willhunt4food

I bought my wife a new bow in February. She has a 25" draw and pulls 45-50 lbs. I had a hard time picking a bow for her but received lots of useful feedback from others who had done the same thing. I was wondering if anybody had done a side by side comparison of all the short draw length bows to compare speed, length, brace height, weight and price. I' ve seen very little good information on the subject. Since my original posts we' ve tried a lot more equipment to find a good fit. It would have been nice to have all the information in one spot.
Will

PABowhntr

A very worthwhile suggestion in my opinion. To my knowledge nobody has done such a survey....probably because a majority of the shooters do indeed fall around that 29 inch draw length range and they normally rely on the typical IBO/AMO ratings in the case of speed. As for the other specs.....many of the bows on the market are offered in shorter draw lengths and lighter draw weights....so it would be a rather large comparison.

If someone had the drive and focus then I, for one, would be interested to see if the results changed for any given set of bows when measured at a shorter draw length and a lighter draw weight.

willhunt4food

I wish someone could take the time to publish this sort of information. I went out and picked up a Parker Challenger last week for her to shoot this weekend. In my opinion it was hands down a better bow than the one I originally bought for her (and its 150 bucks cheaper).
We always tell everyone to go shoot lots of equipment and make an informed decision but when you are talking about equipment as specialized as short draw/low weight compounds few bow shops carry one much less to two or three different models that you' d like to compare. We bought the first one based off the company name and reputation. Mistake. I' m glad that I had the inclination (and money) to keep looking for a better bow.
I guess now she has a backup bow. I wish I had a backup bow...
Will

Arthur P

When you draw more than 31" you' re in pretty much the same boat. You find an ocassional 32" draw. You don' t find ANY longer than that at the shops. All my bows I have to special order, paid in advance, sight unseen and unshot. And I guarantee you, I' ve had some crappy bows in my day. When I get a good bow, I keep it for YEARS.

Guess this is my way of saying, ' Things are tough all over.' [X(]

BobCo19-65

Ditto on Arthurs reply. I also have a 32-33" draw on compounds. Just when you think that you found the bow that you want, you find out that they only come up to a 30" draw. Take the ProTech Wheely for example.

willhunt4food

I definitely sympathize. They don' t have to custom build short bows but they typically have to order them so I just order from bass pro, try the bow for a few days and if it doesn' t fit or shoot good we just eat the shipping cost and send it back. Even then, you cant do that with bows like mathews and bowtech because they aren' t distributed that way...
Things can definitely be tough all over.

Benelli_shooter

I would love to be able to afford to do a survey of short draw bows!!! My problem was finding a bow with a 25" draw and 70# pull. I ended up choosing a Mathews FX with the Minimax cam. I thought about the Parker 31 as well, but opted for the Mathews. I like the FX, as well as the price I paid.

I hate it when I see a bow that seems like a really good bow, only to find out its draw length is too long!!

PAHUNTER21

Tell you what, I shoot a 26" draw which is really short compared to many people. I shot alot of bows before I decided to buy the Parker UL 31. Their modules are pretty nifty. One of the more indepth comparisons that i made when trying to choose was between the Buckmasters G2 and the UL 31.

Speed wise, using the same exact setups (rest, arrow, etc.), the Buckmaster was about 5 fps slower than the UL 31. The Parker just felt better to me (but that is just me. I' m sure there are some that will disagree)

IMHO, Parker produces a quality product backed by what many people consider quality customer service. I don' t think you could go wrong with the Parker Challenger.

The UL 31 also comes in a 60# draw weight ajustable down to 50#, if you can swing the price.

Jason N

A year or so ago I compiled a list of bows for my wife to look into. I basically researched every compound manufacturer and made a spread sheet that compared them by:

Axle to axle
Draw weight range
Draw length
Mass weight
Speed
Single vs. Dual Cam

I' d love to say -- here' s the file! But alas, I deleted it not long ago because it would be out of date and my wife wasn' t sure if she was going to continue with bowhunting....she decided to stick with it for another year and no I' ll have to make another list -- Unless one of you guys does the same thing!

ijimmy

Well 2 pepole got to it before me , but there is a lady that shoots out of the pro shop close to me who is of small stature and she cleans house . Shes shooting a parker ultra light 31 . I think your wife should at least have this bow on the list of ones to check out .