How much is too much draw weight?

[BOWHUNTER45]

if you have to struggle in pulling your bow back then its to much weight ....#70 lbs works go for me with a 65% let off ...when I am practicing I hold my bow back a little longer so I am used to it incase I need to stay at full draw longer than normal ...it works !

[rebal69972]

when i was much younger my bow was set at 75 then i grew up and figured out that 60 will kill an animal just as dead and my arms are not dead after wards. i figured this out after i had a wt buck hang up behind a tree and me being young and dumb tried to hold that 75 with 20% let off for what seemed like forever when he did step out I couldn't keep a pin on him to save my life.

[ribka]

When I was younger I used to shoot higher weight bows in recurves, long bows up to 80 lbs. had a 90 compound for a few years

learned my lesson sitting in a December tree stand for  6 hours at 10 degrees . A huge wt buck walked by my stand and could not for the life of me pull back my 70 lb bow because I lost too much energy in the cold.

Over the years shifted down to 50 lbs and have shot through quite a few animals at maybe 180 FPS with heavy arrow and COC broad head. Now keep my compound around 55 lbs because I want to avoid shoulder problems after 30 plus years of shooting bows.

I have books about the exploits of Saxton, Pope , young , Howard Hill Ben Pearson and amazing the poundages these guys shot.

[krapmit]

Ribka, completely agree. 2nd day of the late archery season in the Nile two years ago was 6 degrees.  Try sitting in your tree stand for 4-5 hrs and pull back your bow.  That was the day I realized I need to drop from 70 to 60. 

Try sitting on your butt and pulling your bow straight back and steady. keep your draw weight at the poundage you can do that at comfortably

[jaymark6655]

I like to shoot what I can draw easily.  By that I mean extend my bow hand out to the shooting position and then slowly and smootly draw the bow.  No shaking, no starting at my chest and pushing the bow out, and no having to point up in the air to draw it.  I also believe that I should be able to do this multiple times, not just once.  What happens if you draw, have to let down and then can't redraw the bow without making a whole bunch of movement and noise?

Had a very good teacher tell me once, "You and a professional are capable of getting the exact same results; the only difference the professional can do it repeatly and makes it look easy.  If you can't make it look easy, then you haven't been practicing enough."

Just FYI, I used to shoot a 45 pound bow.  Now I am up to a 60, although I think the shop turned it up to 65 when they replaced the limbs.  They swear they didn't.  It is easy to shot now even after a few hours of practice, so I might step up to 70.  Maybe someday I will get up to 100, but I bet I will be 70 years old by then and have to shoot everday just to be able to keep the draw easy.