I hear a lot of talk about how "smooth drawing" a bow is. What does that mean to you?
Tom do you have any traditional shoots you can go to in your area. I think you could easily get the answers to your laundry list of questions by getting some "hands on" look see and feel experience. I wish you luck in your quest.
It is a bow that continues to gain weight at an EVEN rate per inch of pull as you approach full draw. Generally, smooth bows load up early in the draw. A bow that stacks is the opposite of a "smooth" and gains weight at an INCREASING rate as you approach full draw.
No noticeable stacking all the way to full draw. Essentially as you start pulling during the draw phase the weight of the bow should steadily increase without any noticeable "harded" part of the draw curve. Try pulling a 66 or 68 inch D shape longbow and you will know what smooth drawing means.
QuoteOriginally posted by tukudu:
Tom do you have any traditional shoots you can go to in your area. I think you could easily get the answers to your laundry list of questions by getting some "hands on" look see and feel experience. I wish you luck in your quest.
tukudu,
Yes, I've been involved in trad. archery for about 10 yrs. now (check out my member # ;) ) and have bought/sold a dozen or so bows. I've had about a 3 yr. layoff though, and there's been quite a lot of developments in bow design, and preferences, during that time.
Seems that the fad right now is ultra-short (to me) hybrid longbows.
I'll probably go back to ATAR this year (last trip was in 2008) so I can fondle some bows and get a feel for what's what these days.
As stated above smooth drawing should mean no stack or dramatic jump in draw weight from one inch to another and an increase of draw weight somewhere between 2-3 lbs per inch for the full range.The closer to 2 the better.
In reality I think it means different things to different people.I've heard folks remark that a bow is smooth drawing just because it was a little lighter than what they were shooting.
Also most high performance bows will have more early poundage in the draw, being under more stress.They feel a little stiff in the beginning of the draw but may be "smooth" only gaining 2 pounds per inch throughout the draw.A low early draw weight bow may feel "smooth" just because of the draw force curve difference.
Also "smooth" sometimes means nothing except a selling pitch word.I've heard it used a bunch by guys that had no idea what the draw force curve of the bow was.
I agree with the posts above about the "textbook" definition of smooth drawing. It does tend to be subjective, though, with individual bows, and, as Clark says, it means different things to different people.
For instance, I have a St. Charles Pacific Yew TD that was built in 1992. It is 60" long, almost straight, maybe 1/2" of backset, and is 60# at my 27" draw. By all normal rules, it ought to at least approach stacking as I come to full draw. I normally shoot bows in the 53 to 60 pound range - no more. And yet this bow feels as smooth drawing as any bow I own, including a 66" HH and several longer r/d bows. I've checked the draw weight with the scale a number of times, because it just doesn't feel like 60# when I draw it. The limbs are deep-cored and it snaps an arrow down range as well or better than my other bows, plus it is extremely accurate, stable and consistent.
I guess that is what makes traditional archery so great - sometimes numbers are just numbers and an individual bow has a character and spirit of its own. It would be fun to plot a force-draw curve for it sometime just to see what the numbers show compared with how it "feels".
Sounds kinda like folks' definitions of a "smooth" liquor, doesn't it?
Those descriptions all make sense. Actually I thought it refered to everyone's most recent purchase. :)
Gary
A scale tells the tale. A steady 2-3# per inch of draw, to anchor. Lighter draw weights could be less, really heavy draw weights could be a tad more. My 66@30.5 gains 2.5# per inch--I call that smooth.
Chad
I hunted with a K-mag 52" 55@28 and a Howatt Hunter 58" 55@ 28"from 1975 to around 2000 and did not know better killed deer and a few hogs with both but they were both gaining wgt. at the end .When I bought my first Bob Lee 58" 57@28" in 2000/2001 I was amazed how smooth and easy it drew just consistant pull to full draw.I have other Lees now sold the first but they have all been very smooth or what I consider smooth.Kip