Old man strength...

Funny story I had to share about archery...

I was out in the backyard practicing for the upcoming season...my 6'2 220 lb son stopped by with his buds. All of them are gym rats and have biceps twice the size of mine.

Well I offered them to shoot the bows....one at 62 lbs the other is max'd at 72...most of these former HS football studs struggled with the 62lb bow, only one was able "safely" draw the 72, once. I told them a lot of it is technique....in the old old days much smaller guys pulled bows 3x today's draw weight.

My son nodded and replied "yeah, it's that old man strength....we don't know where it comes from but we sure do respect it!"

Are these older model compound bows?

It is all about technique. I was drawing my dads 70 pound Mathews z7 my freshman year of high school

^ yep, technique is paramount. I have seen many new shooters in the shape of < 30 year old guys that frequent the gym trying out a bow for the first time and struggle with 60-70# DW. Most new shooters struggle with the feeling of using back muscles more than relying purely on arm strength.

I've ran into the same. Big guy next door twice my size could not draw my bow. I worked with him a bit and he was amazed how doing correctly and smoothly worked so well

My 2 pups are well aware of the old man strength thing. Both of them were at the house and we all decided to shoot our bows and my boys wanted to try mine out. All they could say was "dang dad, what is this thing set at? 100 lbs?". It was only 72 pounds and once I taught them the proper technique it got easier for them.

I shoot a 65 pound recurve; shooting a 70 pound compound is like falling off a log, and I'm older than dirt.