Long Bows vs Short Bows - Which is Better?

This is a 52 inch bow and this is a 72 inch bow. What's the difference? Why would you want a longer bow over a shorter bow? Or why would you want a shorter bow over a longer bow? Let's get to the point. I think a misconception is that longer bows shoot smoother than shorter bows. And I don't think that's necessarily true, although I do think they're easier to be more accurate with than shorter bows. I think smoothness has to do more with where the throat of the handle is relative to the limbs. So you see, if you draw a straight line with the throat of the handle, it's coming right here on top of the limb. This is a very far forward facing handle. Now take a different example with this one. The throat of the handle, you draw a straight line over and it never even crosses over top of the limb. So this is a rear facing handle. See the difference? A rear facing handle tends to have more vibration when shooting a bow and a forward facing handle tends to feel like it has a better center of gravity and tends to be a lot smoother. Why would a short bow be good? Well, a short bow like this could be good for hunting in the woods. You might want it very easily maneuverable. It's easier to transport, especially if it's a one piece bow. It's good to recognize that the length of bow matters relative to the height of the archer. A 6'4 person like me interacting with a 52 inch bow is kind of ridiculous. But if my wife at 5'4 shoots this bow, it fits her pretty good. So if the short bow has all of these benefits, why might you choose a longer one? I know a lot of people who have followed me in the past build bows. And if you're someone who builds a bow, building a longer bow is a lot easier than building a shorter bow. There's a lot more room for error and they're easier to tiller. On top of that, I think longer bows are easier to be accurate. And I have a theory why. I think it has less to do with how long the bow is, but more about how close you are to stacking when you come to full draw. Stacking is the point in the bow where it just can't bend anymore. So it's like a hard stop. For example, this bow right here stacks on me right when I get to full draw or a little before even. When I pull up, like right there, I can't really get it back any further. And that's because the bow can't bend back any further. Whereas one like this, I get it to full draw and I can go beyond full draw quite a bit. I find that if the bow you're shooting can go two to three to five inches further than your draw length, it's easier to be accurate. And when you're getting really close to that point of stacking on a bow, it's harder to be accurate. This could be for a couple different reasons. The first one is that when you get close to stacking, the bow's draw weight increases really quickly. And when that bow's draw weight quickly increases, then the speed of the arrow increases. So in the last inch, if your bow increases five pounds of draw weight versus increasing two pounds of draw weight, then the same mistake in your anchor point is gonna have a larger effect in speed on the shorter bow. In other words, if your anchor point's not 100% consistent, which it probably isn't for anybody, then a longer bow is gonna be more forgiving of your mistake than a shorter bow. Big caveat, this is big generalized terms. I think every bow's individual and specific. And depending on how it's designed, your specific draw length will change a lot of these factors. But in general, this is true for most scenarios. The other cool thing with a longer bow is you can generally easily get higher poundage bows, especially with wooden materials. Each material has a stress point where the bow's gonna break. And with wood, it's some of the weaker materials bows are made out of. Fiberglass, sinew on the back, bamboo on the back. All are stronger than plain wood in most cases. But by extending the length of your bow, you can still get heavy draw weight bows. This one here is a good example. This is a 100 pound hickory bow. So what type of bows do I choose? Well, one of my favorite things to do with a bow is go hunting. And it changes what type of hunting bow I want depending on the specific scenario. This past year when I went elk hunting, I brought this mountain bow. It's what I'm calling it. It's a 64 inch bow recurve with a forward facing handle. And this had no problem going through the normal dark timber, Aspens, meadows. I walked over 50 miles with this bow this year. It comes down to what you wanna do. What kind of archery do you wanna do? Is it just for fun? Is it for hunting? Is it for competition? And then I'd recommend go to an archery shop, shoot as many different possible bows as you can and pay attention to the designs. And you might start realizing I like a really small forward facing handle bow. There's no right or wrong answer. It's all personal preference. And depending on what I'm doing, I use different bows. And since I make bows, I've built so many different designs and so many different kinds. And the secret is I kinda like them all except one. I hate this bow. That story is for another day. Stay shadow proof. I'll see you guys on the next video.