20 seconds is an eternity. Shouldn' t anyone be holding draw for 20 seconds, no matter what the circumstance. Especially when they' re in the group in font of me on the 3D course!!! I don' t know why anyone would want to hold a bow at full draw that long. Unless....

If you' re talking about drawing and holding for a couple of minutes while waiting for a deer to come into range, that' s what I' ve been talking about on the crossbow thread. That' s why I call a lot of today' s compounds ' crossbow lites' . That' s why I say compound shooters that do that stuff don' t have an ounce of room to talk about crossbows. Crossbows aren' t drawn in the immediate presence of game, but neither are compounds when they' re used that way.

I agree that 20 seconds is an eternity....especially with my old bow. It is something I have done on only a few occassions and only b/c a great shot seemed to be ready to present itself....just never did. In most cases I was able to draw again when the deer and I settled back down. Normally from draw to shot is about 2-6 seconds.
My point was that a hunter' s ability to hold a bow without jeopardizing his shot is expanded when shooting a 65% let-off as opposed to a 35% let-off.
I seem to one of the very few still shooting such an old bow.

BTW, I just pulled my bow back and tried holding it......I obviously over guessed my ability.......by 9-10 seconds I couldn' t be sure of anything my arrow might do. even so...I would expect that to " grow" by going to the higher (65%) let-off.

Arthur, I' ll give you an example of when you have to hold for a minute or more sometimes.

Elk hunting and a bull is coming in. You draw your bow just as he is walking behind a tree or bush at 25 yards so you can take an easy shot just as he steps out. Well he doesn' t want to cooperate and decides to have a look around before continuing on his path. You have no shot and can' t let down the bow because the only thing visible on the elk is his head and neck and he would surely see you if you twiched. You have two options. #1 keep holding at full draw hoping that he will take just one step or #2 let down and say by by to that big 6X6.

The very same thing happens with whitetails also.

I am glad that I have a very light bow with 80% let off just for this reason.

The differance between a 65% and 80% bow at 70 pound draw weight is 10 pounds. How long can you hold 14 pounds verses 24 pounds?

There are trade offs to take into consideration but for me a high let off bow works better.

Good example.

With my longbow, I hunker down while he' s behind the bush and wait to draw until he steps out and exposes his chest, hit anchor and the arrow is on it' s way in less than two seconds. And all the time I' m hoping he doesn' t see the movement of the draw. It' s NOT an easy shot, but that' s bowhunting.

You, on the other hand, drew while he was behind the bush and couldn' t possibly see the draw. You' re sitting there holding a drawn bow until the shot is presented. It' s a very intelligent approach that definitely stacks more of the cards in your favor, but... Isn' t the number one argument against crossbows that an animal has the chance to catch the bowhunter' s movement when he draws and the crossbow is predrawn so there is no drawing motion? What you do in your example is not so very different from using a crossbow.

I hope you can see the fundamental difference that I' m trying to show.

ARTHUR P

Lets say that bull stood there for 3 min could you hold a bow that long, I douht
it, you could a crossbow. Lets say you let your draw down after 2 min and
the bull steped out just then could you draw again? dont have to worry about
that with a crossbow.

jag-mag, yes, I can hold full draw for that long with a 75-80% letoff compound. No trick. In fact, I went 12 minutes at full draw once (McPherson SoloLite, 80% letoff, 70 pounds draw, Scott Mongoose release) just to see how long I could hold it. Could have held a lot longer but it got flat boring and besides, there was this grasshopper crawling up the target face....

8mm...I' d look at a PSE Thunderbolt. It' s a very nice bow, easy to tune, fairly fast, quiet, etc...just an all around good mid price bow(around $300). It has an adjustable let-off 65-80...(I' d recommend 65%). That should fit your bill, and will be miles ahead of what you have now I' m sure...plus it won' t break the bank. Good luck

WV Hunter,
Thanks for the tip. I intend to get into some pro-shops and try quite a few bows, but anything that can help narrow my search is a plus.

Have you ever hunted elk? Have you ever hunted public land bulls? If you answered yes to both of the questions then whats your success rate? I have to ask because you sound like you' ve either never hunted big bulls or you are extremely lucky. Many shots on bulls must take place when his view is obstructed and you have to wait until he steps out. This sometimes takes several seconds.

Right now you may be asking what makes elk different? Well I' ll tell you. When deer hunting you' re sitting in a treestand waiting for an unsuspecting deer to walk by. You draw, shoot and take the pictures. With elk 99% when hunting with a bow you must call them in. When they are coming in you are at ground level and in thier line of sight. Second you are already drawing attention to your general location by calling. Third that bull is looking for something when hes coming in so he expects to see something, hes on alert. So if you draw while hes looking around, " poof" nothing but a dust trail left to shoot at. So elk hunting 101 says wait till hes behind something to draw. Sometimes he hangs though and his head exposed but not the chest cavity.

Every once in a while you' ll be able to draw and shoot as simple as you put it but if you rely on that. Expect your freezer to be empty nearly every year.

Exactly RBH.

A bull elk is looking for you and any movement that you make he will se it. By BY to Mr. elk.