Short draw weight

[LeverActionman]

My bow is 65 pound at 28 but I only draw 26.5 what is the amount of draw?

[Stumpkiller]

Varies with design and style (longbow, flatbow, recurve, static recurve, full working tips, bow length, brace height, etc.)

Rule of thumb is 2# per inch.  However, most bows don't add weight in a straight line if graphed inches vs. effort.  You're likely between 58# and 62#.

[BWD]

Around 60.5 - 61#

[LeverActionman]

Thanks for the responce I was thinking about 60 or 61.

[Orion]

Most bows will build weight at about 2#-3# per inch.  The heavier the bow is the start with, the more it will increase per inch; in your case, 3# per inch is quite likely.  Thus, at 26.5 inches, it's probably pretty close to 60#.

[Thunderhorn25]

Yeah I was thinking minus 3# for each inch under 28"

[The Whittler]

Rule of thumb is around 3# per inch. But you will find most are between 2.5# to 4# per inch.

[Whip]

Like Orion said, it is really a function mostly of how heavy the bow is to begin with.  A bow with an 8" brace height needs to be drawn back 20 more inches to reach full draw (28")  On a 60# bow that is about 3# per inch.  On a 40# bow it is about 2# per inch.  Limb design, etc. will make a little bit of difference, but most is based on the weight of the bow.

There are exceptions to this. I had two Hill style longbows of the same weight, they looked quite similar until you looked closer at the designs.  Both were 48 pounds at 26".  One was 51 pounds at 28" and the other was 54 pounds at 28".  The one that stacked at 28" was 15 foot per second faster at the 26 inch draw than the one that had the smooth draw to 28.  i have seen other examples with recurves and longbows where a bow that functions nice at one draw will be less than desirable at a shorter draw. The first time i found this was comparing a newer Bear Kodiak, early 70s, to one from the 60s. The older Kodiak had an uncomfortable stack at my longer target style draw than the newer one.  But with my shorter instinctive hunting form, the older stacking Kodiak performed better.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Originally posted by pavan:
There are exceptions to this. I had two Hill style longbows of the same weight, they looked quite similar until you looked closer at the designs.  Both were 48 pounds at 26".  One was 51 pounds at 28" and the other was 54 pounds at 28".  The one that stacked at 28" was 15 foot per second faster at the 26 inch draw than the one that had the smooth draw to 28.  i have seen other examples with recurves and longbows where a bow that functions nice at one draw will be less than desirable at a shorter draw. The first time i found this was comparing a newer Bear Kodiak, early 70s, to one from the 60s. The older Kodiak had an uncomfortable stack at my longer target style draw than the newer one.  But with my shorter instinctive hunting form, the older stacking Kodiak performed better.

It's like the other guys were saying here, different designs are going to have different staking points and perform better or worse at different draw lengths and brace height.

The limb cores and taper rates used to build a typical production bow, and most custom bow designs as well, are all built the same for a given design. Most companies build different riser lengths and use the same limb to try and manipulate the stacking point at different draw  lengths.

But..... Two bows of like design and draw weights can be built to stack at different draw lengths through the manipulation of the cores using power wedges and tip wedges. What this does is relocate the actual working portion of the limb, and changes the amount of pre-load at brace a given brace height. In some cases this requires a slight manipulation of the overall forward taper rate as well as shifting wedges to accomplish.  

i use this procedure myself to give my customers maximum efficiency at their draw length on what ever style they chose. The old school way of thinking that a guy with a long draw length needs a longer bow....... is obsolete.IMO

I have an older Bear Griz and I noticed that the lam tapers are steeper than the newer models.  I would guess that in the 60s Bear archery built bows for a shorter draw and today they are building them so they will work at longer draws without blowing up. In my Hill style bows, the bows with the thicker cores and smaller tips out shoot those that are flatter cored at my less than 27" draw, with less hand shock, but someone with a longer draw may have a different opinion on which are better. My Robertsons and my life's Lost Creek NAT are flatter, but in the case of my wife's NAT it does a a limb straightening thing at the tips as it hits her 26.5" draw and man does it put out an arrow for her. The Robertsons easily out perform the Hill style bows of the same weights. The old thing that a bow needs to be over x pounds to kill deer is not logical when a short draw 38 pound bow will out shoot a 50 pound bow with the same arrows.  A knowledgeable bowyer can make a huge difference for the benefits to the individual's size and draw length.  For those of us that are not the standard 28 inchers a custom bow can make a real difference.