performance

[steven49]

[:)] I am so new at bow hunting that I haven't started as of yet. I brought a PSE  thinking I was bidding on a 70 pound bow and got a 40. okay, I need to practice alot before I give it a try anyway. But, like cars, can you soup up a bow to produce more poundage? What tricks are there? Cams, arrows new limbs? Please someone save this dummie

[Randy3003]

Not enough can be done to turn it into a 70lb bow, or even close for that matter.  Sell it or better yet take it back if you can and this time make sure of what you're buying before you spend your hard earned money.

[JPH]

A compound bow can have the draw weight reduced but not increased beyond it's initial design. It looks like you are stuck with a 40 lb. bow for the time being. But that may not be all bad.

You said you are a beginner. How old are you? How big are you? If you are young and/or small of stature you may benefit from learning to shoot with a light draw weight. I think a lot of archers are too quick to go out and hunt, before they have developed the required skills.

Can you hunt with a 40 lb. bow? Yes, but it is on the light side. You will need to be careful in your choice of arrows and broadheads and you will need to stay within your effective range (which might be 20 yards).

[Lot to Learn]

in addition to what JPH said, why do you want a 70lb bow? you do not need it to take deer.  Most bow shops will have used bows if you are going that route.  Go in and shoot and make sure you are comfortable with the bow, let them know what your plans are, hunting, target, whatever.   I think the smartest thing I did was walk in and tell them, I don't know anything.   Also, not sure what your price range is, but look at bass pro and cabela's, online, they have some nice package get you going that are not too crazy. 

[Woods Walker]

If you want bowhunt, then the first thing you need to do is to learn how to properly shoot a bow.

The foundation of shooting ANY bow is the aim/draw/anchor/release/followthrough sequence, of which there are no shortcuts or gizmos that you can substitute with. These are all steps which must me learned by THOUSANDS of repetitions so that they become ingrained in your muscle memory.

One of the worst ways to attempt this learning process is by being overbowed. If the first thing that enters your mind when you draw your bow is the draw weight(because you cannot help but notice it), then you're overbowed, and the learning curve will be all that much longer, and you very well also learn some bad habits or develop form flaws because you are compensating for the excessive draw weight.

Ever see an archer point their bow towards the sky, like they are making an offering to the bow gods when they draw? Guess what, I'll bet that the vast majority of them are overbowed.

A compound bow (OR stickbow) with a max peak draw weight of 55 to 60 pounds is MORE than adequate for any whitetail deer that walks the planet, provided that you can hit what you're aiming at, you know WHERE to put that arrow, and you use SHARP broadheads. In fact, this will more than likely shoot THROUGH any deer you hunt at reasonable ranges.

As long as you have a 40# bow, why don't you use it to LEARN how to shoot a bow, and then move up 10 pounds to a heavier hunting bow. I can assure you that you're learning curve will be shorter, and you will have a MUCH more enjoyable time of it as you will be more accurate.

It's July right now. Even if you shoot 4 or 5 times a week for 20 minutes, you'd still be pushing it to think about hunting with a bow in 2 months (remember what I said about thousands of repetitions?). And if you did, you should DEFINATELY limit yourself to shots of 12 yards or less, which even a 40# bow can handle as long as you know where to place the arrow.

Take your time, do it right, and ENJOY THE JOURNEY!

[Lot to Learn]

That's beautiful Woods.   Bring us back to earth.  Made me think of the line from Jurasik Park,  the scientist were so worried about if they could, they never stopped to ask if they should. 

[Woods Walker]

That was a good flick. I especially liked that line about "Life finds a way" when they were talking about genetics and mutations.

You can mess with nature, but ultimately you can't fool God.

[Woods Walker]

Here's another old tip I remembered.

Take your bow and sit on a bucket or stool. Now with your bow/bow arm down at your side, slowly raise it and draw at the same time. Now hold at full draw for a count of 10 seconds. If you can't break it over, or you have a lot of difficulty or you start shaking, as you hold that draw then you are overbowed. What this does is make you draw and hold entirely with your back and shoulder muscles, which is how you ought to be doing it anyway. That, and when you are in a hunting situation, where you may have been sitting still for hours and it's cold, you need to be able to draw the bow slowy and with little movement under the worst of conditions. High draw weights do NOT help with this.

[trapperDave]

A 40# compound can kill ANY game animal in North America,,,,and not just at 20 yds and closer Heck, its been done with 40# recurves and longbows  lol

[scottflesher]

steven, I agree with Woodsie, 40#'s is plenty. You may not penetrate the shoulder, but not many bowhunters in their right mind shoot at the shoulder on purpose. A well placed shot in the ribs/lungs/chest will be a fatal shot with most poundages.

another area you can experiment with to help offset a lower draw weight is the weight of your arrow. This will help increase the speed of your shot which would likely improve your effective range.

I think the moral of the story is that you're better off being a good shot with a lower poundage, than a decent shot with a higher poundage. You can play with arrow weights to neutralize your arrow speed and effective range.