Changing draw weight and arrow weight?

[Archer1977]

So does shooting a bow with different draw weight or changing your arrow weight throw you off greatly? Or is it once you get everything down you just need a few shots to recalibrate your brain?

[McDave]

I think that if a person shoots only one bow for a long time, it may be difficult for them to adjust to a different bow/arrow combination. I use a light draw weight recurve with carbon arrows for shooting in some 3D tournaments, a light draw weight longbow with wooden arrows in others, and switch to a heavier draw weight longbow or recurve with heavier arrows when I want to hunt.  Because I switch frequently anyway, I feel comfortable with a new bow/arrow combination in a couple of weeks.

The real question, I guess, is whether I would be a better shot if I didn't do all this switching around?  Probably.  However, I really enjoy using different bows so I don't care.

Another thing you should know is that while I switch, every bow I use has a similar grip and a similar center-shot.  I don't think I could successfully switch between a recurve with a contoured grip that is cut past center and a longbow with a broom handle grip that is not cut to center.

[Archer1977]

Yeah I thought it could be difficult. Guess that's a benefit of compounds. People change their stuff all the time with those, but in a week, they are shooting fine again.

Guess I will just keep my longbow for a while, maybe get a more powerful one when I get good.

[Diamond Paul]

The heavier weight of the bow makes it harder for me to make good shots, that's for sure.  Assuming I could draw both weights just fine, I'd generally try to match arrows for the bows so that the velocity of the arrows was about the same.  If I radically change the arrow weight of a bow, it does mess with my sight picture, because I am basically shooting one bow and one arrow weight all the time now.  It would take me a couple of days to change over, or maybe as much as a week, depending on how much I shot.  What McDave said applies to me:  I can't mix bow styles at all and shoot well.  I pretty much shoot one style of bow all the time.