Your 2nd sentence of the 2nd quote answers the 1st sentence of the 1st quote and contradicts your statement of "What the heck are you talking about" [&:]

Dude I dont give a damn how good of shape you are in, you go sit on a folding chair for 2 hrs in the cold. Then get up and do a 100yd sprint. Let me know how you get of the block!

this happens all the time to guys who either under dress or have bows that are to high in draw weight. i noticed it last year that in the cold it's harder for me to pull my bow back. to counter this i dress in layers and workout to stay in shape.

Lighten up guys (pun intended) it's christmas!

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned yet or not , but I believe adrenaline rush (buck fever or whatever you want to call it) has more of an effect than the cold weather. Sure the weather probably makes it a little worse.
When I was fifteen years old I got my first shot opportunity with a bow. It was the middle of October and the weather was mild. I couldn't draw my dang bow back because of the excitement. After the deer had walked off laughing at me I had no problems drawing it back.

I don't care how well you dress and how "in shape" you are... sitting near motionless on stand on a 20"x30" platform for 3 or 4 hrs in 10-20* weather,even with only a slight breeze,will takeits toll. Only way to avoid it would be too dress up like gumby and then you never will get the bow back. I have been hunting for 40 yrs and it has only happened to me twice.. both times on a bitter cold day and both times it was a complete shock to me that I couldn't get the bow back. Early stages of hypothermia or pre-hypothermiacreep in slowly and quietly. If your core starts to decrease in temp your brain sends more blood to that area and your limbs pay the price. Even so... I still have to believe bow limb pressure increases... everything stiffens in the bitter cold... tires get harder, tree bark snaps, etc.
It would be interesting to know if manufacturers have tested their limbs under various temp ranges... especially the extremes, and if so what did they learn?

VC1111 ... you hit the nail on the head

First BigJ12, you need to chill dude. We're just talkin' here, my friend, no need to get wound up.

As to the effect of cold on human performance of any kind, its pretty hard to argue that there is no effect. As to your performance "in the coldest of temps"...good for you. But I doubt that it "never" affected your performance in one way or another and I would bet that any excercise physiologist worth his salt would be able to prove conclusively that all athletes are affected by temps, high or low to some degree. Everyone has an optimal temperature range for any kind of physical activity. Raise or lower that temperature beyond a certain point and there will be some type of degradation in performance.

Whether or not someone is "over bowed" or not is a relative thing, not an absolute as you would paint it.

For example, I may be the type of person that is quite capable of drawing 90 lbs until the temp drops below a certain point...beyond that point, drawing becomes a struggle. If the temps drops even further I may not be able to draw the bow at all. You may substitute any number you wish in place of the 90 lb number that I threw out as an example. For another person the number might be say, 70 lbs. Am I then "over bowed?" Not at all, under a wide range of hunting temperatures...just not all temps. Get it?

But the point is, that under most conditions the person in my example can easily draw the bow and it is the cold (to which some people happen to be particularly susceptable) that causes the failure, the breakdown in performance, but only in those condtions.

Bottom line: Even you have a breakpoint as far as low temps affecting your ability to draw. I'd venture to say that if the temps drop to say, 80 below zero, your ability to draw might be impaired, perhaps even to the point where you simply could not. For others the temp might be 10 below zero or 20 above zero or...well, hopefully you get the idea.

wicchunter: Thanks, guy. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and all our fellow sportsmen in America, Canada and all over the planet. I hope you all have occasion to draw on a hog buck in 2006 regardless of the temps!

I'm not wound up, it may have come across that way but I'm fine.

You obviously never played football in below freezing temps. It's not the player that it effects it's the football. It feels like a brick thus harder to catch.....no contradiction here.



You guys are missing my point. As a bow hunter you are responsible for your equipment. No one expects to kill a deer in the first 1/2 hour of getting in their stand...it would be nice but we all know it just dosen't happen. So knowing that we might need to spend hours in the stand in cold weather why would you have your bow weight so high that due to the cold, fatigue, bulky clothes,ORWHATEVER, you can't draw it back?

If your bows were turned down to a more reasonable level for the conditions (yours included) NONE of you would ever experience this problem, peroid.

Bottom line, if your bow's draw weight is set to an amount so high that something like what's listed above prohibits you from drawing it back you are indeed overbowed.

If you know this will take it's toll on you then you should plan accordingly and than includes your bow's drawweight.

Try buying different clothing, I wear a bib overall then 3-4 layers under my jacket, nice and wark and can still draw my bow.

If your getting hypothermia or even pre-hypothermia then you are not dressed properly. Remember the six P's: Proper Planing Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Not very well I'm sure, BUT knowing I would be sitting in a chair for 2 hrs in the cold, I would not try to sprint, I would turn it down a notch or two and perhaps justsprint the100yds in 3/4 speed.You see if I think it might have an adverse effect I will PLAN accordingly.

I couldn't agree more!

I have no problem what so ever pulling back my bow I don't care if it was set at 100lbs and 30 below outside. I know my limitations and how the cold will effect me (in my case not even noticeable)so I set my equipment up accordingly.

Your right, I havn't and now understand your statement .

I still disagree. It affects the player also to one degree or another. You cannot ignore the temperature as a factor. In fact, teams from the south have to factor that in when playing teams (NFL) from the north because they don't get much of chance to acclimate since they don't practice in temps of say, 7 degrees, for example. I can further attest to the performance on athletes since I was an athlete for over twenty years. Cold affects athletic performance to one degree or another, period. It can and does vary from one athlete to another. I've known athletes that could not perform at their optimum in temps over 40 degrees, they actually preferred the cold; others could not perform in temp lower than 40, to use just one example.

Your idea that every bowhunter should simply take into account the temps and crank the weight down accordingly ignores a variety of factors and preferences. For example, if you are shooting mechanicals, you may need to keep the draw weight cranked up in order to maintain kinetic energy.

Also I would bet my house that some limb materials are more susceptable to the cold than others. A guy buying a new bow could be surprised by the fact that the new bow is far more sensitive to the cold than the older one.