Compound Bows

When it comes to archery, the first thing that pops into some peoples mind is the high tech fast compound bows. It is the most visible and widely used type of bow these days. Compound bows come in several types, draw weight, materials and configurations.

Compound Bows

In this article we will look here at the differences as well as benefits and/or drawbacks to each.

A compound bow operates on a system of pulleys and cables with wheels or cams. The wheels/cams are located at the top and bottom of the limbs and allow the arrow to be drawn to a fairly heavy draw weight with ease and held longer in the cocked position.

Based on the wheels/cams used, there are four general types of compound bows, as follows.

1. Single cam is a bow that uses a round wheel or cam at the top and an elliptical "power cam" at the bottom. This is the easiest one to use, but is also the hardest to tune. Experts have stated that straight flight is an issue with single cam compound bows.

2. Hybrid cam bows use two elliptical or oval shaped cams. The top cam is the control cam; the bottom cam is the power cam. This type is said to eliminate the flight problems associated with single cam bows as well as require less maintenance and can be tuned much easier.

3. Twin cam compound bows use two cams on each end of the bow. These can be either round or oval shaped. Twin cam bows are extremely accurate, have a straight nock flight and tremendous arrow speed. They do, however, need frequent maintenance and tuning.

4. New to the compound bows since 2005 are the binary cam type bows. Similar to the twin cam type bows; binary bows have two cams at each end that are dependent on each other, not the limbs of the bow. The idea behind the design is that the master/slave relationship of the twin cams actually corrects bow imbalances and compensates for limb deflection and other factors. Archers are looking at these seriously due to their very fast arrow speeds and true flight paths.

The typical compound bow has a riser (mid-section) made of a strong, durable material that is lightweight as well. The limbs are attached to the riser and are made of composite materials engineered to accept strong forces and retain tensile strength. These materials are usually man made and are very available as a result.

The draw weight on most compound bows can be adjusted, they normally can accomodate a ten pound draw range. A target archer depending on his or her strenth might shoot a bow from 35 to 45 pounds. While a bowhunter might chose a bow between 60 to 70 pounds. The big hunting compound bows that can take big game animals can even get to 90 pounds draw weight!

Most compound bows have draw lengths that are adjustable to the shooter. A rough rule to find your draw length, take your height in inches, subtract 15 and multiply that number by 2. This is the basic calculation for draw length and is a good starting point.

Compound bows can be used in a variety of archery based activities including field archery, target archery, bow hunting, 3D archery and bow fishing.

Most compounds can be fitted with the latest high tech gadgets and archery equipment, like bow sight, stabilizers, bow quivers and arrow rests. A good quality compound bow, combined with sights and a release aid can be deadly accurate with practice.

Of all the types of archery bows out there, compound bows are very popular as they combine speed, high tech with easier drawing poundages. Now you just need to decide what brandtype of archery you are going into and look at the appropriate bows.

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