What draw weight should i use

Are you able to hold steady and aim, or are your muscles convulsing and causing your aim to go all over the place?

Simply put, you will need stronger muscles in order to shoot at increased draw weights. This means frequently shooting your bow to build up your strength. One great way to increase your strength is to shoot a target just a few yards from you. This way, you get to shoot tons of arrows, retrieve them and start shooting again quickly. This type of drill will give you the most practice in the shortest amount of time. Try to perform this drill several time a week for best results.

You can also use an archery training device or one of these to help strengthen those muscles for archery. Simply pull all the way back as you would with your bow at full draw and hole this posture for as long as you can. Repeat several times a day. You should also be sure to workout all of your archery muscles:. The shoulders, upper back muscles and the rotator cuff muscle group are the most important.

Try to focus your workout specifically on these muscle groups. You want your bow to be as heavy as you can safely manage. Try to think of it like throwing lawn darts. When the lawn dart falls and lands, it flies straight down in a line at the ground. While it can be possible to shoot accurately this way, it simply makes way more sense to shoot the arrow from a bow with more power, propelling it directly at the target.

Not only will the arrow travel faster and more accurately, it will have more stopping power behind it as well. And the only way to do this is with a bow with more draw weight. Shooting at distances that are just to far away for your draw weight will tend to also cause bad shooting form and stance, another reason to avoid doing so. Strength and stamina are big parts of the game when it comes to archery tournaments and other forms of competitive archery.

Increasing your draw weight takes time, practice, and stamina. The more you can increase your overall strength and stamina, the better your archery skills become. Nothing will tank your game quite like being over bowed.

Safety first, in every aspect of archery. So how do you measure your draw length? Stand against a wall with your arms outstretched and have your friend measure from the tip of your index finger on one hand to the tip of your index finger on the other hand. Next comes the heavy math part…. Hope this is useful to some of you out there. In the last post, I covered choosing the right bow to get you started, but a bow is no use without those all important arrows!

This article covers making sure you have the right arrows for your bow. The standard of 60 to 70 lbs is more than enough for North American big game. However, there are some folks who want to pull 80 to 90 lbs of draw weight. There is nothing wrong with this at all for them. What is right for you might be a different story, though.

There is no shame in that. That shines light on a stealth aspect as well. If a hunter is making an exaggerated movement in order to draw their bow, that opens up a bigger possibility of the animal seeing them before the arrow is off.

There is a little more depth to it than just power. In the end, all of us are different. What the ideal draw weight for you might not be for someone else. For someone bowhunting lions in Africa, it is required of them to pull 90 lbs. That is a stark difference from the blue collar hunter heading to their stand for an evening sit in the whitetail woods.

So, really, our draw weights are a reflection of not only our physical ability, but the places and animals we hunt. Hunters who prefer taking longer shots might have a potent interest when it comes to increasing draw weight. Whereas someone spot and stalk hunting antelope might want the ability to draw their bow back incredibly slowly to avoid those keen eyes.

A slightly lower draw weight might be best for them. Through all of that, though, be honest with yourself and do what is most comfortable for you. What is ideal is individualistic. Written by: Josh Kirchner. Tagged as: Skills, draw weight, tuning, bowhunting, archery. Thanks for subscribing!