bow tuning

[island guy]

I finally found a nice used bow for my 17 year old. Mathews Q2. My question is this. It is set at 70lb. He is strong, but wants to turn it down to 60 figuring he can shoot more arrows without getting so sore. He would gradually turn it back to 70 for hunting season. He can handle 70 but wears out before he is ready to quit shooting. What, if any, would be the negatives with going to 60??

[PerchJerker]

I am by no means an expert on bow tuning, but I would venture a guess that going from 70 lbs to 60 lbs PROBABLY won't affect anything other than the site pins. I'd guess the arrows will still fly fine assuming the bow is in tune now, and I'd guess the arrows will be spined OK for 60 or 70 lbs.

If he's going to shoot 60 lbs all or most of the summer, I'd suggest he shoots that for hunting season too. No reason to be messing around right before hunting season, and 60 lbs of draw is plenty (as long as the arrows fly good and are accurate).

[Deitz Dittrich]

Island guy- You want to be sure that the bow is able to shoot 60 lbs... Each bow is set with cables and strings and limbs to match a pound bow. Most bows then have a shooting range of 10 lbs swing. anotherwords 60-70.. however, its possible that your sons bow is a 70-80?.. or 60-70?.. if its the 60-70 then YES not a problem at all to turn it down. You would probably have to re-adjust the sight pins and string knock, maybe a slight ajustment to the rest and re-paper tune. Your arrows will probably be under spined as well.

Just make sure that you turn both limb bolts out the exact same. maybe brining it in to a pro shop and having them do it is not a bad idea!

Deitz

[island guy]

His bow is 60-70.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Great... then turning it down to 60 will not be a problem... Again a proshop is still a good idea! The only real difference you may notice is that the bow will make a little more noise. And again, your arrows may be a little over spined. Maybe just for practice, step up your field head weight to offset your loss in bow power to make up the spine on your arrows... Again, a proshop should be able to help you there again!

Best of luck...

FYI, My hunting bow goes from 50-65 lbs.. and I practice most of the year at 50 lbs so I can fling a lot of arrows.. so your son is making the right decision!

[delmuts]

ya but you're getting old deitz ! he's young !! ( i owed you that one !) you are right on with ; if you are very familiar with bows and adjusting them by all means have at it. but if you are not sure, take to a shop and have them show you.as suggested, by increasing the weight of the target pt. you will soften the spine on a shaft. if he plans to hunt with the bow at 70, then this sumer is the great time to slowly work his way up to that lbs.

[ghotierman]

If you do turn the limbs out yourself...check the manufacturers suggestions...usually you should not turn out more than four complete turns....start with the bolts turned all the way in!...then back each out a turn at a time.

pro-shop is great advice...most of us will have the bowscale handy to check the poundage as well.

even keeping it a 60lbs will be sufficient for hunting. it's a fast bow to begin with. the biggest problem a lot of new bowhunters have is pulling to much poundage. i've had kid's in here wanting to turn up poundage because they can pull it "easy"....then i watch them go through a series of contortions to reach let-off. I can pull 70...if i have too...but like Dietz...i'm gettin older (and WISER) and prefer to keep mine at about 58-60lbs....much smoother form...can shoot around of 60 arrows with reaching for the ben-gay...and come hunting season, i know i can confidently and QUIETLY draw the bow.

[I'llTakeWhatiCanGet]

Yeah, just make sure he can draw it smoothly, without having to aim straigh up and make a lot of movement. I like to keep my poundage set to the point where I would almost think of turning it up. There'll likely be many days when he'll sit for hours in cold weather and if he's pulling all he can possibly pull in a range situation, that weight will be extremely hard to get back with cold, stiff joints. Just my $.02

Porter