In retrospect I think the 65% let-off was a mistake, they cut out a lot of shooters, and most compounds, and yet I don' t think there is a big difference in shooting between 80 and 65, so it may have been a mistake.
Ossage, I have to disagree with that.
When P&Y instituted the 65% rule in 1988, NOBODY was cut out. 65% letoff was cutting edge technology at the time. The organization decided, after seeing letoff % rise from 30% to 50% and then to 65%, that enough was enough. And the manufacturers agreed.
Within 2-3 years of P&Y passing the rule, Matt McPherson went into business and put out a McPherson bow that was 85% letoff, supposedly strictly for 3D and for turkey hunting. Of course, the high tech crowd HAD to have one and the other companies saw some upstart grabbing their market share with a design they had said wouldn' t be produced. So, they renegged on their promise to P&Y and began producing high letoff bows themselves. The whole archery world has been in a downhill slide ever since, IMO.
Nobody was cut out. Rather, everybody has simply ignored P&Y and gone about their merry business, fully aware of the rule. And of course the victim mentallity and inability to take responsibility for one' s own actions that is so rampant these days... Take a potential world record with your high letoff bow and then whine and moan because P&Y won' t let you book the deer because you used a bow they don' t recognize AS a bow.
But, be that as it may, I must bow to John Nail. You ' nailed' it, John.
Excellent post!