Compound draw weight

[feebs64]

Is there a maximum limit the draw weight of a compound bow can be set to?

We have been told that in competitions judges can weigh any bow and you can be disqualified if your bow is above a certain weight.

Can someone clarify this for me. We shoot target archery and are GNAS members.

Thanks

[Zanda]

Hi Feebs, the draw weight max according to GNAS is 60#

[Kae]

You have no worries feebs, unless you've been eating your weetabix

Kae.

[moley101]

As far as I know its 60lbs

[feebs64]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Kae - I wasn't asking for myself - it was more the 15 year old gangly one who thinks he's superman and keeps winding his bow up!!!

[Adam]

60lb is correct, but DO allow some tollerance. The best practical maximum is probably 57-58lb. Any more, and any judge with less than perfect bow scales will make you wind-off poundage. In reality 2lb of draw weight makes very little difference, but the psychological impact of having to tinker with your carefully set-up bow minutes before shooting commences can be very big.

Adam

[ThePinkOne]

Originally Posted by Adam

60lb is correct, but DO allow some tollerance. The best practical maximum is probably 57-58lb. Any more, and any judge with less than perfect bow scales will make you wind-off poundage. In reality 2lb of draw weight makes very little difference, but the psychological impact of having to tinker with your carefully set-up bow minutes before shooting commences can be very big.

Adam

Good advice that. The judges' scales are calibrates only about once a year and have an error margin of a pound or two. That aside, I have heard that male compound archers use some "tricks" drawing the bow over so the scales will underread (a judge friend of mine told me about this- not an issue for me BTW as like most ladies I shoot max 50lb). Judges are getting wise to this sort of cheating, so some can be strict about how the bow is drawn over.

The other bit of advice I would give is do a few warm-ups before you go for kit inspection, at one shoot I didn't and had to heave my bow over for the judges- then let it down- and I was on cold muscles. If the judges want you to draw it over again SLOWLY which they might (to get the scales to read properly) then having stretched first means you won't put your shoulder out, especially if you shoot a fast cam and it a cold morning and you were camping last night.

Another little rule for shooting compound in GNAS is the new requirement to have the peep-sight fully tied in- OK it's a quick job with a bit of floss but not fun having to do this in a hurry.

P.

[Frommy]

Good advice about tolerances. I have seen judges over here use those hand held scales which have been shown to be anything up to 4# out. They are not reliable at all.

Until A few years ago our State tournys used a 60# weight which was hooked onto the string and the archer was required to lift the riser up until the bow hit the stops, and if the weight never left the ground the bow was legal.

Never liked that idea because I worried about the string serving, but it was accurate.

Brian

[ben tarrow]

Originally Posted by ThePinkOne

The judges' scales are calibrates only about once a year
P.

This is another of the great archery myths. Most judges scales have no adjustment on them so cannot be calibrated. The only calibration that occurs is they weigh one against another, and if the difference is too great, the judge gets told to buy a new one (never actually heard of this happening in practise)

[Moose]

Originally Posted by ben tarrow

This is another of the great archery myths. Most judges scales have no adjustment on them so cannot be calibrated. The only calibration that occurs is they weigh one against another, and if the difference is too great, the judge gets told to buy a new one (never actually heard of this happening in practise)

My daughter had a bow weighed in at 34lb which was amazing for a bow with 20lb limbs (Hoyt Rintec), so I told the other compounds to avoid that judge.

Before somone tells me it is possible the bow reached 25lb max when fully wound up and the draw length increased and that was measured by myself on two different scales and at Aardvark.