considering lightening the limbs on my hunting bow

[osprey1]

Hi all. Great site.     Have to give a nod to Ron at KME sharpeners for directing me here. This is my very first post. My questions are mixed in with a bit of background information.
I am quite new to archery in general and have recently made a 50 lb. at 27 and 1/2" drawlength unbacked hickery flatbow. It is 68" NTN. I have been shooting it for over a month now and although I can reach anchor I have to admit it's hard pull for me. Despite warmup stretches I still am finding a lot of aches in my 55 year old shoulders. Most recently I pulled something in my middle finger of my right hand. It swelled up and presently I can't shoot as I draw the string back with this hand. I really wonder if finger injuries are common. I have no idea how long this finger will be acting up but I rested it a week and tried to draw the bow 1/2 way today and it immediatly got pretty sore. Usually I read about shoulder injuries so this was unexpected.
Anyway I have decided to thin the limbs so I drop down 10 lbs to a 40 lb drawweight. That is the legal minimum here in BC for deer. All my shafts and arrows are 45/50 spine weight to match the 50 lb bow. Is there a way to reduce the spine weight to match what will soon be a 40 lb bow? It looks like I may have to order new 35/40 weight shafts. I can't afford a fancy spine tester at the moment and really don't want to buy new shafts and make new arrows. With hunting season less than 60 days away I don't want to start building another bow at the moment. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Tom

[fatman]

Tom, you can probably go to a heavier point;  that will weaken the spine on your arrows...

welcome to the campfire  

[sagebrush]

Supposedly every extra 25 grains of weight on the tip equals 5 lbs of draw weight. I know it works for me. So add 50 grains to the point. Gary

[osprey1]

thanks guys. I am using 125 grain points now. So I would have to go to 175 grain points. Have to get new broadheads too I guess. I had heard that using a longer shaft would decrease spine weight too but that entails new shafts. Lesson learned. I am surprised at how quickly costs add up.

[Bjorn]

Cut a small shelf in your self bow-you will have to decide how much you need to cut.

[osprey1]

Bjorn: I guess the theory behind cutting in the shelf is to make the bow closer to a center shot which would enable me to use a heavier spined arrow than what is nomally required for a non- shelved flatbow. My handle is one inch wide now as is. I had a arrow rest of laminated and shaped leather glued on but I took that off and the suede handle wrap in preparation for the limb thinning. I use a mechanics vise with soft jaws to hold the bow when I do the thinning. Not sure how to decide how much to cut into the handle for a shelf but I will certainly keep that in mind and research the possibility some more. Thanks very much for the information.
Tom

[Apex Predator]

You can probably cut a 1/4" shelf into that hickory without any worries.  It will probably solve your problems.

[Mike Byrge@home]

About the finger injury...

I pulled something in the ring-finger of my string hand over a year ago and it still bothers me at times.  I had to stop shooting completely for several weeks and dropping down in bow weight didn't help.  

Not sure what I did but I felt a "pop" and got a sharp, burning pain in my finger.

Good luck with it and don't rush it.

[osprey1]

Apex: thanks for your reply. I will certainly give that serious thought.
Mike: Your finger old finger injury sounds like mine. I had kind of a poping and later burning sensation and it wasn't too bad so I shot again the next day. Then it started to swell and that was it, I had to stop shooting. I rested it a week and it felt kinda better so I drew the bow half way yesterday and irritated it again but it didn't swell up. By the sounds of it its going to be awhile. Another member PM'ed me yesterday and told me of a release he uses cause he has had hand issues too. So I will probably go that route if I need to. I never knew a person could use a release with a longbow but I guess if there's a will there's a way. Thanks very much
Tom