Which Draw Weight is best for Me? FAQ 

this is like the Jean-Claude Van Damme of bows

I have seen a seller on Amazon tried to explain the ideal draw weight via the number of push ups you can do, which i call a complete nonsense, as archery uses very different muscle groups. I liked this one!

I started out with a 50 pound recurve and even though I'm a big guy I could only shoot ten to twelve arrows before putting it down. I was exhausted and wouldn't even touch my bow until days later ruining my accuracy. Now since I'm looking into horsebows and the different shooting technique I'm just going to get a 30 pound and go from there. My goal is to have fun. Accuracy THEN power!

I started on a 45lb BuckTrail Metis, fell in love with archery, but couldn't seem to get my technique right and get that consistency down. Only after that purchase I've started watching archery videos, found your channel, recently bought a 26lb Snake and I can finally work on my shot process, try out different anchor points, focus on my stance and on my release without the constant pressure of wanting to let go asap. Thank you very much!

Thank you for basically giving people permission to pit the ego down and focus on form development. 🙏

I'm new to archery. I am by no means a weakling, but after trying several bows in the shop I found even moderate draw weights uncomfortable, so I chose a 30 lb longbow. It felt good, I was hitting the target, and I wanted to keep shooting. I felt in control. Heavier bows were like work. I don't want to work.

Thank you for this from the future

25 years ago I used a 60 pound compound bow, now I want to start shooting again but I can't draw it anymore haha, I will buy a modern adjustable bow instead, was looking at the Bear Archery Legend XR, very adjustable and a good price.

I love your real-world advice and common sense guidance. Great video. Thank you for taking the time to make it and share it.

Refreshing to see someone get straight to the point... Awesome video as well.

Wow... you keep your word, and I’m impressed by this video. Sound logic all around, and definitely an eye opener about my naivety. Thanks for posting this!

I have been trying to decide on this for days now thank you very much you answered and made my decision for me in 3 minutes and 45 seconds so I have subscribed and I look forward to seeing more.

Armin, Thank you for all your knowledge of Archery, learned allot.

So true. Agree with you 100%. Nice, condensed vid. Great fun.

Thank you for an excellant video. You make perfect sense compared to some of the videos I have watched. Keep up the great work.

Deine Videos sind einfach Klasse. Ich hab so viel von dir gelernt. Danke. Danke. Mag das alles zu dir zurück kommen ...

Great help and making the video in a satirical way is perfect for my sense of humor!

Incredibly helpful thank you.

Perfect, thank you!

Excellent advice! Thanks! I use 25 lbs bow (am just a beginner), feels comfortable and as you said, easier to notice what I am doing wrong.

This Video is pure gold. Thanks a lot.

So true, most people go right out and over pound them self. Very good information. Another great video.

This was very helpful! Thank you!

Thank you for the insight! Now I know more.

Wow,this really was helpful. Just getting my first horse bow,and wanted an expert to give me advice on poundage. Thanks for answering my questions. Best wishes.

Thanks for the info!

perfect. everything I needed. good job 👏👏👏

so helpful, thank you!

Thank you. This just saved my muscles.

I think you are the best of all. You are a very good teacher. thank you for your all excellent videos. Best regards from Turkey.

excellent advise, thank you

Excellent, thank you

Thanks for this Video.

I would love to join your Archery classes I love the way you teach

Thanks Armin

A great vidéo again with so much great and good informations. Thx

Love his character.,,,

Sage advice, Armin, as usual. Flaxen Saxon

Howdy from Corpus Christi Texas. Outstanding video 👍 👍 thank you

Great videos, thanks!

Great video, thank you .

Your content is great ... Live long and keep posting

Great video!

The man just addressed the most common mistake made in archery..I wish more would listen..I started archery at a young age with a proper draw weight.I became very accurate at target and hunting archery.I dropped out of archery for several years to pursue other things.When i came back to it,i overbowed myself and struggled to the point of giving it up entirely..I swallowed my pride and ego and built a lighter bow to fix my shooting and recovered my shooting form and it became fun,once again..A wise man told me,control the shot,dont let the shot control you..I like the 10 second test...

Thank you, good sir.

Very useful till this day !

Lots of useful information and advice.

I've just purchased my first longbow after years of compound bow shooting. I've listened to your advice and picked up a 68-inch 30lb Oak Ridge Northaro as my first bow. I tried the same bow in 50lb draw weight and decided I didn't want to fight the bow while I learned the ropes. With 30lbs, it is a joy to go out and shoot 50 arrows and just concentrate on my technique .

Thank You 😊

I wish I knew this when I started with a 40lb bow and got injured. I just got a 20lb bow and am much happier!

Excellent tutorial very nice! All beginners should see this video 1st!

Amazing content! Flash back 3 years ago. Accidentally saw some videos on archery and after several months watching archery videos, I convinced myself (and my wife) to buy one. I bought a standard recurve in an archery shop; a Cartel Sirius Plus set. Tested several limbs with different draw weights. They gave me 30-ish limbs to start. Felt miserable draw! I kept asking for lower draw weight. I never learned archery before and I'm not that fit. I also have back pain so have to be extra careful. Finally settled with 20 pounds bow. They said it was too light for me and I will need heavier weight soon. I said no, this is the draw weight I feel comfortable to start with. Start training right away. Man, I was struggling even with 20 pounds bow. I even stopped training for a while due to the shoulder pain. After that, I only shoot occasionally. So most of times my bow just collecting dust. Fast forward current time. For the last few months, I trained regularly together with my son. This morning, I shot 111 arrows; from 5 meter, 10 rounds, 11 arrows per round, less than 30 minutes. Same old bow, 20 pounds. Tight grouping, no missed target area. So relax, so much FUN! Now, I finally feel ready to try heavier limbs. Thinking of buying 26 or 28 pounds Sirius Plus limbs. This video (together with Nu Sensei video on choosing the right draw weight) are the one that I watched 3 years ago. Guided me, to start with lower draw weight. I thank you, Sir. You have made my archery journey enjoyable. :)

very practical tips

Excellent video. Right after I got my first "horsebow" (for lack of a better word), I decided I wanted to try thumb release. Unfortunately, while it's draw weight is just fine for me with Mediterranean, it's far too heavy with thumb. Soon after, I got a 30# Alibow Turkish fiberglass bow to practice thumb release with, and it's really helping (and since even my lightest arrows are too heavy and stiff for it, your advice on khatra form helped immensely with that as well). Currently, I'm considering getting a couple more thumb rings, to see if there's another type I prefer.

Thank you

Great advice to start of write, get good form, have fun, look good doing it. :)

A good watch!

Thanks for the reality check, its way to easy to let our egos get the better of us

Great information

thank you

we had the same discussion on a Romanian FB archery page, when I said the same thing: especially for horsebows (they have let off) you should be able to hold 10 sec at maximum draw to be comfortable and proficient in shooting. Here, there was a trend with 80-90 pounds bows. I am glad that is over, because it got me started with 50 pounds in thumb archery, and after 3 years of struggling I got down to 35 and I feel great. Even so, I have to learn from the beginning, and even worse, I got to get reed of the bad habits. Good work with this channel, I wish there where more like this.

Very helpful

Very true, Armin. I'm an extremely thin person due to an unhealthy lifestyle, and having bought a thirty pound bow (which I do struggle with after ten secs) I quickly realised that it would be no use to try practising with it. So I'm waiting to get myself one of the Snake bows at the lowest draw weight to learn on and build up the muscles and form without the risk of injury or putting myself off the idea of archery completely.

Ous! Thank you!

very nice video, thank you

London calling!his advice is 100% accurate.very knowledgeable man

Thank you for this video. After almost 20 years of taekwondo my knees said: no more high jumps and I was introduced to archery and will start with next month. Dreaming of a longbow or flatbow (which I learn this is what I mean) since childhood I will try one with 62 inches and 25 lb/ pretty enough for me I guess (f, 57 y old, in pretty good condition). I hope the martial arts training for many years will help to adapt to the techniques in archery but I also learned:“do“ is my personal way. Thanks so much for the great videos and how you move looks great. You definitely met the wood in the cycle of stages a second time ☺️

Very informative thanks, and this guy is hilarious :)

lol that was funny and informative

very good

That’s for the help from this video

Just got my first bow (an X7 Blitzwolf/Thunderwolf / Junxing) 30lbs and despite having slight difficulties doing a full draw yet (getting there with practice) I'm honestly relieved that 30lbs is an ideal starting point even for a noodle like me at times. Thanks!

Thanks for the information

The Cool Zen Master more like it...wish there was someone like this out here..but alas it's a snob a torium...thank you Sensei..👍

I will say that being a massage therapist made my thumbs insanely strong, so shooting thumb is easier for me inherently than three fingers. I've done it a few years, otherwise, it'd be starting from scratch. Based on watching you perfect technique should stem from the lats and rhomboids in the back. Can just look at Bruce Lee's back for a good visual, lol. Most of us have strong rhomboids from typing, etc, but lats are underused so focusing there will help the most with assisting the drawing arm.

hi armin, excellent video as always. i really like the style of the horese bow u use in this video, which one is it please?

I had to start at 40 just because of hunting laws where I live. I was accurate from day one though. I was told its its hard to be accurate with a bow. Just had to play around for about 5 minutes then I found where hold. Ive gone to a compound bow now just for the bow and range advantage but my recurve is still fun to play with every once and while.

Great Video Armin thanks! Totally agree. Just want to share my way. You sent me on a quest in November 2017 to learn thumb release and shoot horsebows. Was shooting 60 - 65# Compounds for nine years at that time. Never in my life I shot 3 fingers. So I got a Snake Bow in 28# just to see and try. Then I got a Flagella Scythian in 30#, and additionally a Alibow Fiberglass Turkish in 30# just to see how short bows click for me. I really struggled with the new world of "thumb release" but I liked it really much. Shot almost every day. Learned that my thumb needs a thumbring tried many, found the right ones. Then I got the book by Justin Ma and learned Gao Yings form. Needed 7 Month of continous iterations to get the form good. Training at every occasion. Then went to a Alibow Fiberglass Ghengis Khan in 35# which is still fun today. My do all, go everywhere bow. Take it with me on trips and shoot in the woods. But then I got the Ming Emperor III in 40# (@28") which is 49# (@31" my draw). And boy, I could now really "feel" the bow. And I learned what handshock is when I switched back to the fiberglass bows lol. The Ming Emp is just so great. Then I needed another 2 month just to get khatra into the form and do the right thing with the bow hand. Because even when Gao says dont do it, it just "feels" way better to do it. That where nine month and that was the point where I was able to group consistenly with all of my bows even when switching bows and arrows. Do the same thing all the time, just minor adaptions. I would say yes, everytime start low as a beginner so you can successfully iterate through your form every shot. But then it depends. For me the higher poundages start to give me a real "feeling" for the bow. I like it. But I worked my way up to there. If your goal is Olympic Recurve you need to be able to shoot your ends without fatigue. No question. If you just want to enjoy archery for the pure plinking fun of it without going up in poundage, great do it! My goal on the other end is on some day be able to feel what "they" felt. A 80# horsebow. Like Gao Ying said that was there military entry level. That is my goal to go there some day, working my way up. And buying new, heavier bows on the way up there, so I can enjoy many of them ;-) Now there is an Akinci on the way to me, the next step up in #. After doing all this I lost the interest in my compounds. Dead capital in the basement now ;-)

I'm surprised nobody mentions exercise bands. They are sold in sets for $15 and include 15, 20, 25 lbs and pull from 12"-35". I use them to warm up my archery muscles but they are also handy for the draw weight test.

I wish I had watched this video before I went out and bought a 50# recurve.

Excellent video! I’m 67 years old in average physical condition and I’m getting ready to start my first archery lessons. This video really helped me to choose the right bow weight. Well done. I have a 29.5 inch draw length so for my first bow I plan to buy a 60” Black Hunter recurve or 62” Black Hunter hybrid longbow with a 25-30 lb. draw weight. I would love to get your opinion on this.

In your room, practice drawing the heavy one with proper form. Good repetitions. Start with 3 sets of 5. Then eventually you will get stronger.

I'm starting with a 50, wish me luck lol. Haven't shot much, did use a long bow few years back, maybe it was 40lbs. Didn't be to much trouble, may need leather finger straps though

I shoot a 55 pound bow as my first bow and didn’t have many problems. I’m 16 but 6’4ish but I do believe everyone is different.

Very helpful. Subscribed just got the "don't do it" vibe

The weekly 3min videos are great and always helpful. I've been really getting into stump shooting (not strictly stumps) and working up in draw weight. Anyone know at what draw weight stump shooting starts to really destroy arrows (if I stick to 10gpp)?

40 lbs is good middle ground. It’s not heavy but powerful enough to reach far away targets and also to hunt big game.

About a month ago I bought my first bow it's a fiberglass horsebow with 35 lbs draw weight and after a month practice now I buy another bow but with 27 lbs draw weight to practice my form 😀 A common beginner mistakes

Wow! Great video! I recently purchased a #15 compound bow for my 7 year old son. Hes having trouble drawing it back. Any suggestions on a bow that might fit him better? I'm not seeing a lot of youth bows that have lighter draw weights online.

I just got myself a 45lb bow, I've done archery before, and I climb, so I have a strong back, etc etc. I can draw it and I can shoot it, but this is just not ideal for me to practice, my fingers are in pain every time I draw it hahahahaha, plus no matter how much I climb, my shoulders are so weak, so I can't hold my draw for long. So now after watching this video I'm getting a 25Lb bow so that I can be more comfy and focus on technique. Thank you!

He even did the cumate salute

My husband's bow is 50lbs and I can pull it, but I think I'll go with a 35lb bow because of this video. :) My compound bow is heavier than that but it's a compound bow lol.

Where can i buy the bow you showed at 0:18 . Im looking for one that looks exactly like that

I'm a bit late, but nicely explained 👍

Hi mr Armin, can you tell mr please what is the little green bow you show in the video?

God, I remember when I got my first bow (38lbs) and shot it for two days almost non-stop. After that my fingers were so swollen that I barely could bend them for like a week :)

Is that an alibow that you show at the end? $70 one?

I started with a 50ib bow just because it's what i had. I didn't have money for a new bow when I was younger but I eventually got good with it at about 50-60 ft out. It required more practice and shorter practice sessions which in turn probably slowed down my technique learning though.

I want to buy the 240Lbs bow, just for an attempt, how hard can they hit? Just curious, I'll never be able to pull it though

What bow was that last one you showed? I want to start thumb release and need something light and cheap.