# Does dialing down the draw weight by backing off the screws affect accuracy



## Robspartacus (Feb 20, 2017)

Reducing weight by backing out limbs changes your brace height and draw length slightly. If you change DL that can and will hurt accuracy. As far as speed, yes it can and will change your speed. A 70# bow turned down to 60# will not be as fast as a 60# bow maxed out (generally). 

Do not worry about damage or none of that. Make the bow comfortable. You won't hurt anything unless you back out too far. 

Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk


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## Repair Man (Sep 13, 2014)

Robspartacus said:


> Reducing weight by backing out limbs changes your brace height and draw length slightly. If you change DL that can and will hurt accuracy. As far as speed, yes it can and will change your speed. A 70# bow turned down to 60# will not be as fast as a 60# bow maxed out (generally).
> 
> Do not worry about damage or none of that. Make the bow comfortable. You won't hurt anything unless you back out too far.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk


Ooooo You are opening up a can of controversy. Im with you on backing out limbs to get lower poundage. So much can and will change. I prefer to max out lower poundage limbs myself.


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## Bikeman CU (Nov 27, 2005)

The bows made today are more efficient than older bows. With better cams and limb materials backing off the draw weight will change brace height, draw length and axel to axel distance slightly. The actual performance is still very good. As a new shooter, set the bow up to be comfortable to shoot and work on consistent form. Being over bowed, too heavy draw weight, will cause bad habits. Back the draw weight off and use the correct spine arrow. Read the manual to determine how many turns the limb bolts can be backed off. Speed is fine, accuracy is final.


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## merlinron (Mar 23, 2020)

you can back some bows off enough that they start loosing enough tension in the rig to produce good accuracy. it's always better to have the limbs maxed out or nearly so. when you get a bow, you should have a good idea of what the bow will be used for and order limbs that max out near the draw weight you want to shoot at. as for backing limbs off, ...as long as you stay within the spec'd range of draw weight adjustment, the bow should perform completely satisfactory. the rule about bottoming your limbs out makes a more accurate bow is actually from years ago when bows didn't have the precise, tight fitting limb pockets bows have now. years ago, backing off a limb could result in the limb moving around slightly from shot to shot, which of course would degrade accuracy.


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## peholden (Nov 27, 2019)

Thank you all for your input. I think I'll adjust for comfort and worry about draw weight as I get stronger.

Pete


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## Piasecznik (Sep 30, 2016)

ILF fitting has very small range of adjustment. If you back your tiller bolts too much (but still with few treads holding it) limb detent assembly will be on such angle that will damage limb pocket and force limb out. Tiller bolt to far in will damage your limb by tiller cap.
Limb will work best when parallel to limb pocket and tiller bolt cap with as little as one tiller bolt turn in or out from this position. More than that is not ideal. Gillo GT has completely different approach to limb adjustment but it is quite new design. Not sure how it would prove itself over time.


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

peholden said:


> Reading the manual for my new bow (I'm new to all of this) I noticed a comment about bows working best when at their maximum draw weight for the limbs. Are they refering to the accuracy or do they just mean that the maximum draw weight will produce the fastest arrow flight? I'm shooting targets and would hate to think that doing something the bow is designed to do (reducing draw weight) would make it less accurate.
> 
> Thanks. Pete


Manual or not I've shot enough bows that weren't maxed out and they had outstanding accuracy. One 70 pound bow I kept to 62 pounds and no doubt one of the most accuracy bows I've ever owned.

Most bows today have a range of 10 pounds - okay, 60 down 50, 70 down 60. My 2009 Pearson has a range of 50/60 and my newer Pearsons have only a 5 pound range - 50/55. 

Regardless of hearsay, limbs can be maxed out, bolt snug, no backing off 1/4 or 1/2 turn.......


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## "TheBlindArcher" (Jan 27, 2015)

peholden said:


> Reading the manual for my new bow (I'm new to all of this) I noticed a comment about bows working best when at their maximum draw weight for the limbs. Are they refering to the accuracy or do they just mean that the maximum draw weight will produce the fastest arrow flight? I'm shooting targets and would hate to think that doing something the bow is designed to do (reducing draw weight) would make it less accurate.
> 
> Thanks. Pete




Make you less accurate, possibly; make the bow less accurate, not in today's modern compounds, at least not to any degree you would actually notice. Compounds are designed to be backed out if the shooter so desires, that's why the adjustable limb bolt is there in the first place.


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## Camp4q (Jan 6, 2016)

Go to local shop and work with chrono and find your right setup.


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