quality of bow vs ease to draw back

[vandeman17]

I am wondering what you guys think about the correlation between the quality of bow you shoot and how hard it is to draw it back? I am 6'1", 175 lbs and am pretty strong. I shoot a Diamond "the rock" bow set at 65 lbs. I watch a lot of hunting shows and I see how easily everyone is able to draw them back. I shoot a lot and am a gym rat so I am wondering if you guys think my bow is just a little stiffer to draw back or what your thoughts are? Should I try to upgrade?

[RadSav]

You won't often use the same muscles to draw your bow as you do at the gym.  It's mainly the muscles from the shoulder to the back.  And your back tension is all your back.  Isolate those groups at the gym and you should be better off.  Or just shoot your bow more often  

Your bow is fine.  It draws a little hard, but most high performance bows do.  And a lot of bows draw differently at different draw lengths.  I know the guys at Bowtech try to get guys shooting more than 29" to step up from the Insanity CPX to either the Experience or the CPXL because the draw cycle is smoother.  A lot of guys choose the backward Mathews because of how smooth they are.  Doesn't mean they are a higher quality of bow.  Just different force draw curves.

[vandeman17]

I am planning to bring my bow in when I get back from Arizona to have it dialed in again and maybe shorten my draw length a bit. I think the guy that set me up, set me up a bit long so I want to shorten it up some and shoot it all summer.

[coachcw]

try drawing a old hundred pound fury and you will think your bow is butter !

[earlmarne]

i am a pretty decent size guy.but when i first started shooting a bow it played hell on me.
my understanding is most guys on these hunting shows are shooting 60 lbs, n i know the drury boys are said to shoot 50 lb bows.
i have never shot a diamon the rock so i cant give you any input on that.but i do know my vendetta and moxie were both much nicer draw cicles than my hoyt n the moxie had 75 lb draw.so i think the draw cycle def. plays into the ease in whicxch you can draw

[RadSav]

Only person that will care if you drop your poundage to 50 or 60 pounds will be you.  The elk, deer and bear surely wont care.  For some the 'Man Ego' can not handle it.  But few people judge or ridicule Dwight Schuh for shooting 55#.  And those that do no body cares about.  They join up with ArcheryTalk and find themselves in eternal misery with all the other unhappy know it all people on there.

[Wanttohuntmore]

I would add your own shoulder mechanics plays some bearing too.  Shooting more will help.

[earlmarne]

Only person that will care if you drop your poundage to 50 or 60 pounds will be you.  The elk, deer and bear surely wont care.  For some the 'Man Ego' can not handle it.  But few people judge or ridicule Dwight Schuh for shooting 55#.  And those that do no body cares about.  They join up with ArcheryTalk and find themselves in eternal misery with all the other unhappy know it all people on there.

well said sir.i actually just turned down the limbs on my vendetta to 58 lbs.it still hammers the target and is a joy to shoot.that said though i will most likely turn it back up for big game season,just because of confidence and o decent dose of ego

[RadSav]

Only person that will care if you drop your poundage to 50 or 60 pounds will be you.  The elk, deer and bear surely wont care.  For some the 'Man Ego' can not handle it.  But few people judge or ridicule Dwight Schuh for shooting 55#.  And those that do no body cares about.  They join up with ArcheryTalk and find themselves in eternal misery with all the other unhappy know it all people on there.

well said sir.i actually just turned down the limbs on my vendetta to 58 lbs.it still hammers the target and is a joy to shoot.that said though i will most likely turn it back up for big game season,just because of confidence and o decent dose of ego

Vendetta at 60 to 65 pounds should have plenty of 'Man Ego' power.  Even enough for your ego   It's one of the best performers out there.  And it's priced below it's performance level   Definitely high up on my best bang for the buck list!

[earlmarne]

it changes my draw to a degree it feels different to me.i set it back a half an inch n still does not feel quite right.i think i will order 60 lb limbs soon.seems most bows these days are spittin arrows fast enough to get by with 60 lbs.

[RadSav]

My favorite bow (the one in my avatar) is the Bear Assault.  The way I have it set up at 72# it shoots just a hair under 300 fps (not legal in Washington setup).  The new BT Experience I just setup for the bear hunt is at 63#.  Shoots the same arrow as the Assault (legal in Washington by a comfortable margin) at 293 fps.  That's about a 5" difference at 70 yards and much less than that at 50 yards.  I'm now looking to swap a friend for his 60# Assault.  I may be free of all 70# bows before the end of the year.

[earlmarne]

just a few months ago i wouldnt be caught dead shooting low poundage.just didnt sit right with me.but after shootin smooth bows at lower poundages i am really re thinking my stance on it all.now a days i dream of getting a cpxl set up at 55 lbs or so.or maybe a franken pse bow in the 50 lb range

[Fullabull]

Last year I went to a 70# Evo and love the way it shoots over my other 8 year old bow set at 60#. I mostly did it because I was having a hard time with judging the elks distance from me. they are so big I must have a problem with figuring out the distance so i have actually missed a couple of shots thinking they were closer than they really were

With the 70# I no longer have a 20 yard pin and the bow shoots flatter out to longer distances. This has really helped me with my bad judging of distance. Last year I shot my bull at 35 yards and all I had to do was put my 30 pin right in the middle of his chest.

I do have to use an exercise band that I pull back every day to keep up the muscles I use for this bow. It works well because I can pull it back just like my bow. My bow really pulls smooth but is still 70#s. Whenever I start to struggle with it I will pass it on to my son, and I'll go back to 60#.

[RadSav]

60# bows these days are doing more than my 80# bows were 20 years ago.  And we flat out pounded some animals with those.  Back then we used to marvel at how far our arrows went beyond the animals we shot.  These days we marvel at how dead center we punched the kill zone.  I like puching that kill zone much better!

[vandeman17]

I am considering dropping my bow down to 60 lbs and seeing what that does and how it effects the performance. I don't really care what poundage I shoot as long as it is accurate and lethal. My ego will get bigger by successfully punching tags and not just by drawing back a bunch of poundage. 

[RadSav]

Absolutely noth wrong with higher poundage.  As long as it's comfortable to shoot and you can hit what your aiming at.  Each year before the season I take the wife down in poundage and let her work back up into her hunting weight.  Pretty soon I'll have to start doing that myself.  The aches and pains of life are starting to get the better of me.

[turkeyfeather]

I shoot a Bear Charge set at 53#. My buddy laughed at me cause he shoots a 70# bow. That was until he saw my bow put a clean pass thru on a deer this last fall and she didn't go 20 yards. I don't know if it is enough for elk, but is plenty for deer.

[vandeman17]

Absolutely noth wrong with higher poundage.  As long as it's comfortable to shoot and you can hit what your aiming at.  Each year before the season I take the wife down in poundage and let her work back up into her hunting weight.  Pretty soon I'll have to start doing that myself.  The aches and pains of life are starting to get the better of me.

I want it to be comfortable to shoot and also smooth to draw. Since I don't hunt from a treestand, being seen while drawing is more of a concern so the easier and smoother I can draw the better. It would also be nice to be able to go out and shoot a bunch and not be tired.

[Fullabull]

I haven't really thought about that. With my new bow, I can probably dial in down to 65# and see how fast it still is. Might save my muscles some time

[coachcw]

the insanity is plenty *censored* at 60lbs . the cpxl needs a few more lbs I'm thinking of backing mine down from 70 to 66 and see how she shoots . the newer bows don't seem to fall off and loose limb efficanciy like the older ones that really liked to be maxed out .

[sakoshooter]

Absolutely noth wrong with higher poundage.  As long as it's comfortable to shoot and you can hit what your aiming at.  Each year before the season I take the wife down in poundage and let her work back up into her hunting weight.  Pretty soon I'll have to start doing that myself.  The aches and pains of life are starting to get the better of me.

Aches and Pains - LOL - I feel ya Rad - LOL.
My next bow will max at 65#. Then the 70+# temtation will be gone.

[Mongo Hunter]

All bows shoot different. My Limbsaver set at 70# feels more like a 60#-65# just cause of how smooth it is. I had the bow shop guy even check it cause it didn't feel like 70#. But they are right you have to work those muscle out they are way different than what you normally use, even in a gym.

[coachcw]

mongo maybe you just keep getting stronger 

[Mongo Hunter]

mongo maybe you just keep getting stronger 

  While that may be true I have shot other bows that were set for the same as mine, one was a martin the other was a older Mathews if I remember right and they both "seemed" harder to draw back but the underlining factor was they just were not as smooth. not saying they were bad bows it just felt different. Had a very experienced bow guy shoot my bow once and said the same thing; "this thing set for 60?". no bad bows just are all different.

[coachcw]

thats why the dzs are slow ! try pulling a old 100lbs martin fury , you will find out if your a man . my new bowtech draws smooth aswell.

[Mongo Hunter]

thats why the dzs are slow ! try pulling a old 100lbs martin fury , you will find out if your a man . my new bowtech draws smooth aswell.

That may be but I like the smooth draw, its really nice in a tree stand. plus I don't do a lot of archery, so with the smoother bow I can practice longer without getting as tired. Killed a nice doe a couple years go at about 20 yards and my bow only shoots about 270fps. she didnt jump the string and the arrow went clean through, the bow maybe slower than some of the others out there but it worked all the same on that one.

[RadSav]

thats why the dzs are slow !

330 IBO is now slow?   Man I must be getting too dang old