stacking

[bigfella]

I have a 62" 60# one piece recurve and am having a lot of trouble getting the last 2" of my draw . I'm shooting 70 and 80# compounds at 30" draw length but with the curve i can only get the meaty part of my thumb to my cheek but cannot get the extra 2 " to get my fingers to the corner of my mouth . Accuracy is crap as i cant get a consistant anchor point . Shooting 3 fingers under . Have no club within 3 hrs drive and no other experienced archers in the area. Do i need to look at me or is it the bow .It's not a strength problem , drawing the bow is not a problem just the last couple of inches .
any help is greatly appreciated , thanks Tim

[Ronster]

Hi Tim, at 62" a 30"draw should be expected. What is the make of the bow? Also have you measured your draw length accurately?
Without trying to tell you how to suck eggs, there are several ways to do this! My preferred way is to pull to full draw and have someone mark the arrow at the back of the bow. Then measure the distance from the inside of the nock to the mark. Others may have a better method.

Ronster

[little arrows]

When you're drawing a compound of substantial weight you have the assistance of pulley and cams, yes der I hear you say, so drawing to 30" (if that is your draw) is relatively easy.
However, if the recurve is 60# @ 28" (as most are measured) you will be drawing back more poundage to your 30" draw and perhaps may need to change the way you draw.

cheers
sue

[matt61]

Hi Tim
Having only shot trad bows for over fifteen years, I struggle to pull a wheelie bow as the poundage loads up at different place in my draw. Trad bows the draw weight just gets more the further back you draw (3 pounds per inch) but a wheelie bow it happens in the first few inches and then drops off to stuff all weight and your muscles develop accordingly. Your back muscles will be used to pulling twenty pounds at the most, not sixty pounds at full draw that will be why you can't get back the last couple of inches. Lots of push ups
Matt

[greybeard]

Hi Tim,

Although your bow may be 60#@28” you may find that after 28” you will experience a greater rate of increase in draw weight to 30”.

At a 30” draw your bow could be closer to 70#.

The bow may be marked at 60# but it may actually be a couple of pounds more.

Without doing an F/D curve you will not know for certain if when reaching final draw length the bow is going into stack or adding poundage at a greater rate per inch of draw.

The attached chart and graph are for a 62" recurve bow and should help to explain the situation.

Takedown Recurve Chart.jpg (124.51 KiB) Viewed 3941 times

43# Takedown Recurve Graph.jpg (100.15 KiB) Viewed 3941 times

Daryl.

[bigfella]

Thanks everyone , all info has been taken on board , am getting it sorted slowly but surely

[Kendaric]

If you are drawing 30" with a compound bow, there is a good chance that your drawlength with a Trad bow will be an inch or even two shorter.

My experience is that 70-80% of compound field shooters are overdrawing their bow anyway, particularly those that have not been formally trained.

[bigbob]

being very tall I can endorse Kendarics comments. I draw about 31'' with a wheelie bow but 29'' with a trad bow.Also the mechanical advantage with a compound means you are only holding a fraction of the stated draw weight. Trad bows give you it all!

[hunterguy1991]

Hi Tim,

I agree with everything the other guys have said regarding you pulling more than the 60lbs because of your draw exceeding the 28" mark and compounds being easier to pull ( I shoot an 80lb MR5 by Mathews with no problems at 28.5"). I shoot a trad bow at 27-27.5 draw length and warbows at 30-31 inches.

If your having difficulty getting to full draw then strength may actually be an issue... so I would suggest training your back to be able to pull more weight. Any rowing style exercise will aid in building the muscles used in archery. Also, just shoot the bow more at a close range and disregard how well your shooting for the time being to build strength. Consciously push yourself to make it back to anchor (without causing injury of course) and it will become easier over a few weeks.

I personally have a strict weights routine (have done for many years now, but for other reasons besides archery) which has aided in me upping my draw weights comfortably... Just last week I tried out a friends 120lb warbow and got it to 27.5-28 with no problem, however, to get to 30-31 where I need to be I will need to shoot a lighter weight and build up strength to get a bow that heavy back that far.

Hope this helps,

Straight shooting,

Colin

[Dennis La Varenne]

Tim,

I agree with Colin above. Unless you can prove the case of a stacking bow with a force-draw curve, I think that you simply have a lack of strength problem.

Being able to draw 70 - 80lbs compounds is no preparation for drawing a trad bow. The drawing methods are completely different. The compound reaches its peak somewhere around halfway along to its full draw. The trad bow reaches that right at the end of its draw where your muscles have not been worked previously.

You can build up to it in about 2 weeks by marking a wood arrow shaft in one inch increments from about the 25 inch mark out to 31 inches and drilling a hole horizontally through the shaft at those marks. Then, slide a nail through the hole at say 26 inches and repeated draw your bow back to that mark as if you were doing weights. Do it in reps. About every second day, increase by one inch until you get out to your preferred draw. It won't hurt to do that last part for a further couple of days.

Whatever you do, DON'T SHOOT YOUR BOW UNTIL YOU HAVE MASTERED THE DRAW WEIGHT COMPLETELY or you will build bad shooting faults into your form which will be extremely difficult to get rid of.