Draw weight ?

[BrushWolf]

How do you all determine your comfortable draw weight.

[lpcjon2]

I feel its what you can hold at anchor without straining or the bow arm going all over the place. You dont need to have a 75# draw weight to kill deer, the well placed arrow is the key to any kill. Try a few bows and see, shoot a few rounds at different weights and see what feels comfortable.50# is what I would say is a normal weight for a lot of animals.

[snapper1d]

Originally posted by lpcjon2:
I feel its what you can hold at anchor without straining or the bow arm going all over the place. You dont need to have a 75# draw weight to kill deer, the well placed arrow is the key to any kill. Try a few bows and see, shoot a few rounds at different weights and see what feels comfortable.50# is what I would say is a normal weight for a lot of animals.

I guess I am in trouble and need to build a 20# bow for myself!!!

[damascusdave]

I usually keep about 15 bows around ranging from 45 to 65 pounds...if I shoot a bow and it feels too heavy I keep going down in weight until one feels okay...it varies day to day, bow to bow

DDave

[BrushWolf]

My bow fishing setup is 58-60#. I don't have any trouble with it in the summer shooting at carp. What I do how ever notice is on some days my deer hunting setup 53# can sometimes seem like a it gains some weight. It might be sitting still or cold having more to do with it. Maybe dropping 3-5# would help with it.

[Flying Dutchman]

Comfortable drawweight depence also in how much you can train. If you weren't able to shoot the bow for some months, you have to build it all up again. Then 45 lbs can feel already heavy to pull. After training for a month of two, the same 45 lbs starts to feel easy to draw. Right now, my comfort zone is around the 45 to 50 lbs.

[Bear Heart]

It also depends on the grip. Some types of grips feel stronger.

[Bear Heart]

I like a bow heavy enough that I can feel good back tension. Never owned a bow over 68#.

[Bowwild]

Like Bear Heart I want the bow to be comfortable enough that I can get to a solid full-draw anchor that allows me to keep the back involved throughout the shot.

For most bows (recurves) this is 44-49 pounds for me at my 26" draw length. Some bows feel a bit lighter than others and I put them on a digital scale to prove it. For example, my Schafer ilvertip feels lighter than the draw weight says it should. But the chrony and the digital scale both read otherwise.

It is a rare day that I don't shoot a few arrows on my basement range, all year. Shot the TT and the Schafer yesterday. Also shot "another" bow quite a lot yesterday.

[KeganM]

I settle in to my shot and hold at anchor for a few seconds and wait for the shot to go off. For me, anything that makes me rush that wait or anything that I start to collapse before the release is too much. For me, 55# is my limit and I had to work backwards from 85# until I found that. I'm happeist around 50#, maybe a couple pounds heavier. It's lead to a lot more game on the ground, that's for sure.

So for me, any bow that I can't hold at full draw as long as I need or want to without collapsing is too heavy. A video camera is a great way to verify this for me!

[fatzboys]

I think what helped me find out, was going to a light weight bow.Something in the mid 30lbs range.You can hold your draw ,and shoot all day. If you like working on form this is the easiest way. I found good form and now I can shoot any weight bow I want. It didn't mean I like it though.I find that high 40s low 50s is right for me. But having a low  poundage bow and shooting it a lot was the key to me finding this out.

[BrushWolf]

Thanks for the responses everyone.

[Bldtrailer]

Old rule of thumb was  draw your bow level to the ground(not up in the air)while sitting & with your feet off the ground .  if you can then your ok, if you struggle then it's to much. Others say you have to hold at full draw for a count...........>>>---> if you can't you're over bowed.

[Easykeeper]

I think the lighter the bow the better I shoot, although there is obviously a lower limit for a hunting bow.  I find 45#-50# is easy to shoot and heavy enough for the deer size game I go after.

[Stumpkiller]

You've received some sage words.

I've known guys who can shoot effectively with 80 and 90# bows . . . but you seldom see them out stumping and bunny-hunting with them.  Some will state this and then you notice their stated "full 28" draw length" appears to leave five unused inches beyond the bow with their 29" BOP shafts.  If a bow squishes you it's probably too much.  If you have to raise it over your head and lower it while tugging and grunting - it's probably too much.

If you can hold it at full draw for 30 seconds you should be able to hunt with it - but I don't know if there is a tried and true test.  Some hunters never hold more than a heartbeat and so that test would be unnecessary.

Comfort is a very subjective quality.  Some guys are comfortable riding those little hard leather racing bicycle seats while others need soft, foamy padded seats.  If you're the kind of shooter that releases the instant you anchor you can likely be more comfortable at a heavier level than the guys who hold for five or six seconds.  And a 66" recurve is more comfortable to your draw fingers than a 52" bow.  It all adds up.  

Intended use and your shooting style make a BIG difference.  It was common for archers back when NFAA was more popular to have a field bow and a 10 or 15# heavier hunting bow.  

Does "comfortable" have to be a dozen arrows in a session and one a day while hunting?  Or two 20 station 3-D courses and another 40 or 60 at a novelty shoot in one day?

I find I can shoot a 50-55# bow all day - but even then after 50 or so arrows I start to collapse in on myself and my form suffers.  If I take my 62# bow I really start to fall apart after 20 or so.  So the trick is to shoot the 62#er for 10 shots a day at a near bale just for form for two weeks prior to the event so the 52# bow feels like silk.  ;-)

[John Scifres]

I wouldn't overthink it.  It is pretty subjective so shoot the weight you are comfortable with.

Also, make sure machismo doesn't enter into it.  Video yourself shooting and see how much arrow is hanging off the front of your bow (assuming your arrows are cut to your draw length).  It's funny how many times you'll see 3-4" hanging off of 70# bows  

When I was young, I turned a spring chest pull into a bowdrawing unit by replacing the springs with short rubber straps. It pulled about 125 pounds at my draw. One day i was hunting with my 96 pounder shooting dowel stuffed Microflite 12s. I shot a smallish buck, 18 yards out and about 9 feet up.  The arrow did not even look like it slowed down when it went through the deer. It skipped and jumped across the frozen ground, way out into a posted field in full view of the land owner. The deer was on my side of the property line, just by a foot or two. When I was walking out to get my arrow, I thought to myself, that I was working alot harder than I needed to. Even though I could handle those heavy bows, I wish I would have had enough sense to cap that desire for poundage off about 30 pounds less than what I ended up at. Strength is one thing, but the amount of practice it takes to handle heavy bows can take its toll. Start with what you can handle and work up at your own pace and remember that repetitive high strain motions can have consequences down the road. Even at lighter weights one should do stretching and corrective excersizes to keep the shoulders in tune and to offset muscular imbalances.

[BrushWolf]

Originally posted by Bldtrailer:
Old rule of thumb was  draw your bow level to the ground(not up in the air)while sitting & with your feet off the ground .  if you can then your ok, if you struggle then it's to much. Others say you have to hold at full draw for a count...........>>>---> if you can't you're over bowed.

Will have to try the drawing and sitting.

[BrushWolf]

What got me to thinking is the bow I am hunting deer with is about 54# at my draw. I practice with it all summer standing, sitting, and from a tree stand. Then a few time during season before leave my stand I try to shoot a leaf and struggled to get to anchor. Maybe it was just from the cold don't know. I did end up getting a deer with the same bow and never noticed the draw weight. I posted to kind of get a feel for how everyone else determines there limit. If I am to change anything  I figure it's a good time of year to start.

[jrbows]

Personally anything that takes my attention away from the target would be too much. I've shot other people's bows up to about 80# and the heavier draw weight was always a mental issue when I shot them. Just knowing I was drawing that weight effected my form and shot. If I had to wonder if I could draw the bow in a hunting or shooting situation it would detract from the experience.