RE: What holding weight do you prefer?
Depends. The trick isn't a specific holding weight for me, it's a ratio of holding weight compared to mass weight of the bow. I used to geek out on a specific holding weight till I figured this out.
I can and will manipulate the mass weight of the bow now by adding/removing weight from the stabilizers to get it in tune for theholding weight I get when the bow is tuned. I seem to have much more luck with it this way, now that I have a stabilizer set that I can accomplish this with and can add the weight where I need it. As long as I'm in that 14-19lb window and the bow isn't super heavy I can get it where my shots are clean and the float pattern minimized.
On my Slayer, the Apex 7's I've had, and my Apex I shot 17-18lbs really well. Now on my Constitution I'm shooting 15lbs, with less mass weight on the bow. I fatigue less now shooting the Constitution and can make strong shots longer which is a good thing because it'stough for me to haveenough time to have great conditioning to reduce that fatigue.