The Archery Bow Buyers Guide

It’s a modern development of the bow which uses a lever system of cables, wheels and cams to draw the limbs back.

They are certainly much more efficient than other bows at transforming stored energy into arrow speed in fact these bows are designed for high arrow velocity, excellent accuracy and ease of use.

One of the biggest advantages to the compound bow is that the shooter does not have to hold the "pull weight" when the bow is fully drawn.

The bow gives you the option to adjust the draw strength within certain limits simply by changing the pulleys and cams on the bow; they often have a peak weight of up to 60lbs, but may only need 15-20lbs to hold the arrow before firing it.

Modern compound bows are significantly shorter than the equivalent recurve allowing them to be taken more easily around forests on field archery rounds etc. Lengths can vary from 840mm to 1220mm (33 to 48 inches) measured from axle to axle.

In tournaments, compound shooters are allowed to use a certain amount of magnification in the bow sight and they can also use a rear sight (known as a peep sight) and can use a mechanical release aid rather than fingers. This is not allowed in other bow classes.

The arrows used with compound bows differ very little from arrows shot by recurve archers but the big difference is that arrows leave a compound bow at an incredible average speed of 275-290 feet per second, which makes them the fastest by far.

Conclusion

Buying a compound bow is certainly a good investment for any archer; it is the most dominant type of bow.

Compound bows are also shot at world level in standard target competitions and will probably become fully allowed at the Olympics (at the moment only 'recurve' or Olympic style bows are shot). So get practicing now.