Reducing weight of a longbow?

[nyamazan]

Got a glass backed longbow that I'd like to take around 4-5 lbs off.Would I be able to make the limbs a trapezoid shape to reduce some weight and if so which side,back or belly, would I remove from?
The bow is 55# and I want it around 50#.
Any ideas as to how much wood to take off and how to remove the wood would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[Sean1]

IMHO, unless you really know what yer doin', best leave messing with removing limb wood to a competent bowyer - too easy to mess up the tiller.

[twotimer]

you can take weight off a glass backed bow by sanding the glass down.what i do is take 220 grit paper cut in strips about 2" x 3" and use the flat side of a half round file or any flat file,wrap the sandpaper around the file.with the bow in a vice,back of the bow up,start sanding from the tip of upper limb th the riser.keep an even pressure and count your strokes.do an equal number of strokes on the top and bottom limb.for each .002 of an inch of glass you sand off you will drop aprox.1#.do about 200 strokes on your limbs to start with.i count forward and back as one stroke.but you can figure out your own method.its a little work but it works.you most likely have .040 or .050 glass so losing .010 or .015 won't hurt the bow at all.you can also trap the edge's a little but be carefull.hope this is't confusing.good luck.

[James Wrenn]

You will loose more fat by just narrowing the limbs.Scribe a mark about 1/8" down both sides of each limb so everything stays the same but the width.If the bow is over built you can often keep performance about the same even with the weight loss. jmo

[dan ferguson]

Check with the boyer that made the bow first, I have a bow I bought used that was his personal bow, he decided to drop about 10# in the bows he was shooting, he didn,t want to sell this bow but he told me he couldn,t reduce this bows # It was built to min specs for wt and performance reasons otherwise he wouldn,t of sold it to me.

[nyamazan]

Thanks for the advice guys.I think I'm gonna do this.
It's a second hand bow I got from a Compound bow dealer so I can't contact the bowyer.Can only shoot about 30-40 arrows a sesion before accuracy really goes bad (not that it's good in the first place)
Many thanks for your time.

[dagwood64]

Contact belcherbows.com  Jim does that type of weight reducing, and he would probably be some assistance to you. He took 6# off of a 39# Bow, for my Daughter. Duane

[blueslfb]

I have done the sanding with 220grit paper and that works quite well.  I also tried the reducing the limb width route and found that one is more difficult to keep everything in line.  I would try the sanding on the belly method.  It is easier to do and easier to fix if you get off a little bit.  Go slow and good luck.

[Flinttim]

You culd build yourself up the additional 5 # fairly easy. If you are tiring out after 30-40 shots, every day you will get more and less tired doing it. If you could not draw the 55# to begin with that's one thing but you can draw it, you just need some conditioning.Be a lot easier than re-working the bow, and maybe less costly.

[nyamazan]

You got a good point there Flinttim. I moved up from a 35# bow to a 50# bow recently, but it took me around 4 months to get comfortable.I've been shooting that 50# bow for an additional 3 months now.
It just seems that a lot of the articles I read on one of the other forums everyone seems to be dropping down in weight. They are talking of using 30# bows for deer, I realize our African buck may be stronger but maybe the higher bows are overkill.
I havent hunted any buck yet but that is my aim.
Many thanks for the ideas.

[Flinttim]

Well, I may open a can of worms here, but 30# for deer is in my opinion pitiful.I don't know if there is a state in the US that would allow such a thing, but if they do, they shouldn't. Some  try to rationalize by talking about sharpness of the BH, shaft diameter, etc.
 Boys, no matter the weapon or projectile it's all about MASS X SPEED ie: kinetic energy. Will a .22 rifle kill a deer ? Sure if the shot is perfect. But we don't allow that now do we ? There's a reason we use bigger calibers and in some cases faster cartridges.
 As long as you can pull the bow back with some ease and comfort, you'll never be overbowed.
 Shoot what you can out of that bow without overdoing it. You will get better accuracy wise and you will build your body up to doing it. When you hunt, it's one shot and hopefully one kill. Maybe it's just me but I'd never go down in weight when I can pull the heavier weight OK. I went from 45 pounder to 50 's to 55  and am now drawing a 62 some.If I can I think anyone can.