MISSION

The Ashby Bowhunting Foundation is dedicated to providing bowhunters with the information necessary to achieve the highest possible success rates and minimize big game animals' wound/non-recovery rates. Through an ongoing research program, the Foundation seeks to identify arrow setups that offer maximum terminal performance when considering all possible hit scenarios under real-world conditions. The results of this testing will be shared with the global bowhunting community through various multimedia platforms, seminars, and youth hunter programs.

In addition to benefiting individual bowhunters, the Foundation will make its testing results available to bowhunter education programs worldwide as well as governmental agencies responsible for bowhunting regulations. The Foundation will encourage the adoption of regulations that our research indicates will help improve wildlife management and conservation by increasing hunter success while lowering the wound/non-recovery rates of game animals.

The Foundation aims to reconfirm the accuracy of previous tests and explore new research avenues, which include the ongoing evaluation of new broadheads and arrow components. To achieve this goal, the Foundation will conduct continuous field testing and collaborate with established university programs for various technical testing and analytical functions.

As with all past testing, the Foundation accepts neither direct nor indirect funding from the archery industry, ensuring that our testing remains genuinely independent of industry influence.

FOUNDING TENETS

• To secure peer review and documentation of Dr. Ed Ashby’s 30 years of arrow penetration studies through an accredited university or independent research team evaluation.

• Continue research and documentation of arrow and broadhead terminal performance in actual and simulated hunting scenarios, following the direction of the outcome-driven research.

• Educate bowhunters, bowhunting organizations, and governing bodies about the Foundation’s research process and findings through media, seminars, and youth hunter programs.

• Establish scientific, humane, and ethical standards for bowhunting equipment based on research findings.

• Provide local, state, federal, and international bowhunting governing bodies with research-backed standards for bowhunting equipment.

• Analyze marketed arrows and broadheads through testing to collect data and evaluate effectiveness relative to research standards established by the Foundation.

GOALS

• To continue, expand, and document Dr. Ashby's arrow penetration research.

• To conduct non-biased, outcome-driven arrow and broadhead terminal performance research in real-world hunting environments.

• To establish, based on the research findings, lethal and ethical standards needed to harvest all sizes of big game animals effectively.

• To test, confirm, or disprove product claims for worldwide bowhunting equipment.

• Education and dissemination of research findings (TV, web, seminars) to bowhunters.

• Establishing a Youth Education Center to provide a permanent location where the next generation of bowhunters can participate in a mentored program that teaches bowhunting skills, ethics, and game and habitat management principles.

• To deepen our understanding that archery and bowhunting are among the few human activities shared across history in almost every world culture.

• Continuing the legacy of all of Dr. Ashby's work.