Draw length/efficiency ?

[Chris B]

Hey guys , looking at a new to me used Bowtech . At a 27.5" inch draw would a specific short draw model be enough of a gain in efficiency over a standard 25"-30" draw model ?
In the standard draw models how much does going down to 27.5" affect the valley , letoff and general feel ?
Unless the SD models are in the running I'm still undecided on a specific model.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[Billy Goat]

Most of the bows that are shorter DL specific really just have a shorter brace height. So depending on what you are looking for, it might or might not be worth the changes. You will gain a 1/2-1" (5-10fps) of power stroke, so in effect it will be like shooting a bow at an inch longer DL at most. However you generally sacrifice a little bit of forgiveness, also clearance for clothes.


Some cams with rotating mods you end up on a lower end performance wise, but just depends on the specific cam. It shouldn't effect let-off.

 

[nphunter]

You want an actual smaller cam for SD to be more efficient. Hoyt makes a #2 cam bow and PSE makes EM cams and SE cams depending on th bow for shorter draw guys.

You will be giving up a lot of speed and also shooting a much less efficient cam shooting off of the bottom of the cam. A Hoyt shooting 28” off of the bottom of a #3 will draw easier but have a very unforgiving valley and want to take off, it will also be much slower 6-8fps vs a #2. The #2 cam also draws a little stiffer and drops into the valley and stays there just like their #3 cams at 30” like they were designed for.

PSE is similar, I just built a SD bow, my original bow had EC2 cam, it drew easily but was super slow at 28” too slow for me. I was shooting a 453gr arrow at like 258fps at 70lbs. Put some EM2 cams on which max out at 27.75” and the bow is shooting the same arrow at 266fps at 63lbs. So I will have almost gained 20fps by the time I put 70lb limbs back on it. It still has a nice draw cycle and with high letoff mods which I have it has a great valley I can relax in and not have it want to rip my arm off.

IMO shooting off the bottom of a cam sucks and I will never do it again.

Like Billy mentioned most SD bows have a short BH and also a short ATA to get speed easier. Both of those things lead to a less forgiving bow. Figure out which are the most important things to you and buy or build a bow to match. Nobody is really making a good SD bow right now IMO, that’s why I built my own with a 34” ATA, 6.7” BH and a 341IBO.

 

[bowhuntercoop]

Shoot me a pm, I’ve had over 30 short draw specific bows back in my compound days. Will be glad to fill ya in with tuning and review info with number, I’ve kept a journal of all of them with arrow weight and speeds, animals I killed, etc. a draw length specific mod and cam is much much more efficient then rotating mods.

Quick note every #1 cam Hoyt in the e slot has been 9-15 fps faster depending on the bow compared to a #2 cam in the a slot. Much better valley and back walls as well.