Here's a quote by Howard Hill: "Being first of all a hunter, I wanted a bow that would throw a heavy hunting arrow with as little arc as possible. To achieve this end I knew I would have to increase the pounds pull of my bow, and I worked toward this result. I started with a bow that I could pull easily. By practicing constantly and gradually increasing the pull of my bows, I developed, over a period of years, the muscles to pull very heavy bows with no undue strain. For many years I could handle perfectly bows pulling up to 100 pounds at 28 inches, though my favorite weight for hunting was between 80-90 pounds. Few men have ever spent enough time to develop sufficient strength for handling easily such heavy bows as these."
With that being said, I too can pull well over 100#, and 80# is a weight that I can handle and shoot accurately with ease. I suffered a minor rotator cuff injury from weightlifting and my 105 pound tri-lam flatbow is hanging on the wall ever since. My backup/taking-a-break bow is a 60# samick recurve. I have failed 3 prior attempts this winter at making an 80 pounder to get back into the nitty gritty, and this was my successful attempt!
