Bow fit remains more important than power in archery

LITTLE ROCK — Professional archers are experts on gear, but a beginner looking to get into the sport can get overwhelmed by the broad selection of modern equipment.

Jeff Hopkins, the first professional archer to top $1 million in career earnings, is also an avid hunter. He said that selecting the right gear is easier than it looks. Don’t fret over materials and accessories, just get a bow that fits.

“The biggest thing in archery is draw length,” Hopkins said. “A bow has to fit you. I recommend going to a certified pro shop. Get with a person or a group of people who can custom fit the bow to the right draw length.”

Hopkins and Jack Wallace are longtime members of the Mathews pro staff, but other manufacturers offer high quality, high-performance equipment, as well. Along with fit, Wallace said that it’s important to select a bow that’s compatible with your hunting environment.

“If you’re going to hunt in woods where there’s a lot of gnarly trees, you might want a bow with a short axle length and parallel limbs,” said Wallace, a multiple tournament champion and accomplished hunter. “That’s going to help you get around overhanging limbs and help you make tight shots in tight quarters. I make a lot of my whitetail shots while seated in a tree stand. A compact bow with limbs that don’t stand straight up make those shots easier for me.”

Obsessing over heavy draw weight is an ego thing, he added. It doesn’t take much power to kill a deer.

“A lot of people think the more they can pull the bow back, the farther the arrow will go,” Hopkins said. “With today’s compound bows, you can kill a deer with 50pounds, easily. My son killed his first deer with a Mathews Mustang at 42 pounds.”

You have to consider the conditions under which you’ll use the bow when figuring weight, Wallace added. A bow you can draw easily in a store in the summer while wearing a T-shirt might be a burden come fall, when layered clothing inhibits movement and flexibility.

“You don’t want to be ‘over bowed,’ ” Wallace said. “If you’re wearing a lot of clothes, you might not be able to draw it.”

If you’re worried about power, you can increase the terminal energy of a light draw weight by using a heavier arrow. For example, Hopkins uses a 424-grain Easton Full Bore with a carbon shaft. His Mathews C4 sends it downrange at a speed of about 282 feet per second.

“That’s a heavy arrow,” Hopkins said. “I don’t have to shoot 70 or 75 pounds to get the speed out of it.”

Once you select your gear, you need to familiarize yourself with it and get comfortable with it and learn to maximize its potential within its known limitations. That takes practice. If you only use it for hunting, you owe it to your game to do it well.