Uwe, I've only been able to ovserve them in museums and it is very hard to judge their draw weight, especially given their short length. Photographs from the nineteenth century show Indian archers using the pinch method for drawing the bow and holding the arrow. I think it would be difficult to draw a heavy bow using this method, especially from horseback. Also , I think a heavy bow would not be necessary because the shots at buffalo were from less than 5 yards, probably only 2 or 3. Somebody is undoubtedly going to point out that mongol archers used heavy bows from horseback;however, these were war bows not hunting bows. I'm going to make a guess that the majority ofthe plains bows were in the 40 to 50 pound range. I emphasize it is just a guess.
