Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Whats your draw weight?

I hear this conversation all the time about draw weight. I suppose because of my business in Africa I get this often as well. " How much Draw weight do you need to hunt Africa"

It's no different then here, decent weight arrows and flawless heads make the kill with equal priority to the weight drawn. I've shot with a 63b draw at 28" for most of my life. There were periods of time when I shot heavy bows over 70lbs. I'm not sure I have seen this additional weight as an advantage overall. However for some applications I still have a bow that will draw 74lbs and have used it for specific situations.

Unfortunately there are folks with a short Draw length and for them it's usually more important to draw heavier weights. I'm speaking for men in general. Draw length adds a significant amount of power to the arrow!

I can shoot the 63lb bow as many shots as I want without fatigue and I can draw it at any angle under any conditions with any clothing. The 74lb bow...... not the same! I can draw it comfortably about 12-15 shots, After that I start to fatigue on draw but the accuracy stays good for a quite a while. The holding weight is effortless, it's the heavy draw weight that makes the practice tougher then I like. I cannot draw this bow comfortably in every position or with any clothing. When I set it to 64-65lbs, I'm golden and can shoot it for longer sessions and in any condition. It's also much easier to shoot after two weeks of daily shooting then after a couple months of not shooting as much.

Many female clients in Africa have come with 26" draw and shoot 45-50 lbs. They harvest a lot of game. We must use a high level of discipline with this setup though. Shooting quartering away at 40 yards on a 400b animal is not a plan for success with this level of power.

When the Ladies are hunting with this lighter equipment, broadside at 20 -30 yards on almost anything we would hunt is just fine. The proper broadhead at this power level is critical in this scenario though. I very strongly prefer a cut on contact head. Choosing these heads is so personal with many people have very strong opinions. I know I have mine too!

In any case, if you know with an actual scale measurement, I'm curious what the average bow hunters draw weight is, and if you want add draw length too.

I'll start with my two bows: 63lbs at 28.5" Mathews Switchback
74lbs at 28.5" Elite Energy 32