What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

Why is maxing your bow weight out better for your bow, than say keeping it at 65 or 60 pounds when it can go up to 70?

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

I'm far from being an expert but whan I was testing bows the same bow maxed out shot much smoother than when it was turned down. Besides that I don't know if it hurts the bow to shoot it turned down. by the way good to see you again. I kinda poked a little fun at you in a different post. But you know it's cuz I love you. (in a brotherly way)

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

In the older days, they used to say that when the bow was tightened down all the way it held everything in the limb pockets tight????? Thats what the (highers to be) used to always tell me...I am no expert either, that's just what I had been told a couple times.

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

Its ok i love U 2 [8D]

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

I just know that i shot a heckuva lot better when i maxed my bow out....

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

Because a 70 pound limb has a specific spring rate. That is it's optimal rate of bend. That is where it was designed to have peak performance.

When a limb is shot at its max draw weight that limb is pre stressed, or pre bent, in a manner in which it was specifically designed to be stressed.

When you back out the limbs you are removing some of this pre bend in the limb so it can not perform in its optimal spring rate.

It's kind of likeleaf springsor truck. Limbs are basically large, flat springs made from fibers.
Those springs are designed to have a cerrtain ammount of weight and stress applied to them to get the best performance from thatspecific set of springs. If you have a spring that is designed to have 5000 pounds (70 pounds limbs)of compression to operate optimally and you are using them in a vehicle that only is able to apply 3000 (turned down to 60 pounds)on them then they are not going to give the driver a very smooth ride.

I hope i didn't just confuse everyone. [&:]

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

Bigbulls nailed it on the head there!! Couldn't have said it any better:D

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

Actually, I've found that some bows shoot a touch better backed out a hair. But I'll agree, they're gonna shoot better closer to being locked down than they will backed out to their minimum weight.

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

Everyones already said everything, and they're right. Bows shoot smoother and better when maxed. But, that was older age limbs. Limbs would slip from the pockets in the "older days" when they werent snug to the riser which could also throw off tiller and timing. I think that issue has been takin care of by now though so it shouldn't be a worry.

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

That might be true if your bow is at it's max draw weight when the limbs are bottomed out, but that is rarely the case. Some are a bit over, some are lot over and some are a bit low. So that sort of throws that theory out the window.

The only benefit I could see it having is on a bow where the limbs can move in the pocket there will be less movement when the bow is shot. If they are backed out the limb will most likely bounce around in the pocket. Bows do some crazy stuff when the string is released. If the limbs were maxed out they would be held tight in the pocket and would not be able to move.

That being said I don't think it makes a bit of difference. I have not owned a bow yet that shot different with the limbs bottomed out than it did with them backed all the way out. They were still quiet, still accurate and still just as efficient when you ran all the numbers and compensated for the lost draw weight.

There is absolutely no advantage a maxed out bow will give that will make up for drawing too much draw weight. Simply isn't going to happen.

I have also never shot a bow that was "smoother" with more draw weight. More draw weight always equals a harder drawing bow. Every bow I have had if you dropped them from 60 some pounds to 50 or lower they drew like butter simply because they were easier to draw.

My opinion anyway.

Paul

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

Bows maxed out have there best performance I have noticed when you are shooting a bow that is maxed out verse backed down that the maxed out bowmakes less noise shoots smoother and faster. I shoot my bow a 1/4 back from maxed out which is 70lbs 1/4 turn out maxed out with my bow is 71lbs.

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

A bow is like a woman.There's a distinct mental advantageto being more dominant than your bow.

For example, if you have a 70# bow, and you're too big of a wuss to max it out - the bow has a mental advantage over you. It knows. You are a slave to the muchismo of the bow. Until you can max it out with ease, your bow will always know you're a wimp - and it will slap you around from time to time. Because it can.

However, if you have a 70# bow, maxxed out - and you can draw it with ease - you are the master. You are the King, and the bow is your barefoot wife, chained to the stove.The pecking order has been established, and your bow knows that no funny business will be tolerated.

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

Tell them Fran you get more SPEED when its MAXed out!:D

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

LOL Well, I prefer a woman that is NOT maxed out in weight :D;)

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

:D:D:D You are single, aren't you?

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

LOL Nope ;).

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

So true, so true. Another advantage is shooting a maxed bow increases your choicesas far ascamo options. Simply because there are so many more companies that produce camo pants and not a whole lot that produce camo skirts. I'm surprised noone has mentioned this yet.

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

I don't like maxed out women either. I also tend to steer clear of women that areholding sharp objects and have my headstone(aka firewood)ready to go in the other hand. That's just me though.:D

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

If this is the case then someone has mucked with the strings and cables in order to get higher weight. Or they have streched which usuallyresults in lower weight.

You can get 70 pounds out of a 60 pound set of limbs and vise versa with out backing them out one bitbut you will do so at the cost of limb failure and/ orbad performance.

A set of limbs that are ground to have a specific rate of deflection will perform their best when they areworking within those specifics.

If you were to get two bows of the same model, one, a 70 pound bow backed down to 60 pounds and the other a 60 pound bow set properly at 60 pounds, using the same arrow the 60 pound bow will shoot a little bit faster than the 70 pound bow will that was backed down.

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

So your telling me that it is not common to have a bow that draws higher than it is rated when the limbs are maxed out? Because there a lot of bows that do this, right off the shelf at the pro shop. Mathews used to horrible for it, sometimes 5 lbs over what there were rated for. And on some designs changing the draw length will effect it as well.

I will give you that given the two extremes the higher poundage bow turned all the way down may be a tad slower. However how much are we talking, most likely not more than a few feet per second. Certainly not enough that it will make a difference in real world shooting. And believe me being a smaller archer I have played with this quite a bit. Using different weight ranges, different draw lengths, different string lengths you name it I have probably tried it. I have even shimmed limbs to get more weight than what they were rated for. Even out of time bows don't even vary a great deal.

My point is that limbs are adjustable for many reasons, two of them being to match the draw weight to the archer and the other to match the draw weight to the spine of the arrows. I would bet you good money that 9 out of 10 average archers that have their limbs maxed out are over bowed as far draw weight goes and could have a much better spine match if they played with the limb adjustments. And both of those are in my opinion much more important than any advantage you might gain from having your limbs maxed out. Especially with the newer style bows.

I'm certainly not suggesting that someone goes out and buys a 70 lb bow and shoots it at 60 lbs on purpose. However there are a lot of people that will get a 70 lb bow even though it's a bit much for them then they turn it down to 65 or so hoping to increase strength later. Maybe the will, maybe they won't. Then they read a post like this and get the impression that their bow will shoot better maxed out so they go ahead and bottom the limbs out thinking it will magically make them shoot better. When in most cases it simply will not. It might be slightly more efficient in a machine but that doesn't mean you will actually shoot it better.

So I'm not really saying your technically wrong, because your not. I'm just saying that in my opinion it really doesn't matter enough to worry about. And it's really nothing more than my opinion.

Paul

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

Yup, more efficient and definitely quieter.

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

Never thought of it like that before...makes perfect sense though

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

I did that very thing when I bought my bow last year. 70lb Drenalin cranked down to 62lbs with a 400gr arrow shot 271, the 60lb maxed out 62lbs and shot 273. Both bows shot the same, had the same feel, and were no more or less louder that I could tell.The reason I went withthe 70lb limbs was from past experience,the 60lb bow will only max out at 57-58lbs a few years down the road from limb wear, new string/cables or not. I'll always be able to keep this one at 62lbs.

RE: What are the advantages of maxing your bow weight out?
 

Paul, i didn't say there weren't really good reasons to not shoot a bow at less than max draw weight because there are.

What i did was simply answer the question asked. Which was simply, What are the advantages of shooting a bow with the limbs set at their maximum draw weight?. Limbs are more efficient when shot this way plane and simple.

Regardless if a specific set of limbs are 71 pound limbs, 68 pound limbs, what ever. If they are flexing how they were optimally designed to flexthen they will perform better. Whether it is 1 fps in arrow speed or 8 fps in arrow speed.