Archery Series: How I Increased my Draw Weight from 25 to 40lbs in 6 months

The first time I pulled a compound bow back in the store, it was set to 25lbs. When I took the bow home it was 30lbs. When asking other hunters what my weight needed to be to kill a deer I was told many different weights. The most consistent was 45-55lbs, so I made this my goal.

In this post, I will cover the strategy I use, as well as what exercises I did to help increase my draw weight.

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Overcoming Obstacles

I set aside time daily to practice shooting my bow. Most of the time I was able to get in my practice, but there were 2 things that seemed to get in my way, weather conditions and space.

Weather is always unpredictable. There were some days where I wasn't able to go outside and practice due to high winds or rain. On these days I would normally complete my resistance band stretches.

As far as space goes, I do not own a lot of land. There are houses literally on every side of mine. I do however have a fenced back yard so I was able to set up my target back there to shoot. It just so happens I have enough room to practice exactly up to 30 yards. One caution I will throw out is to be careful and make sure there is no one around your target or the area you will be shooting. Your bow is a weapon and you can take a life with it so it needs to be treated as such.

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Tracking Progress

I kept a journal of my progress. While I was first starting out I would write down each shot and where I hit the bag. I used a points system: 4 middle, 3 right outside middle, 2 outer circle, 1 for right outside that space, and 0 for outside. My goal was to go up in points every day. I also used this method to sight in my bow. I would practice this 50 times daily.

Using the system above I started at 10 yards and worked my way up to 30 yards. Once I was hitting middle consistently, I stopped tracking daily. This took about 3 months.

Over the course of these 3 months, I was able to increase my weight by another 10lbs. At 40lbs, this seemed to be my sweet spot. I attempted to go up another 2.5lbs, and even though I could pull it back my form was off and I wasn't able to practice as much as I would like. I didn't want this to hinder my progress so I backed off to continue practicing.

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Helpful Exercises

Outside of simply practicing almost daily, the specific exercises I did to help increase my draw weight were a combination of strength training and resistance bands. My favorite exercises are below.

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Where am I now?

Currently, 5 months later, I am still at 40lbs. I have set a goal to get to 50lbs by hunting season in October by going up 2.5lbs a month. My strategy is to try and practice every day until I am tired. Even if I only practice for 15 minutes, I still make time.

What are some things you've done to increase your draw weight? Leave a comment below to share!