When having a bow made and you pick a weight you want, what is acceptable? Plus or minus how much?

I'd say on average 2 pounds.

Brandon Stahl hit the weight on Ace #3 right on the money for me. He did that by building #1 and #2 to make sure he hit weight on mine. I did not ask that, he simply told me he would do that. Agreement between a Bowyer and a customer is their business.

DDave

Everyone I've dealt with has + or- 2 LBS.

Bowmania

+ or - 2# seems to be the normal range. Some charge extra for exact poundage.

There's really no reason not to hit weight. The real issue is my scale might not read the exact same as your scale or the club's scale etc.

Most bowyers advertise plus or minus 2#. That said, wood is a living thing and can vary in stiffness, etc. The bowyer is the guy who will have confidence in giving you his best effort. I wouldn't be upset at all with two or three pounds. And as Jason said, each scale can give a different figure.

If you don't trust that the bowyer building your bow is going to give you his/her best effort, and isn't experienced enough to back up his/her work, find a different bowyer.

Just remember, he can't just throw his work away because the wood was a little denser this time or not as dense. Whatever the bowyer says goes. But if it turns out to be 3 or so I'd take the bow and not stick the bowyer with not making his profit on my bow.

There was a bowyer known for some very "smooth" bows. Turns out his scale read 4 or 5 pounds heavy and it took a while for enough guys to weigh their own and let him know. It wasn't intentional and most guys I know liked their bows even after finding out it was lighter than marked. Some found out that less weight was a better fit for them and stayed with it on future bows.

+- 2 lb seems reasonable...

i have had bows built by 4 different bowyers , i tell them all the same thing, make the bow between 55 and 60 pounds at 29 inches , had one bowyer miss that mark

Runner's got it. The bowyer has to tell you what they can do in regard to draw weight tolerance.

Noticed with a few, when surfing (I shoot old used bows), that some have a higher price for bows with closer tolerances in draw weight, which makes sense, 'cause there is more monitoring time involved.

If the bowyer gives you a bow out of the tolerance he has provided to you, then you can confront him or do as many of us have done with the new factory bows in the past and just accept it. No one's name should be dragged through the dirt as the agreement was between the buyer and the bowyer, so they should quietly settle it.

If you really want a 45 lbs bow, maybe you should order a 43 pound bow. If you want a 45 pound bow, even a 41 pound bow (+/- 2 pounds of 43) shouldn't ruin your party. But people who think they can manage 45, may actually be bummed out at 47;

Some bows feel a lot nicer at the same weight than others. I mean a lot. So if you want a 45 pound bow, and he hits 47#, and it turns out to be one of the toughies to draw, then you may really not end up liking it;

I have measured up some bows by great makers, and they are not always the length they should be, which indicates to me that they did radical things to hit weight. If you insist on weight, then you may get a less well configured bow. I have this 66" bow that is actually 62" and it is really nice. Still, I draw 29 inches, and actually wanted a 66 inch bow. A lot of people never measure their bows, and then if the guy says it is actually a 65 since that is how much longer it is than the grooves, what are you going to say? In this case I own three of the same bows, and I know the length is 3 inches out. That is how they get weight up, so it always makes the bow shorter, which nock length could be argued to cover for. Normally lightening the bow can be done with more subtle adjustments, though I have one recent bow, where the string is far from centered. Again, a really well known shop that source their bows outside of the shop. They narrowed the limbs so much they lost control over string centering.

So pushing hard on the weight can cause other worse things to happen.

Just thinking how times have changed, remember the old bows at 28". if you draw 27" you had to figure it out or bows marked 50xx @28 what was that. the good old days :) to me price will make a difference in what I will except a 300.00-500.00 dollar bow I am pretty easy to please and can expect a few imperfections as weight being 3-4# off are a streak in glass. but a 1000.00 dollar bow better be perfect in every aspect. if I am charged top dollar I want top quality work.

Depends on the deal you made with the bowyer plain and simple. What was the expectation that was set?

It depends on how fussy you really are! I'd say 2 pounds either way is pretty reasonable, but that's just my $0.02

Runner X 2 talk it over first!

Jim -

I don't do "custom" bows so take this for what it's worth.

If I'm paying top dollar for a "custom" bow and I ask for a 46.5# bow at 29.25", I'd better get exactly that. (Probably one reason I don't do "customs".)

Most production bows do fall with the 2-3# spread, and that's fine, with one notable exception ;). And you can check the AMO/ATA specs for what's allowed. On a lot of vintage bows the actual draw weight at 28" was marked UNDER the strike plate.

Oddly enough, I've found most production ILF limbs to be remarkably close to marked, as long the rig is configured as recommend. If an ILF limb is off, it can be off by a mile, and that I assume, was due to mislabeling or an actual defect.

Viper out.

Thanks for the input guys. I got one recently that was missed by 4 lbs by MY scales. I weighed some other bows I have and they aren't what's marked either but were closer. It's not a big deal. I was curious to what was normat. I thought it was + or- 2. I'm certainly not losing any sleep over it.

"Most production bows do fall with(in) the 2-3# spread, and that's fine,"

Yeah, since all they are doing is grouping them into 5 pound classes from huge lots of bows. Custom makers start out with a sheet of "change orders" and try to hit the bullseye, while at least at one time, having geometries that were designed to eke out a few fps more than production bows. That is tough.

We are sorta at a point where custom bows might be better if they were sold as spec bows. That way you get what is on offer, and you don't run into any of the problems that are currently driving some clients batty, and some bowyers out of the business.

2-3# spread...but will tell bowyer if I do NOT want it over a particular weight. Last two or three I told them between 50-55#..no more though. One is 53 and one is 51 and I am good with that.

keep em sharp,

ron herman

I kind of agree with the 2#s but I would also say if you are ordering a custom and paying a premium as JRW said, they should hit it dead on, on their scale at least. Shawn

Last bow I ordered I gave the bowyer a 2# range but said I would prefer to be at the bottom of the range. He nailed the bottom weight perfectly.

If you want a bowyer to hit an exact weight, you should probably ship the scale that you want to weigh it on when you send the deposit check!

Because what do you do if you're basing your target weight on how one of your other bows feels, and THAT is the one that's #5 off???

And Bowlim raised a really good point about not going too high...

My only real concern would be that I live in a state with a #40 minimum for deer hunting purposes, and I would not want to come out appreciably under that. But I already have a bow that I'm drawing to about #48 (trusting Larry's crew to have marked it correctly), so I can imagine being frustrated to learn that I had just ordered a #42 that came out as a #45...

This strikes me as one of those conversations that you should really have with your bowyer on the FRONT end of the deal......

I'd be satisfied with a five lb range. That's just me. Right now I don't want under 55 or over 60. MP

If they are not close they just mark it what you wanted and call it good

Can you prove that statement rraming, or are you using "they" for a certain bowyer?

scales can vary, I made a bow for a guy, he sent it back said it was too heavy,,it was fine on my scale and no one else had ever had a problem,, just that one guy,, so it can be tricky,, I killed some deer with it,, so its was all good,,:)

I've also seen people that didn't understand how to weigh a bow. If you are hooking the string and pulling the bow down you must subtract the physical weight of the bow. It's a common mistake.

When I buy a custom I do so because I like that mans limb design and performance. I don't want an altered design caused because he missed the weight by an extra couple pounds. By the time they sand the glass thinner or narrow the limbs their design I wanted is now altered and not the same and may not perform the same.

It's usually been +- 2# although both times I worked with the Toelke's, they were right on the money or +-0.5#.

I have to wonder at people who insist on 'exactly' X draw weight when they probably don't have access to a properly calibrated and certified scale. For that matter I wonder if every bowyer does!

(And I have a hard time believing that the average archer can differentiate between 47 pounds of DW and 48!)

It doesn't pay to get fussy over draw weight when 90% of the archers I see don't get to full draw anyway.

I told Mike from Mad Dog Archery I wanted my bow 46 or 45# at my draw, he came in real dang close, 45.7 if I remember correctly.

To me that's part of what a custom made bow is all about...

It´s part of the nature of a custom bow to have the weight like ordered, or an agreed weight range, while during the ordering process of a bow, custom made.

I think subtracting the bow weight is one of the second most common errors. It keeps cropping up ever where, I don't know how it got started. Over thinking it I guess. Just make the bow weigh 50 pounds then it will weigh itself. The number one is the 28" Some measure to the back of the bow,some the arrow rest,some the arrow rest +1 3/4 inches. In all that can make nearly 10 pounds difference. Perhaps the instruction should be at the top of ever web site, or at least on ever new bow. >>>-----> Ken

I shoot a new bow, for the last month,,,, and yes I get to full draw,,,,, It is a New Wood Long bow, 40lbs at 28, and I am postage stamp accurate with it, at 15 yards, and that is fine with me for bears or deer.....

I want dead on, accuracy, and I mean each and every time, nothing else is acceptable to me,,,,,,,,,,

I see a lot of guys, accepting accuracy that I never wood

Custom is the KEY word!!!

If I order a 52lb bow that is what I paid my hard earned money for, that is what I want.

Bows that miss the weight are called inventory bows last I checked. Most bowyers have inventory bows for a reason. There is and always has been a little luck in hitting the weight perfect every time :)

FWIW... I just picked up some used ILF limbs that are 12lbs heavier than marked. They are compared to two other same brand limbs and same scale. In my case it is just bad luck, lol.

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