Older bows safe to shoot?

[damascusdave]

I had an interesting discussion with an archery shop employee this past weekend.
First he insisted that I could not possibly be a 31 inch draw shooter because of my height of under 6 feet (this with a compound).
Then he told me that I should not be leaving my 1960 Kodiaks strung because they would lose draw weight over time.
Well I did not argue with him and I even let him misquidedly destring the Kodiaks using the push
pull method.
He finally got kind of quiet when the lady owner of the shop suggested that we ought to check my draw length. They correctly use a light poundage recurve and an arrow marked every half inch to measure draw length and without any attempt to draw long I pulled it to just over 31 inches.
Now there is nothing about me, other than a pant leg length of less than 30 inches, that would suggest I am anything other than a standard draw length. I consider myself to have a 30 inch draw with a trad bow simply because I am not that strong or flexible any more. Now by the end of the winter shooting indoors I will be a 31 inch trad bow and 32 inch compound shooter without a doubt.
The moral of this story is never trust the opinion of so called experts when it comes to archery. Join the tradgang and get your info from people like:
bowdoc
droptine
bjorn
jack shanks
wade phillips
terry green
jay kidmann
papalapin
joe st charles
larry hatfield
larry m
howattman
and a host of others
all of whom collectively have forgotten more about traditional archery than most of us will ever know.
DDave

[d. ward]

actualy the youngest bow I own was built in around 1981-82 and the oldest I would normaly use would be back to 1954.I've seen some old bows break yes its true......but I've also seen some new bows break bd