What is my Draw Length
Measuring Your Draw Length
Traditional recurve bows can be drawn back to practically any length but this is not the case with compound bows. Compound bows only draw back to a specific distance before stopping.
Compound bows are designed only to be shot from the full-draw point. Compound bows cannot be overdrawn without adjustment so if it is set to 34” it cannot be overdrawn to 35”. So a compound bow must be set up to match a person’s draw length.
Approximate draw length can be calculated quite easily starting with your arm span in inches, to measure your arm span just stand naturally with both arms out from side to side at your shoulders and your palms facing forward. Then get a friend to measure the distance from the tip of one middle finger to the tip of the other middle finger in inches. Take the arm-span figure and divide it by 2.5 this is your draw length in inches, just take the number before any decimal point. Here’s an example.
Arm span in inches = 66
66 / 2.5 = 26.4 Draw Length = 26
Note: You don’t want to set a compound bow too much draw length as a lot of compound bow owners do, this just causes inaccuracy and possible injuries. It is always better to have a bow fitted correctly to your body. If you a not quite sure it is always better to choose a bit less for your draw length than a bit more.
