
We set the bar in 2025.
In 2026, we raised it.
These are the results.
Background
The 2025 Arrow Ballistics Study set the bar: a controlled environment, transparent methods, open data, and an independent stance free from commercial influence. It answered fundamental questions about drag, restorative lift, and sound across a wide range of vanes and broadheads.
Nothing like it existed before. But it raised as many questions as it answered.
So we came back.
The 2026 study extends last year's components testing with the most requested vanes and broadheads, and introduces a brand-new test program: a dedicated front-of-center experiment with its own arrow set and experimental design.
The scope grew, but the principles held. The study is still independent, still free from commercial influence, and still committed to publishing everything. All of the data and methods are right here on this website.
All open, all free.
Enjoy the results!
| Tristan Litke Precision Cut Archery, Founder and CEO
The Team
Meet the people and companies who made this project possible.
James Yates
Archery Editor for Western Hunter, chemical engineering consultant, and passionate backcountry bowhunter, James sparked the idea for this project, recruited the team, and drove it forward at every stage. James worked to actualize the scope of the Study by developing and tinkering with new experiment protocols in the archery lab, prepared all the equipment, and organized this massive undertaking.
Tristan Litke | Precision Cut Archery
Tristan has been James's partner on this project from day one. His team led experiment design, data collection, and then drove every step that followed: the data processing pipeline, the statistical analysis, the interactive plots and visualizations, the published datasets, and the public site you are reading right now.
Easton Archery
Easton Archery provided vital support: primary funding, shafts, a custom shooting machine, engineering support, media and content coverage, dedicated lab time in the Easton Lab, and coordinated the Study venue for long range controlled shooting. Their generous contribution was truly a selfless act for the advancement of archery.
Hoyt Bowhunting
Hoyt Bowhunting generously provided the AX-3 33 test bows used throughout the 2026 study. The XTS tuning system was a pivotal bow feature to streamline the tuning effort at the Study. Hoyt provided personnel support and media coverage as well.
Jace Johnson
Jace Johnson is the man behind the arrows. Jace worked with James to build arrows for James to nock tune, then personally fletched every single arrow in the 2025 and 2026 Studies (nearly 1,000 arrows) to a very high standard.
Jamie Mcintosh | Archery Sound Lab
Jamie holds a Master's of Architectural Sciences degree specializing in Audio and Acoustics and runs an acoustic consultancy firm. The Archery Sound Lab led the controlled sound testing efforts for all vanes and broadheads used in the study.
Sponsors
Huge thank you to the sponsors of the Arrow Ballistics Study. These companies donated product, expertise, and funding to help make this Study possible.
Precision Cut Archery
Easton Archery
Hoyt Bowhunting
Really Right Stuff
Hamskea Archery
Spot Hogg
Bow Bars Archery
Kifaru
Last Chance Archery
To put the scale of this project in perspective, the 2026 Arrow Ballistics Study required a full week of range testing with six engineers on site, hundreds of additional engineering hours, specialized equipment, range time, custom test arrows, and thousands of dollars in third-party components. All in, this was roughly a quarter-million-dollar effort. We're grateful to the sponsors above for helping make it possible, and we hope you'll support the companies that supported the study.
Preamble
The 2026 study runs as two distinct test programs.
The components test is a direct extension of 2025's testing, applying the same protocol to a refreshed lineup of the most-requested vanes and broadheads. It measures three key areas of ballistics performance:
- Aerodynamic Drag: The resistive force acting against the arrow's forward movement, causing it to slow down, drift more in the wind, and lose energy as it travels downrange.
- Restorative Lift: A stabilizing force from the vanes, acting perpendicular to the arrow's flight, that helps correct the arrow's orientation and counteracts destabilizing effects (like broadhead lift or shooter torque).
- Sound Signature: The noise produced by the arrow as it passes through the air.
The front-of-center test runs separately, with its own dedicated arrow set. Front-of-center (FoC) describes how much of an arrow's mass sits forward of its balance point. It is one of the most-debated topics in archery. This is our attempt to put some data behind the discussion.
FoC cannot be isolated cleanly: changing it also changes total arrow weight, spine deflection, and launch velocity. Rather than chase a single “best FoC” number, this test maps how all four variables interact across a deliberately wide build matrix.
Every method, every dataset, every analysis, and every plot you see on this site is free to access, free to download, and free to build on. For copyright and licensing details, see the notice below.
Let's Dive In.
How was this testing done?
Learn about the testing process, the equipment used, and the data collection methods.
I want the raw data!
Take a look at the raw data, or download the files to analyze yourself.
Support James - Win some gear!
James has put together a giveaway of actual equipment from the 2026 study to help fund next year's testing.
James personally put in over 450 hours on the 2026 effort, on top of his day job, to make this Study happen. If it's been valuable to you, the giveaway is the easiest way to give a little back and keep next year's research moving forward.
Free to enter with an email, or earn additional entries with a hat or shirt at The Arrow Ballistics Studydone.
From the Test Days
