120 lb Compound Bows.Fact or Fiction?

[bowbot]

A guy I was chatting to was adamant his Golden Eagle bow is set for 120 lbs.

Do such mythical poundages even exist in the world of compound bows?

Even if they did, damned if I want to continuously pull one back.

Have looked on the net, and the major brands seem to go up to about 70 lbs.

My Diablo is set at 65, and that is all I need, or would ever want.

[Friar Tuck]

It is possible to get bows in much higher poundage than 70.

Bowtech will do one in 100# but they won't warranty the bow for that special order.

There are definately people who can pull 100# + and have these bows. An older South African bloke at our club has an 80# and 90# bow which he used to use.

You are correct that 70# is probably plenty but then a 4 cylinder car is plenty to drive you around as well - doesn't mean people don't want V8's :D

[2Dogs]

Rob Donnerly had a 100# bow in his kit, that people used to be able to try to pull back.

He had it out at last years Ipswich 3D..... only 3 of us pulled it back.

I know that some of the bows used for those world speed records were 160#

[Brett k]

Cess Wilkinson had a PSE that was well over 100#. He used it to hunt in South Africa.

[STRINGWALKER]

Mike Benson had a jennings elephant bow in the shop (mid 1980's) at 100 lbs with 30% let off and let me tell ya it was tough getting that thing over the hump.....

[bowbot]

Just goes to show that you learn something new each day.

Way too much oomph for me though.

Thanks for the info.

[perry]

Back in 1980 or 81 Jennings produced a so called elephant bow based on the t star or super t from memory , one fella we called junior had one set at 120 pound 30% letoff ,cant remember what he used for arrows other than they were alloy .

[Jacob Goodwin]

A few years ago, I found myself going through a "I need to be a real man and shoot a real heavy bow" phase. As a result I bought a Mathews Safari Custom, which is their "big game" bow. It's draw weight was 100lbs and it weighed 5.5lbs barebow. For it's draw weight, the bow was quite nice to pull, but not particularly practical for most hunting applications.

Eventually, I came to my senses, put my ego away and went back to a sane bow.

I then sold the Safari to the next schmuck who was going through a "I need to be a real man..." phase

[ReG_C]

i went through that stage, but i settled for 70# i still have the feeling to 'be a man' and go upto 80# but i think that would be my absolute limit (until i can draw heavier ;) )

[violator]

what would it be like if you had to let down?? or would it have to be a big punch and steer and pray for the best? i dont see why you have to go over 60#, that seems to be enough in every asspect of the sport.

[ReG_C]

the way I see it is, if you can draw it, all well and good, but you do indeed need the strength to be able to let-down aswell, the higher the poundage, the higher the kinetic energy, the more speed, the more penetration, it is the ethics of hunting
sure 60# will do the job on most animals, but for some of the larger game, you need higher penetration to hit vitals to ensure a clean, humane harvest

:thumb:

[wiggles]

So what size animal would warrant over 70pd and do you eat them/ are they feral?

[Brett k]

So what size animal would warrant over 70pd and do you eat them/ are they feral?

Rhino, elephant Ive got some very old bowhunting mags that talk about it. Some of the guys would put a smaller arrows inside of a larger one (like Russian dolls) then fill the centre with sand.

[wiggles]

So the animals requiring 70+ pds arn't feral and you can't eat them. Sorry, really can't see the point. It's like catch and release fishing.

[bowbot]

I see they are proposing an elephant cull in South Africa...may be a good time to hunt some elephants....gulp.

If you get the shot wrong and have no rifle back up...you may well end up as a stain on the landscape.

[Matatazela]

I see they are proposing an elephant cull in South Africa...may be a good time to hunt some elephants....gulp.

If you get the shot wrong and have no rifle back up...you may well end up as a stain on the landscape. The cull works differently to hunting a single animal. The generally use dart guns and massive doses of scoline.

The entire herd / family group must be culled, or you end up with delinquent sub-adults, who have no adults to teach them / put them in their place.

You can still book ellie hunts north of us, though.

BTW - 100 pounds is more than enough for an ellie. 50 paces and he will go down, if you hit him in the right spot. The fastest killing shot is not a heart shot, but a lung shot.

However, Mr. Murphy is alive and well, and he walks with big game hunters. What can go wrong generally will.

[apeman]

This has been very interesting reading. I am only new to archery and have never hunted with a bow (only with smal rifles) but having discussed the issue of poundage with a lot of very experienced bow hunters it seems that anything over 45# is enough to go clean through most animals that are hunted in Aus. I'm sure that if you were hunting buffalo with overlapping ribs or something similar you would need something higher, as well as chiseal points. The one thing that I have found through these discusions for both hunting and target shooting is that even though you can just draw a bow at say 70# you have to do it for years which is not too good for your body. Better to lower the poundage and be able to shoot comfortably, which also means that you can hold the drawn bow for a lot longer if waiting for the perfect kill shot. But hell, what do I know.:beer_drink:

[Eberbachl]

the way I see it is, if you can draw it, all well and good, but you do indeed need the strength to be able to let-down aswell, the higher the poundage, the higher the kinetic energy, the more speed, the more penetration, it is the ethics of hunting
sure 60# will do the job on most animals, but for some of the larger game, you need higher penetration to hit vitals to ensure a clean, humane harvest

:thumb:

Don't forget that today's high performance 60lb compound bows have much higher speed and kinetic energy than 60lb compounds of only a few years ago.

It may have been true a few years ago that you needed big poundage for some animals, but things change, and the old "must shoot huge poundage to hunt effectively" rule is simply no longer true.

[ReG_C]

thats what I have thought about, and hence my reason to change my 'wish-list' for an 80lb bow to a 70lb one :thumb: I would still assume that 70lb would be faster than 60lb (in most circumstances)

[Eberbachl]

thats what I have thought about, and hence my reason to change my 'wish-list' for an 80lb bow to a 70lb one :thumb: I would still assume that 70lb would be faster than 60lb (in most circumstances)

Depends on the bow.

Of course, say a 70lb Allegiance will hit harder than a 60lb Allegiance (all else being equal), but I'd rather hunt with a 60lb Allegiance than a 70lb Nova :thumb:

[jas-legolas]

bear whitehall 2 130 pound on ebayhttp://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b45/queensparrow/duel.gif