Compound bows

This page will talk about what a compound bow is and what bows are available on the market.

The compound bow
 The limbs of a compound bow are much stiffer than those of a recurve bow or longbow. This limb stiffness makes the compound bow more energy-efficient than other bows, in conjunction with the cams. The compound bow has its string applied to pulleys (cams), and one or both of the pulleys have one or more cables attached to the opposite limb. When the string is drawn back, the string causes the cams to turn. When the draw commences, the archer has reduced mechanical advantage, but during the draw, as the pulley cams rotate, the (limb plus cam radius) distance gets longer, and the archer gains mechanical advantage over the bending limbs, and less force is needed to bend the limbs more, in comparison to other bows.

 The use of this levering system gives the compound bow a characteristic draw-force curve which rises to a peak weight and then "lets off" to a lower holding weight, allowing the shooter to hold the string at full draw for much longer when compared to recurve bows. This is because recurves don't "let off", meaning that the full weight (force) of the draw is in your hand. A compound bow moves a lot of the weight away from the draw string (hand), allowing for longer, more accurate and far less strenuous aiming, especially when shooting several times in a row.

A compound bow is sperated into two variants, single cam and duel cam. Generally single cam bows are much smoother on the draw and release, this is because they only have one cam (and one idler wheel). A dual cam bow has two cams, this creates a very sudden letoff and release resulting in a very "jagged" shot.

Hunting Hunting bows are typically smaller with a shorter axle to axle length and smaller riser. Because of this, they do not make ideal target bows. Common accessories often used on a hunting bow are as follows:

a whisker biscuit rest, short 3 (or more) pin sights, wrist mounted quick release and either a short stabilizer or a shock absorber (along with string and limb dampeners).