measuring draw weight

[stiknstringer]

A little help. Some guys measure draw weight from the belly of the handle to their anchor, some say from the back of the handle to their anchor.Anybody?  

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I do it to the bellyside of handle. This is a true draw length (in my book). Some bows have a deep handle, like recurved bows that are deeper then long bows. when you measure to the backside Your really getting arrow length. Now others will say different.

[ishoot4thrills]

I realize that some people do it differently, and that's fine. But, technically and the standard method is to measure to the back(side facing AWAY from the shooter) of the bow to whatever length you want to know the weight of by pulling the string to that point. I have an arrow marked off in inches from the valley of the nock to the end of the arrow at the base of the point. I nock this arrow and pull it back with a hand scale attached to the string under the arrow nock and have someone look on the back side of the bow and tell me when my known draw length is reached by reading it on the marks in inches on the arrow. Then I simply read the weight shown on my hand scale and that's the weight I am holding back at my full draw.

The only problem with this is that my scale is very small where it pulls the string-nothing in size compared to three fingers we use when we pull the string. Therefore, my scale reads a few pounds lighter than the draw weight actually is.

[Don Stokes]

The standard for bowyers is to measure to the back.

[Dave Worden]

It all depends on what you're looking for.  The STNADARD for the draw wt of a bow is the wt measured when the bow is drawn such that the nock is 26 1/4" from the pivot pt of the riser.  the pivot pt is the deepest part of the handle.  As a "close enough" measurement it is measured when the nock is 28 inches from the back of the bow.  Basically this "close enough" measurement assumes that risers are 1 3/4" thick from pivot pt to back of bow.  Now if you want to know what your draw wt is, just pull the bow to your anchor and measure the wt on a scale.  This may or may not be the draw wt of the bow, but it will be the weight that YOU draw on that bow.  Like most of the questions that arise about STANDARDS, the AMO booklet in the "How To - Resources" tab on TradGang has the answers.

[George D. Stout]

To the belly of the handle?  So how are you going to shoot arrows?

Before the confound device came about, we actually knew that an arrow (hunting arrow especially) could not come back past the back of the bow at the arrow shelf.  For obvious reasons.
At some point, common sense just flew out the window and we needed a formula to figure it out.

Well..fact is, you still need to keep your broadheads on the backside of the bow at draw.
So...your draw lenght should be somewhat shorter than that.  Measure it to the back of the bow...it will be consistent with every bow you use, and makes more sense than trying to use math forumla.   Some people could screw-up making a broom handle.

[pdk25]

I think he was more referring to draw weight, and with that I agree that it would be more consistant to measure the draw weight from the deepest part of the grip.  I don't measure draw weight myself.  A couple of pounds doesn't really matter that much to me once I get the arrows tuned up.

[vermonster13]

The belly of the handle should be the pivot point and also the point to where you would place an elevated rest George and the AMO Standard for draw weight is as said above 26.25" inches from that point. When done that way, it doesn't matter who made the bow(shelf dimensions vary quite a bit amongst bowyers), 50@28 AMO is 50@28 AMO.

[Bowtie]

George, you "hit the nail on the head". To the back of the bow.

[lpcjon2]

Is it true that every inch past 28 you add 5lb's to the draw weight?

[d. ward]

always to the back of the bow.I believe every inch is more like 2.5-3 pounds over 28 pending the bow is tilled correctly.bd