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JJHACK Offline OP
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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


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I have a mamba that's 60 at 28", I typically draw 28.5-29"

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Mathews Chill at 66 pounds for the same reason of being able to draw without perfect posture...


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62 lbs with a 27.5" draw length.

Hoyt Charger.

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73# at 29.5" draw length - Mathews Legacy
72# at 30" draw length - Mathews Drenalin

The were both good setups. Very fast and lethal



I am looking into an Obsession K34 with #65 limbs and 30" draw. I don't think it will give much up at all.



Semper Fi



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JJ - you see many hunters still using a recurve?

Success?

I started shooting a recurve years ago and never made the switch to a compound. Shoot a 62" 53# Hoyt Take Down. 29" draw.

Regards, Guy

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58-62 lbs. @28- 29" for deer and most shooting. I turn it down and adjust the sights as the weather gets colder.

72 lbs @ 29.5" for 3D and elk & pronghorn out west. That bow will really reach out and touch them.


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70 lb@ 28.5" Mathews Heli-m


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58-60#/29" Draw w/ arrows in the 370-400gr range. Last few years with a Hoyt Charger, prior to that a Hoyt Ultratec. Have shot Elk, Deer, and Antelope with no issues. I do shoot fixed blade broadheads and only take good quality (broadside or quartering away) shots. This year I will be shooting a Hoyt Defiant 60#/29" with most likely Easton Bloodline arrows and 90gr Muzzy Broadheads. A bit on the light side at ~370gr but super accurate.


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Matthews no cam - 60 lbs
Mission Craze - 60 lbs

Both at 28 inches.

I used to shoot heavier recurves and am seriously considering a set of 70 lb limbs for the no cam. Can't seem to justify it when the FMJs carry the weight and shoot so well and I am just killing deer.

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I have shot bows, young and dumb, over 90 pounds.

Probably why I have issues with my shoulders today...

Used to run around 70 quite often for many years, 25-40 or so. Then dropped it a bit to about 60-65.

I can't recall what limbs I had made for my recurve, IIRC close to 60 if not that.

If I use compound now, i have no clue what it is but figure 60-62 or so.

With all that, wife shot 45-55 ish for many years when she still hunted. And we had to look for her arrows often... but due to the broadhead choice and arrow weight. Head even exited a boar hog over 350 pounds after it cut the heart....

To me, a bit of speed, good head design, sharp, and enough weight to penetrate, tuned up the right way, 40 pounds or more will kill a LOT of stuff that walks...

But then in the end I just do not believe in shooting past 15 steps maybe a couple more max. And its everything beyond that thats become an issue in my life and my wifes life. Everytime we follow our rule, it was 100% good.

Makes us pass a lot of shots, but I"m good with that too. No biggie.

I won't even shoot past 15 with a crossbow....

And it has NOTHING to do with how accurately we can or can't shoot for sure.....


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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60# @ 28" for my Jerry Hill longbow
55# @ 28" for my Bear takedown recurve
45# @ 28" for my Martin recurve for treestand or low ground blind shooting.

I only use fixed, two bladed broadheads e.g. Zwickey or Magnus. 125gr for the 45# recurve, the others get a 140-145gr.

Ed

Last edited by APDDSN0864; 03/03/16. Reason: added text

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I bet most folks would find a 70# Hoyt Protec w Cam and a half wheels to be easier to draw than a 60# PSE Omen.

Today's hotrods are nasty IMHO.

Cam-lever bows are silky smooth.

My last 3 compounds:

Oneida Aeroforce 70# (was 60-80#)
Hoyt Protec 72#
Mathews Switchback XT 72#

My last 3 recurves:

Hoyt Dorado 53#
Blackwidow HS58 60#
Blackwidow HF1225 48#

Arrow weight for compounds was 430gr(Oneida did not tune well w 55/75 GTs and I dumped it to get a 50-70# model to drop to 65#). I'm not running 3 freakin different spines for my gear.

Recurve was 480 to 560gr.
All shot cut on contact fixed blades.

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PSE SURGE at 65#'s with a 29.5" draw length.

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Bowtech Carbon Icon at 62# and 27.5 DL.


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JJHACK Offline OP
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Guy M,

I do not see recurves in Africa very much. A couple guys that were doing both bow and gun brought recurves recently. They were both takedown recurves for the ease of travel.

Neither was able to shoot game with the bow, only one had a shot and he missed. The issue we have for most recurves is the hide size/design. We have build most of the best archery hide locations with a type of box blind, or a 1/2 underground blind that on the outside looks like a big termite mound.

These don't always have the roof height that fits a longer recurve or long bow, but work perfect with a compound. We do have some that fit easily, and some that are close depending upon the height of the archer.

I have has a number of guys hunt with me that we build a blind of brush as needed, these have no roof and work perfectly. I'll guess I have had 100 archery hunters in my career. Of those I think maybe a dozen with recurves, the rest were compounds. If I count only the full time archery numbers, not those that also used a rifle.... The number is about 1/2 of this, I'm guessing of course but I think this is pretty accurate because they were all my clients after all!

I am able to provide a very high quality experience with a large well developed property that does only archery. There is no gun hunting allowed. It's run by archers and owned by archers. This is the really best place to hunt with bow and arrow in the whole of RSA. All the PH's are bow hunters and 100% of the staff "gets" bow hunting.

Most of the outfitters in RSA will take bow hunters, but lack the specific needs and set up development that a bow hunter would like. One of the reasons my Archery hunting trips have been so well accepted. I do get it! I set up things perfectly as if it were for myself! I never propose one of my hunters take a shot at 70 yards assuming that it's a chip shot. Few PH's understand 30 plus meters is a long shot. Most feel that distance is an impossible task because they have hunted for many years where a 50 meter shot is very close range, 75-100 is average and over 150 is a long shot!

There are a few places now that claim 100% bow hunting only. Doing my due diligence I have learned that of those there are really only a handful in the whole of Southern Africa that actually hold this rule fast. The rest offer archery only, but allow firearms to the clients to " pay the bills" when the hunters are not getting the game to pay the trophy fees.

I was a Hunting guide with hounds in Wa. and Id. for decade. I took 30-35 bear hunters a year. Many were archery hunters. Quite often the archer would be looking for arrows that fell to the ground when his bow mounted quiver went empty trying to shoot a treed bear. Shooting steeply straight up provides some unique challenges. They usually defaulted to my revolver to take the bear or finish the bear. However in almost every case they took the photo's with the bear and their bow in the picture.

In one instance a fella took a monster bear well over 20" skull. He sent me the pope and young paperwork to enter this bear into the books. He shot that bear with a friend of mines, 30.30 rifle when he shot all his arrows and only wounded this bear in the back leg. I sent back the paperwork and told him I could not be the witness to this as the bear was killed with a rifle, not the bow. This was the most angry and aggressive client of my career. He was threatening and violent to me on the phone.

This leads me to believe that in some of these archery only hunting operations that do not hold fast to the bow hunting rule. They probably carry on with the hunters using a firearm but have the bow in the photo so they can go home and tell any story they like. This is a huge benefit to the outfitters business. The friends and family are none the wiser when the stories are told the photo's posted on the net.



www.huntingadventures.net
Are you living your life, or just paying bills until you die?
When you hit the pearly gates I want to be there just to see the massive pile of dead 5hit at your feet. ( John Peyton)
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Bowtech Destroyer LE 28.5 Varied draw weight 57-60

Bowtech Tribute 28.5 Varied draw weight 60-63

Bow draw weights are cranked up or down based on amount of practice I have been doing and if it is the bow I am hunting with.

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Right now I'm shooting a 60lb prime, a 76lb elite and a 89lb elite. I practice all the time with the heavier bow, so odd position drawing and number of shots before fatigue aren't an issue. I love the idea of a 700gr arrow out of 28" draw 89lb bow. I'm hoping to run that set up through a moose next fall in Newfoundland.

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Hoyt Trykon XL, 29", 70lbs.

I started doing circuit training a few years ago and it really helped with drawing a bow. As long as it's comfortable and you can hold it, I can't see extra draw weight as a bad thing.


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Holding full draw 70lbs for 1 min 20 seconds before arrowing the buck





My dog is a member of the "Turd Like Clan"

Covert Trail Cameras are JUNK

3 Time Dinkathon Champion #DinkGOAT



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