Anyway to fix stacking in a bow?

[nightowl1]

A bow I bought for my wife is stacking before she gets to her 24" draw. I did not anticipate this kind of problem from a 60" bow from this VERY well known bowyer.

Is there anyway to rework the bow? The website says it should be  good to 27" but it definitely hits a wall early.

[BRITTMAN]

Stacking is felt diffrent by diffrent prople . What i mean by that is a bow that feels like it stacks to me others will think its the smoothest drawing bow they ever shot . All you can do is to adjust your brace height to find the sweet spot for drawing and arrow flight . Hope this helps ,

Mike

[Orion]

It would be extremely rare for a 60-inch bow to stack at 24 inches. Has your wife shot a stick bow before? In the same weight range?  The bow just might be on the heavy side of what she can handle at her draw.  In short, it may feel heavy/too heavy as she nears full draw, but the bow may not be stacking at all.  The way to tell if it actually is stacking is to put it on a scale and measure the poundage at one inch intervals from 22 through 26 inches, for example.

[Hermon]

Originally posted by Orion:
It would be extremely rare for a 60-inch bow to stack at 24 inches. Has your wife shot a stick bow before? In the same weight range?  The bow just might be on the heavy side of what she can handle at her draw.  In short, it may feel heavy/too heavy as she nears full draw, but the bow may not be stacking at all.  The way to tell if it actually is stacking is to put it on a scale and measure the poundage at one inch intervals from 22 through 26 inches, for example.

I would agree with the response above. In my experience bows do not stack until the angle between the string and the limb reaches 90 degrees or more. Typically this is at a longer draw length on a recurve than a longbow, but is still a function of string/limb angle whatever the limb design. Many folks think that when they cannot pull any farther it is because of "stack" and not their lack of strength.  YMMV.

[Walt Francis]

2-X What Orion and Hermon said.

[kawika b]

What Orion, Hermon and Walt said.

Just playing devil's advocate here... If that bow is in fact stacking at 24" then your brace height may be of by a foot or so.    

[D. Key]

I agree also with what they said above.  A 60"er shouldn't stack at all at 24".

[Rob DiStefano]

for the very most part, bows is what they is.  a poor limb design/material can't be helped with limb retillering or weight reduction.  time for a new bow ....

[reddogge]

Is the bow rated at 28". The reason I asked is some of the ladies models came rated at 24" so yes, they would start to stack after 24".

If it's 28" and stacking then sell it and buy another one.

[Stumpkiller]

Depending on the design a bow can have an "S" curve where it draws more poundage to the inch early, then lowers a bit and when you get to full draw can increase sharply.  That "sharply" threshold is the stacking point.  My guess is at 24" your wife is still in the initial part of that curve.  The poundage may be gaining 3# or 4# per inch; but that's not stacking.

Can you draw the bow to 28"

[Jimbow39]

Just curious. Was your wife shooting a compound before going to a traditional bow? Traditional bows seem to stack to those that are used to compounds as they are used to let-off at about the draw you are talking about.

[nightowl1]

Ok, lets see if i can explain this better for yah, but I think yah answered my question.

After a little more pulling and really concentrating on the feel, the bow is extremely soft in the first 10 inches. Then you start working the limbs pretty good. I think in her head this makes it feel like it is getting tough fast, and when I pull it, it definitely is.

I draw 28.5 inches. When I get to 27 on this bow it doesn't want to move anymore.

I just got it for her last year and we had a baby so she hasn't shot a whole lot. I think the answer is to send it back to reduce weight but don't have the money for that seeing as we had a baby haha.

She was shooting a bow of same weight before but it was a 20 year old bow. Maybe it had lost some pounds over the years.

Thanks for the help. Made me take a closer look. I think reducing weight will be in the plans.

[bosteldr]

The only adjustment you have is lowering the brace height.  This may work but cause other issues if it is lowered too much.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Depending on what you have, You may be able to get her into another bow for the time being for cheaper than reducing the weight in your bow.

If you discover the bow does not stack after putting it on a scale, she may work up her muscles to get into it.

My wife shoots a 35 lb and a 43 lb bow.  At first the 35 lb was much but now she handles both well after 1 year.  

Both bows were picked up for less than 100 bucks.

[7 Lakes]

I'm not sure you can build a 60" bow that stacks at 24" draw without doing it on purpose.
What is the weight at 23"-24"-25"-26".  Is the string angle aproaching or exceding 90degrees.

Stack is almost always a function of the string angle aproaching 90degrees.  Stand back and watch her draw the bow.

[LongStick64]

Man that sounds like a pair of ILF limbs I had. Xtra Long and even at my draw they would stack at or around 25. Way before they were supposed to. And yes they were made by someone who many think to be the best but none of his bows has ever worked well for me. In comparison I bought a Dale Dye rated at 26" and she is stack free and a pleasure to shoot.

[George Vernon]

See what the string and limb tip angle looks like at the full, 24" draw.  It's possible the bowyer used very light laminations that are so thin only the last few inches of the limb near the tip are actually 'working' or bending.  This could get you to the 90 degrees others have talked about at a short draw length.

[John Scifres]

A bow that is whip tillered will stack worse than a bow that is tillered to bend more towards the handle.

So, if it is indeed stacking, the one answer is to get more bend in the inner 2/3rds of the limb, leaving the outer limb stiff to act more as a lever.  This decreases string angle, increases leverage, and makes a bow draw more smoothly.  Depending on the curent design of the bow, it may also mean a substantial weight reduction.

[Shawn Leonard]

What you describe is not stacking most all bows have that smooth cycle where the gain say 1.5-2#s the first several inches and than start to increase to 2.5-3#s an inch, I think that is what you are feeling. Mike would know as he builds a sweet bow. Shawn