60 or 70# limbs?

[Elk97]

I have a No Cam HTR, 60# limbs maxed out at 60-62#. I'd like to try and increase draw weight to gain speed but I'm 69 and don't know if, or how much, I'll be able to comfortably shoot. I've got the 70# limbs for it. Any disadvantage to putting the 70# on and then decide I will still shoot at 60#? Thanks

 

[Ucsdryder]

I guess my question is why? If it’s penetration I’d focus more on your setup. My girlfriend is shooting 40lbs and 24.5” draw. If she can do it then anyone can do it. A SUPER sharp 2 blade, a 450+ grain arrow and a 30 yard max distance will make her lethal. So at 60lbs and 4-5 inches of draw length you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

 

[Zac]

Yeah your draw length will be long if you unscrew your limbs to get back down. I think it's a good idea to start poundage heavy and under spined. Then slowly turn your poundage down until you are getting perfect arrow flight. This ensures you get the proper spine.

 

[Link_OH]

I had same dilemma but after having both some 60 and 70 lb bows, the 60's are more comfortable and I am still blowing through good size deer... can draw early and hold longer where game comes in on high alert with much more ease and the speed difference wasn't noticeable to me.

 

[wildwilderness]

No, hate to break it to you but 69 is old and you are not getting any younger. Very hard to build muscle mass unless you are below average already? (Or you can use all the enhancing drugs marketed to stay young)

I see no reason to go to 70 unless you have a specific hunt that requires it? Cape Buffalo, elephant, come to mind? Way better to tune your set up and shoot more accurately, less wear on the shoulder etc.

As to shooting 60 with 70# limbs it has been said that is less efficient since you don’t use the full range of the limb. How much that true with new bows I’m not sure, but in the past you want to max out both limbs and cam

 

[nphunter]

Not sure what your after for speed? If your shooting a heavy arrow you could lighten it up slightly to gain speed without pulling more weight. Honesty if you start to get 285+ fixed Broadheads start to get temperamental to tune.

It’s really hard to say without knowing you, your build, your specs as far as arrow, your desired speed, etc. My grandfather is in his upper 70’s and would have zero issues shooting a 70lb+ bow, in his late 60’s he could still stand on his hands against the wall and do a dozen pushups and he’s probably 250lbs easy.

You will gain draw length by loosening off the limbs and it can be quite a bit of length on some bows if backed all the way off. You can adjust some of that by loosening cables but that will give you even less draw weight. You can also probably put some twists in your cables and be able to gain a few lbs and shoot closer to 64lbs which IMO would make the most since.

Shooting a 70lb bow at about 280fps with a 500gr arrow I am loosing some trajectory. At 80 yards a 460gr arrow is 4-6” higher on the target, I haven’t shot a lighter arrow to check but that isn’t a lot of difference and unless your shooting super slow or super heavy you will only see marginal gains by increasing your draw weight.

 

[wildwilderness]

Yes there are 70+ year olds that can accurately shoot 70-80# but they have most likely built up the muscle in younger years. Very different to gain and build strength vs maintaining what you have as you age.

if you haven’t been shooting 70-80# your whole life very unlikely you will like it now

 

[nphunter]

Just out of curiosity what the sudden need to change, looking at your avatar it seems like you’ve already had success on an elk with a bow? Are you having low misses?
I went through a spell of low misses on animals and started chasing speed, I ended up at 315fps with a 400gr arrow, it was a very effective setup for deer and elk but a pain to tune with fixed heads and to get it to tune I had to switch to a very small cut on contact head which left me with small holes and small blood trails.

I‘ve switched back to a 500gr arrow and found I shoot low regardless of speed. I know 100% for me it’s from not following through on the shot! Two of the last 3 animals I’ve killed my first arrow shot right under their briskets and I had to calm down tell myself to follow through and made good shot which also happens to be slightly further away. What I do is drop my arm and try to watch the arrow instead of using a proper follow through. Hopefully someday I can get my nerves under control but getting all excited is part of the enjoyment as well.

I’ll also say that I think being over bowed is the worst mistake an archer can make. It leads to less shooting per sessions, less fun while shooting and less practice all together. A good friend bought a 80lb bow last fall and hardly ever shoots anymore, he struggles to shoot it and should have never gotten it.

 

[Elk97]

Thanks for the replies. I was going to ask the local bow shop but figured there is a lot more knowledge here, and it seems I was right. Really appreciate all the thought and advice.
I'm not having any problems with the set up I've got, the No Cam isn't known for speed but it gets the job done. I think more than anything I like to challenge myself to increase my strength and now that I'm able to comfortably shoot 30-50 arrows at the maximum draw weight (I started a few years ago at 53#) I kind of think "what now?". Makes sense to concentrate on accuracy and consistency at this point and not worry about a few fps, didn't realize that it would increase the draw length and I don't want to mess with that.
I'll stick with the 60#. I shoot 450 gr with COC heads, no idea what speed.
Thanks all!

 

[pirogue]

If you want to keep shooting a few years, you need to take care of your shoulder, which does not include increasing draw weight.

 

[wildwilderness]

Thanks for the replies. I was going to ask the local bow shop but figured there is a lot more knowledge here, and it seems I was right. Really appreciate all the thought and advice.
I'm not having any problems with the set up I've got, the No Cam isn't known for speed but it gets the job done. I think more than anything I like to challenge myself to increase my strength and now that I'm able to comfortably shoot 30-50 arrows at the maximum draw weight (I started a few years ago at 53#) I kind of think "what now?". Makes sense to concentrate on accuracy and consistency at this point and not worry about a few fps, didn't realize that it would increase the draw length and I don't want to mess with that.
I'll stick with the 60#. I shoot 450 gr with COC heads, no idea what speed.
Thanks all!

what now? Like you said accuracy is super important. That will lead you to being able to tune your own bow, build your own arrows, build at least a 100 yard range in your yard to test, lots of things way more important to do other than chase speed!

 

[MattB]

You wont get as good of performance from 70# limbs at 60# as 60# at 60#.

The good part about these forums is the information exchange, but the bad thing IMO (and Rokslide especially) is guys start to get bad ideas on how to "improve" things. I see a lot of guys spending a bunch of money to gain marginal improvements or actually end up with a less effective set-up by trying to fix a problem that doesn''t exist. Don't overthink it.

 

[406unltd]

You can try it and see if you are ok with it. However plenty of women and children shoot less than 60 and are successful even on elk sized game. If it was me and I wasn’t sure I’d just shoot the 60 where I know I’m accurate and confident and focus on the correct arrow build/ Broadhead selection to promote high penetration and accurate flight.

 

[Elk97]

Rokslide ia a great forum, glad I asked the question here. I'm going to stick with the 60 lb limbs, I shoot that well and I can continue to increase the number of shots to get stronger. I'm guessing if I did switch to the 70 lb limbs I would end up shooting in the low to mid 60s anyway and I don't want to mess up what's working now by increasing the DL.
Thanks again

 

[kcbuckeye22]

I never had an issue with 70lbs maxed to 72, until I did. One day shoulder pain started and I had to end my season. I shoot a 70lb at 61lbs now. Yeah, the grass does look greener. But is it really worth it? That's for you to decide. One thing that keeps me from making the jump is retuning my bow and arrow setup. The thought of dropping $200 plus on arrow and arrow components just to give it a try keeps me from doing it.