Average draw weight, 1968 compare 2008

[George D. Stout]

Hey....smile when you call me an aging demographic!        :p

[George D. Stout]

Also....quality in bow design will negate the advantage of heavier weights in many cases.  Choose a good design that shoots well for you and don't worry about what someone else thinks.

[TomMcDonald]

Me and my mate are working up to 90lb bows to be like our heroes Paul Schafer and Bart Schleyer.

Seriously, in my neck of the woods 50lb is about average.

I shoot 60 now and hope to move up in the next couple of years.

Soilarch, there are lots of traditional-only archers my age (born 1985). Hell, 2 of them live in my house.

[RRock]

In the late 70's to mid 80's most of the guys I shot with where using 65-80# bows. I was shooting a 74# Redbud one piece recurve and my second bow was a 65# Rocky Mountain recurve. I finally hung up the RMR about 2 years ago (and the Redbud a looooong time ago) although I still bring it out a couple of times a month because I still like the bow. I'm comfortable now in the 55-60# range and I'm on the long side of 61 years old.

[Follower]

It seems that history shows that in the 60s and 70s - 40-50# was plenty but when I got into traditional archery in the mid 80's and throughout the 90's bows between 60 and 65 lbs seemed to be average.  I can remember looking at some used bows in the mid to late 90's that were less than 60 lbs and I considered them too light.

I filled my rack with 65 lbs bows give or take a few pounds and got out of the market for a couple years and did not really pay attention.  When I started trying to sell a few of my bows a few years ago, I quickly learned the market had changed and you can't hardly sell a bow if its more than 60 lbs.  

I still shoot 60# because I can - but 50# is starting too feel pretty nice!!!  Humans are herd type animals and the herd is moving to lighter weights.

[celticknot]

i mostly own 60+# bows

[Holm-Made]

Younger bowhunters coming into the sport are obsessed with big antlers.  They are more interrested in the end result rather then the process.  That is why so few young people take traditional archery seriously.  

Last year I sold 2 longbows to a couple young guys (about 30) They both missed a buck bigger than any they had previously taken.  They both put the longbow away and got the compound out.  This year they hunted with the compound.  Fear of missing a big buck is why so many young people choose not to go with traditional equiptment.

We will always get the mature hunter who is middle age that comes full cycle and switches to traditional equiptment but I don't see an influx of young people in our sport.  Sad.

Chad

[myshootinstinks]

"They are more interested in the end result rather than the process."
    Well put.  We see this in all forms of hunting and really at all ages.
   I get tickled at the cable TV hunting shows that feature a shooter sitting in a permanently constructed stand that resembles a tree-house. Complete with nice chairs, coffee, and room for 2-3 hunters.  He has a rifle that has a scope with a bell big enough to put a softball in the end. He sits comfortably, sipping coffee and doing a lot of whispering until a thick-horned, likely baited, whitetail wanders out in front of him.  
   Not much of a hunt but he does end up with a nice set of horns.

[TomMcDonald]

Originally posted by Holm-Made:
Younger bowhunters coming into the sport are obsessed with big antlers.  They are more interrested in the end result rather then the process.  That is why so few young people take traditional archery seriously.  

Last year I sold 2 longbows to a couple young guys (about 30) They both missed a buck bigger than any they had previously taken.  They both put the longbow away and got the compound out.  This year they hunted with the compound.  Fear of missing a big buck is why so many young people choose not to go with traditional equiptment.

We will always get the mature hunter who is middle age that comes full cycle and switches to traditional equiptment but I don't see an influx of young people in our sport.  Sad.

Chad

Come now, no need to make general assumptions about young bowhunters. Maybe the ones you've had dealings with are trophy hunters (who could blame them for the amount of media on hunting would surely make anyone obsessed with big antlers), but it's certainly not the case where I come from that we're all just after trophy males.

[Ia Hawkeye]

When I got serious about bows back in the ealy 60's, 40-50 was the popular weight range. In the late 60's thru the 90's, 55 -60+ seemed the norm. Now, as I see it, and from the classifieds and going to shoots, etc., bow weights are going back to the 40-50 range.
I've gone from 65# down to 45#. Course I'm 70 years old and have some health problems. But most of our trad shooters in our club shoot 50 or less. But then, there's always a few macho studs around who still shoot 60+. More power to them !!!
I'd shoot more if I could but it really isn't necessary  unless one's after BIG game.

[Holm-Made]

Tom,
I'm not putting down younger bowhunters.  I'm only 37 myself and been involved with traditional archery for 12 years so I guess I'm the exception to the rule as I can see you are from your birth date.

I should have started my first sentence with "Most". I apologize for not doing that.

However I did say "few young people take traditional archery seriously."  What I meant was people under 30 make up a small percentage of the number of traditional archers in the mid west.  That's the area I'm familiar with.  I stand by that.

I'm glad that you aren't seeing the same thing in your country.  Good luck, Chad

[TomMcDonald]

Originally posted by Holm-Made:
Tom,
I'm not putting down younger bowhunters.  I'm only 37 myself and been involved with traditional archery for 12 years so I guess I'm the exception to the rule as I can see you are from your birth date.

I should have started my first sentence with "Most". I apologize for not doing that.

However I did say "few young people take traditional archery seriously."  What I meant was people under 30 make up a small percentage of the number of traditional archers in the mid west.  That's the area I'm familiar with.  I stand by that.

I'm glad that you aren't seeing the same thing in your country.  Good luck, Chad

Chad. Thanks for the reply.
Even with what I said, there are FAR fewer tradtitional archers than compound users around my area too. I haven't though, seen any trends to do with age. It seems that there are an equal number of trad archers and an equal number of compound archers. Strange.
Then they're mostly target archers. I'm not sure what they use when hunting but it could be compound bows.

I do find though, that most compound users have bows of 60lb or over.

[StickBowManMI]

I have gone to every Eastern Traditional Archery Rendevouz except for the very first one. I so see younger people shooting with their families and I think that we need younger people in the sport to replace us old timers when we fade away.
I do notice that most shooters are using bows in the middle to high 40's as far as draw weight. I used to shott 70lbs @28" inches in the 1970's and have gradually gone down to middle to high 50's. I shoot a heavier bow better than I do a lighter one. I think that its because I need the heavy weight to get a clean release.

[Rooselk]

Several years ago I was told by someone with considerable knowledge of archery history, and a name that most people here would recognize, that most bows in the 50's and 60's were in the 40# to 50# range. The reason for that was that back then most people hunted and shot target with the same bow, and a lighter bow was better for target shooting. I was also told that prior to that time the previous generation of bowhunters usually shot bows of much higher poundage.

I wasn't told this, but perhaps the growing popularity of the recurve back then also had something to do with the lower poundages of that era since many considered it to be superior in design and effeciency compared to the longbow.

[myshootinstinks]

I am certainly not against shooting a heavy bow. I shot bows in the mid-60#s draw weight myself for a few years and could still work into that weight. If you prefer a 60-80# bow and shoot it well, that is good.       I dropped 10-15#s for a couple of reasons. Awkward shooting positions when hunting is one. As long as I could stand pretty much square to the target and use the same muscles that were toned up well for shooting I could shoot my 65#er with fine accuracy and yes, I too seemed to get a little cleaner release with the heavier bow.
     But when I try bending forward to shoot under a tree limb, or turning to shoot to the right, (in the case of a RH shooter), to shoot slightly across the body, or any other "non-standard" shooting position, accuracy would suffer because I was using different muscles.
   Also, the bows built in recent years simply have a little more zip.  I have a '66 Bear Kodiak that is 52#s and a beautiful bow.  I have a copy of a mid-late '60s Kodiak that is 50#s and has a  slightly different limb design with bamboo cores. I don't own a chronograph but the newer version is obviously faster than the original.
   The last two deer I shot were w/ bows in the 50s draw weight. One w/ a 54# Shrew that was a pass-through that still had enough steam that the cedar arrow stuck in a tree behind the deer.  This year I shot a deer w/ a 50# Red Wing hunter that the broadhead passed through but the fletchings hung the arrow up on the hide, but this was at 35 yards.

[Deff]

In Montana in the late  1960's, most of the bowhunters I knew were using 40 - 55 lb bows. When the elk  became more prevalent in the 1970's,  55 - 65 lb bows became the norm.  My 1st bow was around 40 lbs., 2nd 55 lbs   Eventually I was hunting with a 70 lb. recurve.
After a brief time using a wheel bow in the 1980's (which carried like an aluminum step ladder  in the woods) I returned to packing a 65 lb. recurve. Presently I shoot bows in the 60lb. range.

My three sons grew up shooting compounds and packing them around during hunting season seems natural to them. Although all  three of them own traditional bows and shoot them very well,  they tend to grab their wheel bows when the serious hunting begins.

From reading the previous posts, it appears that my family is a pretty typical snapshot of  bowhunting today.

[mnbwhtr]

In my case age. Started in 65 with a 47# kodiak then got somewhat competative and went up to 61# black widow for the flatter trajectory. That worked well for me and by 79 was shooting 88# bear t/d. When the big bow broke(at full draw) I started switched to longbow since Bear wasn't making their takedown them days. Longbows were different and I had to drop to 70-75#. In 92 I found a used Bear t/d for a good price and have been shooting them again ever since. I have limbs ranging form 38# to 65# but find myself shooting the 55-60"s the most. Most recently I've been shootig RER limbs 57#(62@30) and found them to be faster and more efficient then ever. I've shot deer with 45# but always felt a little better shooting more.

[longbowman]

I started bowhunting in 1966.  At that time I was using a 45# Bear Bearcat and nearly every bowhunter I knew (not too many back then) was shooting in the 45 to 50# range.  Then I went to a huge archery gathering put on by one of Bear Archerys first dealers.  There was a man and wife there shooting this new thing called a "judo" point and tons of people were watching them.  The lady was maybe 5' tall and under 100# and she was shooting the "new" Super Mag. 48 and I alomst died when I saw it was 55#.  Her husband was shooting the "new" Super Kodiak and it was 65#!  That did it for me.  I began working my way up and now can't shoot anything much under 65# without shaking horribly.

The average bow weight when I began was around 50# and as I go to tarditional shoots I see that it hasn't really changed much during the past 40 yrs.

[tmccrumb]

Not really sure what you consider "young" but in just my immediate friends (20-27yrs) I can come up with easily 8 people who shoot trad. and 6 who hunt trad the other two are my gf who doesn't hunt (yet) and my sister. Guy friends shoot about 60#-65# and women about 45#

[Ia Hawkeye]

Tmccrumb,
You young (20's) guys can handle those weights with practice as I once did.
All my bowhunting buddies are in their 60's and we all shoot 40+.
It's a generational thing, although I know young guys that shoot light bows, and have heard of some oltimers that still shoot heavy bows.(we're talking stick bows).

Regardless, hitting the vitals is more important then bow weight.

Good shooting!!!!!!