First compound bow: Draw weight help?

any bowhunters out there have a good idea for what kind of draw weight i should look for on my first compound bow? going to get my first one and unfortunately there is nowhere near me to try out bows and feel whats comfortable so i have to look for one online. gonna be hunting deer, goats, pig and mouflon. my draw length is 29in and im 6'0 210 pretty fit build dont know if that matters but anyone have a good idea what i should look for? thanks

 

70 lbs should be fine.

 

go straight to 70lb..it's easy.

plus you can turn the limbs down in the beginning if you feel stressed about it.
(my mathews will turn down 10lbs with no problems)

 

a modern 60lbs bow would get it done if you want to go that way..

you Hawaii guys have a cool outdoor option..cool beast to chase..cool fish to catch. lucky.

 

I agree with the other guys. 70 lbs draw should be perfect for you. I shoot 29" draw at 70 lbs. I'm 6'2" 170 lbs

 

70 lbs.. I have an older compound that is 90 lbs which is brutal.

 

a 70 will be fine.

 

Thank u all. The bow I was looking at was gonna be in the 55-70 range but they will adjusts draw weight for me so what your all saying is have it adjusted to 70lbs right? Sry I'm a noob lol

 

I pull 72, lbs when I'm deer hunting, the bow I use for fishing is only 60 lbs. hope that helps

 

I'd start out on the lowest end, if you have never had a compound bow you need to practice technique until it becomes automatic, then you can increase the draw weight. If you start at a high draw and learn bad technique it's a lot harder to improve. I don't know about pigs but I know 50 lbs is plenty for deer.

What the hells a mouflon??

 

looks like these guys are dead on.
55,60,65,70# should all be sufficient.
because they are adjustable, 70# may draw hard at first, but by practicing at a lighter draw weight, and using certain muscles, the heavier draw wt. will get easier. You may even feel more comfortable with a 60# draw.

 

What he said^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

50lbs is plenty for everything you listed. I recomend a 60lb bow. On many of the wide adjustable range bows, the lower you adjust the poundage the louder and more vibration they seem to make (in my experience anyway). Most 60lb bows are rated for 61 or 62lbs anyway. All that is happening when you lower the poundage is your backing the limb bolts out which gives a lighter limb pocket to limb fit creating more noise and vibration.

 

mouflon = corsican ram. i think.

what bow allows you to have that much adjustment range? i know of several, but which one are you after?

 

Yeah 50 pounds is plenty. The pull on my pse is 70. But definite start low. Just don't back the limbs out too far. And never ever dry fire it

 

Im guessing a Mission

 

I pull 75# with ease and it does just fine for pushin thru a deer (probably more than enough), sounds like we're about the same size, you shouldn't have any issues with what you're lookin at

EDIT: x2 on the "Never dry-fire"

 

I usually stay around 60#..........my Mathews shoots fast enough at 60,and my shoulders are close to worn out. On newer bows.......60is fine. You can always go up and readjust a tad.

 

Mine is a Mission adjustable from 50 - 70 lbs. So that is a good way to go.

 

If it's your first bow, you'll probably want a lower draw weight just so you can get a decent amount of practice in. Personally I bought an older Bear for about $25 that had a peak draw weight of 50#. After firing a bunch at 40#, replacing the string (I literally shot my target out ), and firing a lot more at 50#, I finally felt competent enough to buy the PSE, and it's still around 60# (peak 70, I backed it off a wee bit). Once I get the muscles for it, then I'll turn it up.

Then there's the let-off. If you're only allowed to hunt with 65% in your area, you may want to consider a lower draw weight. With 80% let-off it'll feel like you can stand there at full draw all day in comparison.

It's all about the distance. Speed gives you distance. It both flattens the trajectory and helps beat the instinctive jerk of your quarry. It doesn't do jack squat for killing power, unless you get the arrow bouncing off bone or something. Once you're north of 70# on a hard cam bow, it's really for those 40+ yard shots that I personally won't try.

Modern bows are so much faster at the same weight too. Look around the internet for comparisons of different cam types and how they affect speed. My old Bear is a wheel bow, so it has a smooth draw but only about a 40% let-off and because of the mechanical advantage of the wheels (it only needs 50# of force at half-draw, and less everywhere else) it won't crack 160 fps with my arrows. In comparison the single cam PSE is much more aggressive, i.e. it can give more force to the arrow through more of the rotation of the cam than the old wheels, so even with 400 grain arrows is north of 260 fps. It gives peak draw weight for about 2/3 of the draw cycle.

Then there's cam and a half, and dual cam bows, each with benefits and drawbacks. In general the dual cams can give the most speed but the tradeoff is that the peak weight of draw happens pretty much anywhere in the string's travel (except at full release and full draw) so a 60# hard dual cam can feel as hard to draw as a 70# milder single cam.

Another rule of thumb is that if you have two bows of the same model but different peak draw weights, say a 60# bow and a 70# bow, and you back out the limb bolts of the second bow so it draws 60#, it'll shoot slower than the bow that peaks at 60. Wierd, but that's the way it goes. That's the main reason (that and vibration as previously said) you want to be near your draw weight goal.

Consider brace height too (distance from riser handle to string), in general the faster bows have smaller brace height as the string travel takes up more of the draw length. More brace height is more forgiving for twitching, and literally takes less energy to draw at the same draw weight because the draw distance is less; when you're down to the 5" range, sometimes you'd swear that coughing the next day will influence your shot until you get a lot of practice.

Much more to consider with a compound bow than just draw, but good luck on your purchase.

Just don't be like my 1st stepdad. 95# wheel bow with 50% letoff on a 31" draw, just to make 220 fps... although, he was buff. I couldn't even pull that string back 6".

Another little tidbit, don't believe that IBO speed. That assumes 30" draw, 70# weight, and a 250 grain arrow. Most bow manufacturers void your warranty if you shoot an arrow with less than 5 grains per pound of draw weight because of risk of vibration damage to the limbs. That means a 70# bow should have a 350 grain arrow, minimum. D'oh!