Lightening a bow's draw weight????

[archer66]

I have a friend who has been shooting a bow that's somewhere around 53 pounds at his draw length.  He loves the bow but has found that the draw weight is too heavy for him due to age and wear and tear on his body and has decided to send the limbs to the manufacturer to have the limbs reduced to the 47 pound range.  What is the procedure for this....and what do you think of the idea?  Can this be done for all bows?  I will add that he spoke to the company who built the bow and this is the solution they suggested.

[TOEJAMMER]

It can be done as they suggest by sanding the limbs and taking glass off.  All this assumes there is enough glass thickness to allow doing it and leaving he limbs sound and safe.  Sometimes it can't be done if the glass thickness isn't thick enough.  Many times the glass has been reduced as much as can be when the bow was made in order to reach the weight ordered.  The bowyer will know.  Also, the complete bow is needed to do so correctly and to proper tiller it again.

[Orion]

TOEJ has it right.  Taking six pounds off of 53# is a bit more than 10%, which is about the maximum reduction on most bows.

[flinthead]

Had Widow take my PSAV from 54 to 49# and it really helped when shooting a lot. Ben Graham took a longbow from 54 to 49 # and it is also great , just shot it this afternoon in the snow. Do not know if all Bowyers keep records , but these worked out well for my bows. Thanks, Roy

6# should be pretty easy off a longbow, but maybe not so easy off a recurve because the longbow limbs are so much thicker.

If the bowyer says it is OK, then I would not worry about it one bit. I have a longbow that might have more than 25000 shots (or maybe even more) thru it after being reduced 10# in DW.

Bisch

[stevem]

I've done this twice.  Take off some width proportional to the % of weight he wants to drop.  Has worked for up to 10% for me.

[Floxter]

Jeff Massie took a longbow of mine from 52# down to 45# and it shoots just fine and has had 1000s of shots thru it with no ill effects.

[archer66]

Thanks guys.....the bowyer had no problem offering to do it, just wanted to hear your experiences with it.  Thanks again.

[JamesV]

For an experienced bowyer to reduce draw weight is just another day at the factory.

James