45# or 50# recurve bow ????

[ROEBUCK]

my dad wants a recurve bow for target shooting!

hes a novice!

were thinking a 45 or 50 pound draw weight.

my dads nearly seventy so 50# draw weight would be the max!

roughly what sort of arrow speed would he get from a 45 or 50 pound bow??
thanx!!

[CanadanHirvi]

Is he tall with long arms? They usually measure draw weights at 28", so if he draws 29" you can add about 5 lbs to the weight quoted. i.e. a 40 lbs bow will actually be around 45 lbs at his draw length.
For just target shooting, I would get a 35 or 40 lbs bow. That would be max. He can always move up later if he wants, but to start off with a heavy bow will make things such as developing a proper form a lot harder, not to mention it's harder to shoot for any length of time.

[Wild one]

I agree with the looking at a lighter poundage as I just started getting into trad as well and found it is alot harder pull 50# than I thought. I would do as I did go out and try a some bows and see what is comfortable for him. For me switching form an 80# compound I was comfortable with only 40#(this was the best weight for me where I kept proper form) to start.

[Bow Walker]

I totally agree with the preceding posts. As you may know (or not) I recently got a long bow - a bamboo-backed oak long bow.

I ordered the bow to be a 45 - 50 lb weight range (that's how they were made) and when the bow arrived I had a heckova time shooting it as it was nearer the 50 lb mark than anything else.

Now I've been shooting a compound bow for a lot of years and have developed the necessary muscles to pull a bow back and to shoot (I'm 62 this year) so I was pretty confident about shooting a 50 lb long bow.

Imagine my surprise when I had to stop shooting after about a dozen or so shots! It was just too much and I got tired too quickly. It wasn't fun to shoot so I wasn't shooting near as much as I needed or wanted.

Long story shorter, I returned the bow and they sent me one that was 40 - 45 lbs. Great customer service by the way. Now I shoot the thing all day and what's more important I enjoy shooting it and look forward to picking it up. Waay easier on the old body too.

The bowyer told me that if I found that the 40 - 45 lb bow was getting too light (down the road) that I could trim off an inch from both limbs and thereby increase the bow weight by about 8 - 10 lbs. He explained how to do it and the job is within even my limited wood working abilities.

What sort of shape is your dad in? Big man? Still got lots of muscle tone?

Point being - if your dad is close to 70, then he'll get much more enjoyment from a 40 lb bow (and shoot much more often) than he would from a bow that is even 5 lbs heavier. While 5 lbs doesn't seem like much, it's a heavy weight to pull back when added with the other 40 lbs.

[Coyote]

Beg borrow or steal a couple of bows in the 35 to 50 pound range and let him try. My guess is he'll go withthe lower poundage. If it's target shooting he's into for the time being there are plenty of light arrows that will give good speed.
Bottom line is that all the above posts are good advice. Lighter at first is far better.

'yote

[ROEBUCK]

thanks guys for the advice!!

[bearhunter338-06]

Just a little reminder 45# is the lightest you can go if you plan on hunting with the bow