accidentally made a 60# bow

[Julian]

Hey, so I recently posted the longbow I made.

My scale arrived today, and the bow weighed in at 60#

I'm a healthy, fit guy but I'm quite new to trad shooting so I was wondering if I should lighten my bow. Otherwise I thought I'd make a new one, and aim for say, 35#, and shoot that one to build up form. I went to the range today and while I had no issues drawing my bow, I was starting to get sore in the neck before an hour was up so I feel like I should drop down in weight a bit.

thoughts?


On the other hand, the bow feels great, makes a really satisfying thud in the target haha.

[Del the cat]

Don't drop to 35#, that's going from one extreme to the other .
Just use this bow a little at a time for a say a week then study it and re-work it to drop 5-10# It gives you a chance to improve the tiller if needed and it's not much of a job to rasp off little evenly from the belly.
A bow often needs a little fiddling and fettling after it's had 100 arrows through it.
Funny enough, I had a call from a guy last week. I'd made him a 60# with a Yew stave that he'd cut, he brought it back a while later and asked me to take off 5#.
He wants me to make him another now he's cut and seasoned another stave. He says he regrets having 5# taken off the first one
The moral is, only ever take off half what you think you want.
Del

[Julian]

Thanks Del, will do :~)

Watching your youtube videos really helped me out, by the by!

[Stick Bender]

Great advice from Del I have found with these self bows that tolerable draw weight is a must for me other wise my form is off and with non center cut bows every minor flaw in form and release is amplified not getting the arrow where I want it , I don't have the time to shoot every day so working up to a new draw weight is off the table for me it may be different for you , but shooting a bow that's to heavy for you,you can develope bad form that's hard to get rid of later , but maybe different for you !

[Del the cat]

Thanks Del, will do :~)

Watching your youtube videos really helped me out, by the by!

Cheers
Del

[Badger]

  If I could shoot a bow or an hour before I started getting sore I would figure it was about the right draw weight. Regular shooting should solve that in short time. I got badly out of shooting shape the last couple years and am struggling to work my way back. I can't even shoot for an hour LOL.

[Julian]

  If I could shoot a bow or an hour before I started getting sore I would figure it was about the right draw weight. Regular shooting should solve that in short time. I got badly out of shooting shape the last couple years and am struggling to work my way back. I can't even shoot for an hour LOL.

I do feel as though the issue would go away if I got my stance / posture correct. I know I tend to tighten up and that's why my neck is sore.

[Eric Krewson]

Your neck is sore because you only draw one handed. I had the same problem big time because I would shoot for hours. One of the early superstars of traditional archery (Paul Bruner) recommend adding right and left hand drawing during a shooting session to even up the muscle development side to side.

I shoot ten arrows as a righty and pull my bow at least 5 or 6 times as a lefty just before I pull arrows.

One riddle with a perpetually stiff neck I tried his advice and my stiff neck problems disappeared.

[FilipT]

Is your accuracy with non dominant hand worse because of it?

[bradsmith2010]

if the bow shoots well for you,, keep it or take off a few pounds,, I shoot close to 60# and enjoy it,,I have bows that are less if I want,, to work on my form,, or to shoot longer,, it is different for eveyone,, do what works best for you,,
I shoot my heavier bows just as accurate as the lighter ones,,, maybe better,, I just cant shoot as many arrows,, so I like having both,,, pulling with the off hand is a good idea,, also,,,stop before you start hurting and build up to shooting longer in a gradual way,,, if you want to shoot longer, ,then shoot less arrows per round,,say 3 or 2 instead of 5,,,
many times I am shooting one arrow at a time,,

[JW_Halverson]

Your neck is sore because you only draw one handed. I had the same problem big time because I would shoot for hours. One of the early superstars of traditional archery (Paul Bruner) recommend adding right and left hand drawing during a shooting session to even up the muscle development side to side.

I shoot ten arrows as a righty and pull my bow at least 5 or 6 times as a lefty just before I pull arrows.

One riddle with a perpetually stiff neck I tried his advice and my stiff neck problems disappeared.

Gonna tuck that away for later. Makes a lot of sense. Except I might just switch to a slightly lighter bow and shoot a few arrows from the "off side" for giggles.  Always wondered if with enough practice someone could shoot ambidextrous.

[TimBo]

When you are starting off drawing from the "off" side, make sure you take it easy - I think I pulled at least ten valuable (to me) muscles the first time I tried it, since they weren't used to that task. 

[bradsmith2010]

I made a guy a bow that would shoot off both sides,, he shot target lefty and hunted  righty

[Dakota Kid]

Gonna tuck that away for later. Makes a lot of sense. Except I might just switch to a slightly lighter bow and shoot a few arrows from the "off side" for giggles.  Always wondered if with enough practice someone could shoot ambidextrous.

We had a member of our skeet club go blind in his right eye. He started shooting lefty. At first it was hard to watch, but over the course of a year his scores went from zeros to average. He was never as good as he was with his dominant eye, but after practice it was hard to tell he wasn't a natural lefty.
I tried shooting left-handed once. I had a hard time with everything from stance to shouldering to swing. I was barely able to get my left finger to pull the trigger.

[Julian]

glad to see my mistakes generate some good discussion

started work on a new bow today, now I've got a scale I can work it out to a more reasonable weight for taking to the range