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Author Topic: what's a good bow scale?  (Read 19404 times)

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Offline Weylin

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what's a good bow scale?
« on: May 22, 2009, 04:26:05 pm »
I'm looking for a good but simple and inexpensive bow scale for measuring the draw weight of my bow. What do you guys use?
« Last Edit: May 22, 2009, 04:52:20 pm by Weylin »
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Offline Dano

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2009, 06:32:56 pm »
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Offline sailordad

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2009, 06:40:33 pm »
i use an old bathroom scale(not a digital one) put it on a bench top,put a tiller stick on it with the bow on the stick pull to the draw length while reading the
scale
just checked one last night like that,its pulling 48# @ 28",works for me
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Offline Weylin

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2009, 06:49:06 pm »
Great idea's guys, thanks. makes you wonder why people pay hundreds of dollars for those fancy ones. sure, they may work better, but do they work 20x better? probably not. anyone else have some clever ideas for checking draw weight?

On a similar but slightly different note, how does one go about extrapolating the full draw weight of a bow that is not being pulled to full draw yet. Im still in the tillering stages of my hickory flat bow and I'd like to get at least a rough idea of where Im at weight-wise. I've seen it done before but Im not sure about the math.
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Offline sailordad

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2009, 07:06:08 pm »
is it at a full brace height yet?
if its still ona longer string it is going to be hard to judge properly
if its at a full brace,and lets say you want a 28" draw at 50 lbs and its pulling lets say 40lbs at 20" and i always add about 3lbs per inch of draw(rough
guesstimate) to go yet,so you would have 8" of draw to go so my guesstimate would be that it would be pulling 64lbs roughly
dont know how accurate my method is but its been working for me,most times.some times i come in light yet.usually cause i hurried up somewhere
ont that bow.
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i always wanted a harley,untill it became the "thing to ride"
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Offline JackCrafty

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2009, 07:22:43 pm »
I use the scale that Dano uses.  As far as draw weight, I estimate 2.5lb per inch of draw for bows that will pull anywhere from 40lbs to 50lbs.  You can't use this rule for kids bows or heavy bows (like war bows), obviously.
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Offline Weylin

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2009, 07:59:06 pm »
what are the pros and cons when you compare that fish scale to something like this? http://www.oldwillknottscales.com/weston-sportsmans-90.aspx
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Offline George Tsoukalas

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2009, 08:42:31 pm »
I use the Hanson Hand Held I like it because it attaches to the rope of my rope and pulley. The weight registers and stays so I can read it. Jawge
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Offline redwasp

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2009, 09:17:59 pm »
I use a pelouze scale from walmart (Viking I think) wasn't very expensive and serves my purposes well but I don't and don't plan on making hundreds of bows. (that could change). But right now I just want to shoot my own bows.
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Aosda

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #9 on: May 23, 2009, 12:05:34 am »
I use one that is similar to Dano's, but it's not digital, same concept.  Bought it at Dick's for $8, rated to 50lbs.  The one you posted the link to looks to be pulled as you would an arrow on the string.  Meaning that it doesn't look like there is a way to attach a rope for stand-off safety.

The bows I've made are in the 50-60# range and average about 2.5# per inch.
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Offline DustinDees

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #10 on: May 23, 2009, 06:24:41 am »
i got one of those 50lb fish scales from wally world for $5. you can set up 2 of them up in parallel to go up to 100lb
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Offline Hillbilly

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #11 on: May 24, 2009, 08:35:14 pm »
I have a Pelouze bow scale from 3Rivers that works great. I have used a bathroom scale in the past, and it works too.
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Offline Weylin

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2009, 10:24:19 pm »
I just bought a clunky, old-school bathroom scale at Goodwill for $5 today. I think it will work just fine for my amateur purposes and its in my price range. With a baby on the way my bow-making/everything budget has been slashed. I weighed the bow in and realized I need to take about 30 more pounds off before I get it to full draw. which is good because my tiller still needs alot of work.  Thanks for the all the input fellas, it was helpful.
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Offline bigcountry

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2009, 11:08:03 pm »
I have a hanging pelouze viking.  If I had my rathers, I would get a digital scale that can read max value, that way I could concentrate on hitting 28 or 29" and then just read the max value. 
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Offline smokeu

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Re: what's a good bow scale?
« Reply #14 on: May 27, 2009, 03:39:05 pm »
yea i used a bathroom scale at first and graduated to a fish scale bought it for 5 bucks at a garage sale super acurate digital and goes up to a hundred pounds or more... I think its a berkly. I dont feel so bad now, thought i was kinda gheto. Guess i wasnt so far off the path
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