Does longer draw mean more power?

bisblue

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Aug 22, 2016
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Hey folks,
As I'm building arrows and tinkering I was wondering do you get more power out of a bow pulling the same weight but with a longer arrow?
Once I build a 31" arrow for my draw and put 200 grains up front they are all around 550 grains. I like to shoot about #50 for a controlled shot and end up being low foc to try and get 10 GPP, my arrows are always 11.5-12 GPP and 15-18% FOC. my only interest is hunting and shooting 3d to practice for hunting.
Just wondering what other long draw folks have found. My longbow tunes good with instinct 400s, my ilf with uukha recurve limbs shoots good with axis 300s.
 

oldgoat

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Tom Clum and his boys tested some of this a while back and as I remember him telling me, one inch of draw is worth about ten pounds of draw weight, never quite figured out if that was from the same bow etc. But yeah, 50@31 will send the same arrow significantly faster than 50@28 and it's the same for compounds
 
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bisblue

bisblue

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An arrow thats hanging 3/4" out in front or 3"....its all about bareshaft tuning whether it flies well.

The only reason I intentionally choose a longer arrow is that it shortens my point on distance.

>
I need to cut down the instincts a little 34" is too much for my point on distance, but they bare shaft really well.
I love the hot melt to be able to tweak arrows as I go.

Tom Clum and his boys tested some of this a while back and as I remember him telling me, one inch of draw is worth about ten pounds of draw weight, never quite figured out if that was from the same bow etc. But yeah, 50@31 will send the same arrow significantly faster than 50@28 and it's the same for compounds
Woohoo, goofy lanky guy getting bonus points.
 
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Tom Clum and his boys tested some of this a while back and as I remember him telling me, one inch of draw is worth about ten pounds of draw weight, never quite figured out if that was from the same bow etc. But yeah, 50@31 will send the same arrow significantly faster than 50@28 and it's the same for compounds
I believe this is what is referred to with the term “power stroke”
 
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do you get more power out of a bow pulling the same weight but with a longer arrow?
Are you asking about a longer draw or a longer arrow? The thread title says one and your post says the other.

Arrow length by itself has no impact on the power (to be pedantic, energy is the more appropriate term) you can get out of a bow. A 50# bow drawn to 30" will deliver the same amount of energy to a 31" 500 gr arrow as to a 32" 500 gr arrow.

Draw length has a major impact on the amount of energy a bow can deliver. Extra draw length extends the bow's draw force curve up and to the right, thus increasing the area under the curve, which represents the amount of potential energy stored in the bow. The incremental potential energy (in ft-lbs) gained by an extra inch of draw length can be approximated by dividing the average draw weight (in lbs) over that extra inch by 12. For example, if a bow measures 50# at 30" and 52# at 31", approximately 4.25 ft-lbs of potential energy is gained as the bow is drawn from 30" to 31" (0.5 × [50 lbs + 52 lbs] × [1 in] ÷ [12 in/ft] = 51 lbs × 1 in ÷ 12 in/ft = 4.25 ft-lbs). How much arrow speed you would gain from that extra potential energy depends on arrow weight and how efficient the bow is at converting potential energy to kinetic energy. For a typical recurve, I would estimate a speed gain around 2 fps per additional ft-lb of potential energy.
ATA-force-draw-recurve.jpg
 
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bisblue

bisblue

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Are you asking about a longer draw or a longer arrow? The thread title says one and your post says the other.
I was curious about draw length. Just wondering if being taller got me more energy, than the standard draw length. Great explanation.
 

Psnguyen

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Jan 9, 2022
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Agreed with the above, when you pull longer, yes the limbs will bend and flex and store more potential energy, giving you more power. The arrow length doesn't play a factor in power but the overall arrow weight can play a role in the feet per second you will experience
 
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