From the way your explaining things I’ve got my doubts you know what to do with those bare shafts but regardless you’ve got to tune the bow for each arrow. Telling us the .300’s shot well and the .400 didn’t doesn’t mean much without a lot more information. My guess is you could make either tune but a .340 would be what I would buy for that bow.
Quick and short version, properly tuned and all else being equal, heavier always penetrates animals further. Your block target uses friction to stop arrows which doesn’t mean anything in regard to penetration potential with an animal. It does mean an arrow can get further into the target before that friction gets it stopped which explains some of your observations.
I’ve got no interest in explaining much but there is a plethora of information available online and heavier breaks bone and penetrates animals further then light. I’ve never reliably broken shoulders with any 400ish grain arrows.
I’ve done bone penetration tests on both animals and green bones. I’ve hunted everything from gophers to water buff with a bow and I can tell you my experience has me shooting heavier then average. Speaking of testing, I used to shoot into a natural sand bank for a target. 400ish grain arrows penetrated about 6”, my 530 grain hunting arrows went in about 12-14” and my 770 grain water buff arrows went in about 35”. I had to dig to find them.
Even more important and often undiscussed is arrow integrity. I torture test my setup from shooting paving stones straight on at 2-3m to glancing them off the butt end of a firewood pile at an angle and if anything fails it needs attention. I can ramp my arrows off of or into anything from a 340 IBO bow with a 30” DL and 80lb draw weight and they won’t fail. That’s worth taking the time to achieve and it’s paid off when I’ve made tough shots. Since I went heavier and properly tuned with tough enough arrows I haven’t had an animal stop an arrow on any shot.
My Alberta setup was 530 grains at 285 FPS and it worked well. No issues with penetration or trajectory.
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