Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Whats your draw weight?

I am over 50 With a 30" DL & over the years my DW has varied between 60 lbs & 70 lbs for a compound bow. if I have been away from shooting for a while 60 lbs has seemed like a good starting place for me. How aggressive the cams are are a factor as well. Currently working with a CDT at 70lbs. Started this season after a laugh brake away with a mild 60 Lbs on an older Pro pro-tec & worked in to a 65 lb Carbon element & progressing further with the CDT up to 70 lbs.

I can be a speed freak though I don't need to be. When I am up to it I do like the speed.

PSE Dream Season DNA 28.5" draw 63lbs 388gr arrow, 303FPS. ive shot BIG (our bucks run 300 on the hoof) whitetails at all angles with rage hypodermics and have passed through, all of them, damn near cut the lower leg off of a hard quartering away shot at 38yards on my 2015 buck.

I'm shooting a 42# Wing this season.

Decided to hunt with the 55# Blackwidow HS this season.
Back is trashed so even the 48# hurts.
Screw it, I like the 58" rig better.
Figure 3 more weeks of practice.

Traditional bow harvest thread using 40-45# draw weights on tradgang.com

http://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/index.php?topic=101178.0

They ought to call that forum "Tradtard".
They went full stoopid years ago.

How so? I don’t spend much time on that site. Fill us in, please.

I shoot traditional bows more than compounds with most of my longbows and recurves in the 50-55 lb range. I do have an Elite Synergy which is set at 64 lbs.

Nice, I took my longbow by the shop the other day and had the arrows cut for my bow, weighed it again on the bow press at 31"s of draw length, 61lbs on the nose, the Vintage 350 arrows from Black Eagle Archery flew 191 fps through the chrono, hope like hell I can get close to a deer this year.

191 fps is great performance from a longbow - what do those arrows weigh? That 31" draw length of yours is definitely giving you some extra fps. The 'home made' longbow I've shot the most in recent years is 56# at my 28" draw and shoots 500 grain arrows at 192 fps.

10-4 JGray, I'll go out to the shop and weigh one of those longbow arrows, my cedar shaft arrows came in too, they're mounted up with the 175 gr ACE Express broadheads, holy DAMN! what an axe! I'll weigh and chrono one of those as well.

Well Crap JGray, it finally stopped raining, that's the good news, bad news is it seems my little rcbs powder measure scale got hit by lightning, I tried to weigh the store bought longbow arrows on my old rcbs 505 scale, I can tell you they're much heavier than 511 grains with the 160 gr STOS head.

My new cedar shafts are much heavier, I remember the sample arrows the builder sent to see which weight and spine flew the best from my bow, it is 697 grains and 90 spine, I guess that's what the bare shaft weighs, I chronoed one just a second ago with the 175 gr ACE Express heads, it flew 158 fps, if 697gr plus 175gr is the weight, I guess that'd be a pretty good penetrator at 158 fps?

I'll await your expertise on the matter.

The elusive holy grail of stick bow performance that folks focused on speed seem to chase is 200 fps. That by itself doesn't mean anything until you factor in the arrow weight in relationship to the bow's draw weight. Back in the day, Fred Bear recommended 9-10 grains of arrow weight per lb of draw weight for the best balance of trajectory and penetration. For example: 60 lb bow / 600 gr arrow, 50 lb bow / 500 gr arrow, etc. For comparing performance between different set-ups, that kind of constant relationship has to be maintained to get meaningful numbers. Most any bow can break 200 fps with a light enough arrow, but 200 fps with 10 gr of arrow weight per lb of draw weight is really something. 190-200 fps is not uncommon in the fastest traditional bows and 170-190 fps is more common.

You're well over 10 gr of arrow weight per lb of draw weight and I think +/- 160 fps is very respectable. Heavy arrows trump speed every time when it comes to penetration and there's not a deer on the planet that your set-up won't put down quickly and cleanly.

NICE, Thanks, I have found the bow with wood arrows to be much quieter and more forgiving, although a little slower, that may sound like smoke, but it sure seems that way to me, I can hit better with them.

The other factor here is longbows tend to be more efficient with heavier arrows. Often times when chasing speed with lighter arrows, noise and shootability issues tend to be more common in longbows. Hand shock, vibrations and excessive noise are often reduced by going to heavier arrows. Another thing I've noticed with wood vs. carbon vs. aluminum arrows is that recurves have enough mass in the riser that I can't tell much difference in arrow material. With the low mass in the longbow risers, it makes a very noticeable difference. I can't stand aluminum arrows in longbows - harsh shooting (noise and vibration). Carbon is much better in that regard, however good wood arrows properly matched to the bow are the nicest shooting bar none. Noticeably less noise and vibration - I've been making my own wood arrows for 40 years and have been shooting more carbons in recent years. I'm more consistent with carbon, but wood is more enjoyable to shoot.

10-4, Ive found a spot to stand in some very thick young pines at the end of a chip line trail, scrapes all down the chip line, I need any amount of North wind to stand in there, the buck will be 12 yards if he comes out and turns, I would dearly love to arrow a big buck with my longbow, with the wind whistling through the young pines, he'll never hear my longbow go off.

Git-R-Done!

The good lord willing.

Maybe if/when I ever get close to you guys level f accuracy with my longbow i'll be able to shoot better with carbon, but, for me, now, wood is king, sure feels and sounds better, all arrows so far have been dead in the hand with this bow, never shot aluminum.

I just hope that 175 ACE will punch a big hole in that buck if he appears, I don't think i'll have any tracking difficulties.

So Mr. JGray, been out practicing my longbow from a covered back porch in the rain this morning, were you to take a shot at a big buck with your longbow at 8, 10, 12 to 15 yards would you hold on the brisket anticipating a duck?

I've been holding on the bottom of the broadhead target at the grass line and impacting 2 to 3 inches from the bottom, Thank You in advance.