I just spent 3 days with Fred Asbell and the BW boys at the shooting clinic down in Nixa. Wow! What an awesome expeience. One of the things I realized is that I might enjoy a lighter bow. All of my Shrew's are @57#.....I'm thinking about ordering a Li'l Favorite right at about 45#. After shooting about a trillion arrows in 3 days, the long talked about "don't be overbowed" concept was really driven home to me. My normal practice routine is 10 or so arrows a day.....thats fine with a heavier bow. But to REALLY work on form, I need lighter poundage.
Ya Got That Right! :) The smart thing to do is shoot a bow weight you can handle all day at the range or stumpin'. All the makings of a better shot and a lot more fun too.
... mike ...
The more-fun-all-day thing was really driven home....
Nixa. Shrew?
Yep. It's a shooting clinic. The guys at BW are gentlemanly enough to know that you don't need a BW to shoot well.
By the way, I shot many low poundage BW's while I was there, and they are great bows. After touring thier manufacturing facility, I am very impressed with the quality.
I came to that final realization over the past week. I am sorely disappointed that I have to go 50 and below. But it is what it is!
I bought a nice longbow at 51 lbs and after about 9 arrows I was feeling the repaired shoulder giving me grief.
I will do whatever it takes to be able to keep shooting. I'm never going to be happy just shooting a dozen arrows a day. There was a time when I would shoot 100 arrows before leaving the house. Then when I got home I would just start shooting and keep shooting until it was too dark to see.
Some real favorites are going to have to go in order to make room for lower poundage bows.
I would like to thank "Dick in Seattle" for leading by example when it comes to doing what's needed to keep shooting.
God bless,Mudd
Right now I have bows 43 to 51#s ,,,, My body tells me what bow to shoot whe I wake up !!
:)
The good news is that you can take deer sized game very effectively with 45 pound bows. I was forced into lighter equipment many years ago.. When I was a tad younger I shot an 83 pound recurve for years then moved to the mid 70's..
And now ---- I'm killing just as much game with my mid 40 pound bows ! Good luck.
46# and 48# for me.
Roger,
I have 2 supershrew deluxes, one is 43#@25" and the other is 41#@25". I shoot 5/16 POC arrows and the speed of the bow is fine with this combination. These bows have proved totally adequate for my Whitetail and small game hunting.
As others have said, these lighter bows are a joy to shoot.
Bill
I like bows to hunt with at 50-52#. But when I get there to shoot them for any length of time my target panic rears it's ugly head. Seems My mind and body likes 43-46# alot better....so be it!!!!
I also like around 50-52lbs but that 46 to 48 lb area sure shots easy for me.
I am a strapping guy and shoot 55 lbs comfortably. I can see a few years in the future dropping that at least 5 lbs. No reason to stress the shoulders and damage them just to shoot more poundage.
I have bows from 35#s up to 64#s at my draw. Most of the time I shoot right around 50# at my 30". Plenty of bow for everything and I can shoot it for hours.
Thanks guys.....I'm thinking about 48#. I would still hunt with my heavier 57# Shrews, but having a lighter bow around might be handy. Besides, I'm betting a 48# Shrew will zip an arrow right through a whitetail, especially when hunting off the ground.
Roger, I can bring my 53# out to the club Sunday if you'd like to shoot it to see if you need lighter. 35 Brand new Rinehart targets up at Land-O-Lakes Sunday.
Before you get rid of that Shrew try a Dacron string. It will feel like a 2 or 3 lb differnce and that's a lot.
If your a lefty there is a beauty on the classifieds.
what happened to 45#
I may come up there Steve....depending on the boat weather!
I've been shooting a 45# Super Kodiak this afternoon....I like it.
That's the first thing I did this year, I orded two bows from Chad Holm & they tuned out great.
one for hunting & one 7# lighter for workout But it is a great looking bow, Chad Holm had a deer burned in to the riser and it looks great and nice wood that go to gather. It is realy two deer. That are two hunting stories from the same day !
Carl
One of the dumbest things I ever did was not listen to John Schulz in the first place. He thought I was going for too long and way too heavy of a bow. He recommended 55 pounds and a 2 inch shorter draw. I wanted to go heavy, I worked very very hard to handle very heavy bows and I did fairly well with them. However, for someone like me, that likes to shoot lots and lots of arrows it is a catch 22. You need to practice a lot to be able to shoot 90 pounders and at the same time, the more you practice the greater the the wear and tear and chance for injury. Over time the bad outweighs the good. Now 64 pounds is my heavy and 51 is my standard. My wife has never lost a deer hit with her 38 pound recurve and the only deer that she did not get complete or pass through penetration, the arrow was completely inside the deer. It jumped the string and hit it in the rear and stopped at the far front shoulder. Shoot healthy, it is just as much fun to shoot deer with a lighter bow and often better. It is the arrow that kills, not the number on the side of the bow.
Yep, I recently got a new to me 46 lb Centaur Chimera and love it. I can shoot it all day long. With todays bow designs and new skinny FF strings going down in weight doesn't equate into as big a loss in performance as it used to.