Compound bows are designed for high arrow velocity, excellent accuracy and ease of use. This is accomplished by a system of strings and pulleys, called cams, who works as a "gearbox" so the draw weight decreases dramatically at full draw. This decrease is typically 65-80% and is called the bows Let-off. A bow with a draw weight of for example 100 lbs and 80% Let-off has a holding weight of only 20 lbs. This gives the shooter more time for aiming compared to a conventional recurve or longbow where the shooter must hold the entire draw weight at full draw. The compound bow is mainly used with a mechanical release aid which also increases the accuracy. Optical sights are also sometimes used, especially amongst target shooters.
There are two main categories of bows on the market today, two-cam system bows and one-cam system bows. The two-cam bows have two cams which must be very precisely synchronized to work properly and the one-cam bows have one cam and one round wheel which eliminates the synchronization problem. Both systems work very well if they are used properly so the choice of system is more of a personal preference. The one-cam system has gained an increasing popularity due to easier maintenance and tuning.
Compound bows are also made with two categories of shooters in mind, hunters and target shooters. The hunting bows are often a little shorter than target bows, but the trend goes against shorter bows also for target practice. A target bow has hardly ever a poundage over 60 lbs due to competition regulations. Hunting bows can be equipped with any draw weight adjusted to the shooters physical ability. The hunting bows are almost always painted with some camouflage pattern while the target bows can have whichever color the shooter likes.
The following sides contain a survey of bows from leading manufacturers starting with Mathews Bows.
Search |