Draw weight changes in the last 15 years.

[Steelhead]

Seems 45#s was about average before traditonal archery began getting more populat in the early 90s or so with the advent of Traditional Bowhunter Magazine.

I think alot of the guys who took up traditional archery in the 90s were converting from compounds that were often in the 65-80# range.So they thought they might have to shoot higher weights than were actually neccessary for deer and the like.Alot of guys shot around 55 #s or so.

My 1st bow was around 65#s at my draw in the early 90s.It was not a problem.But I was young and in good shape.I worked into it pretty easily.I shot bows around 60-70#s for about 10 years.

For various reasons I now shoot around 45-50#s at my draw.

Nothing wrong with shooting heavy bows thats for sure!also nothing wrong with going lighter as well.

I do think the higher performance bows,quality arrows,broadheads and superb strings do help alot with lighter weight bows being deadly.Shoot what works for you.

[Mojostick]

With age comes wisdom.       :p        When a 45lb bow gets passthru's on deer like a 55lb bow, after a while some guys figure out it's more enjoyable to shoot 45. And for hunting, when you may have to hold for seconds, it's the better option.

And after you've gone thru shoulder surgery, you come to the conclusion that the passthru's you got with 40lbs worked well and that 35lbs is about all you need to kill a deer.

Remember, for some of us it's not how far you can shoot, it's how close can you get? At 15 yards tops, you can kill a whitetail with very light weights and good arrow placement, year after year.

The past few years before my surgery, I didn't shoot a bow over 42lbs. I got passthru's on every deer and most died in sight and the others died in less than 100 yards.

     

[Bill Carlsen]

About 8 years ago Dave Soza came out with his DAS riser which allowed one to have a hunting bow using "best in the world" target limbs. The increase in performance and the fact that the limbs usually were not able to be obtained in weights that exceeded 60# had me shooting 60# instead of my normal 65#. And this was an increase in performance, accuracy, speed, etc. i was able to shoot a lighter bow that performed at better levels than my heavier bows. I'm 69 now and probably would be shooting the heavier bows still but advances in design and materials allow me to shoot a bit lighter than I used to.  My  latest set of limbs, Morrison's MAX I and my previous Border limbs were top performers with lower weight...I'm now down to 55# partly because I don't shoot as much as I used to and I have found that on the game I hunt I really don't need it.

[Bowwild]

Of course in the days when Recurves and Longbows didn't have a "traditional tag" placed on them, 45-50# bows were packed by nearly everyone I knew.

Archery tastes are often highly regionalized, or at least they were before the net brought so many people together. In local areas you would find many people used the same types of bows, arrows, broadheads, etc. Often a successful person or two could influence a lot of other folks. In the days when I first bowhunted I didn't know anyone who shot a longbow.

[mnxs54]

Absolutely agree Bowwild. Way back in the day before MR Allen invented his wheel bow everyone shot recurves and most put sights on them...anything from a matchstick up to the "fancy" ones.

To use a sight you had to hold a longer time so 40-50 was by far the most common. Around here you didn't see draw weights go up until compounds became common. Also, it was one thing to draw a 75 lb compound at the range and something else entirely to do it in a tree on a cold morning after sitting and freezing for a couple hours!