Archery anatomy?

[SAFalconer]

Hi guys I don't yet have my bow but I have some major concerns regarding how you shoot a bow. For one a few years ago I managed to dislocate both my shoulders my right being the worst affected. My right shoulder is still prone to dislocate at specific angles. Would this affect my being able to shoot a bow? And the other thing is I don't know which hand I would shoot with as I shoot my air rifle right handed and I shoot my slingshot left handed. Which hand would I use to shoot a bow? As I have said before the closest pro shop to me is 6hrs away in another province. Thanks for any advice guys.

 

[Limcroma Safaris]

SAF,

With your predisposition of shoulder issues, I don't think I would go out and buy an expensive bow just yet. You may want tot try and borrow a low-poundage bow (40-50lb.) and practice with it to see if you have any shoulder pain or the ability to draw it for that matter.... You can hunt a good variety of plainsgame animals drawing mid-40's assuming you are set up with the proper combination of arrow weight, broadhead, and the bow is tuned properly.

As for right or left handed, I would think you would shoot on the side of your dominant eye. I don't know how you would see through a peep from the opposite eye at full draw. Your other option is a traditional bow where you can adapt to either eye or both. You are going to need to do a bit of trial and error....

As a last resort, if the shoulder issues keep you from drawing a bow, there is always the option of a crossbow. Best of luck to you!

 

[KVS]

Take a trip to your local gym and perform simple exercises with weights around 30kg (70lbs) above your head or pulling exercises. Do push ups and also use tension elastics. If your shoulders are feeling slightly weak or tender and about to give way, then I don't suggest getting an expensive heavy duty bow. Hannes is right even with a lower weighted bow you can still have a good crack at plenty of plains game species.

Take care
Jono

 

[G Skinner]

Good info. here . Archery is more based on muscles in your back . Also to find your dominant eye hold your thumb up over a small object about 15 feet away with both eyes open . now close your right eye does your thumb appear over the object or did it jump to the right ? If it still appears over the object you are left eye dominant .
Glen

 

[kal]

Good advice as always, one thing to consider is with today's technology a 50lb bow can do just about anything you need, bows have gotten incredibly efficient.

 

[bbjavelina]

Sound information above.

I've never dis-located a shoulder, so no help there, but --- I am a geezer and have some problems with both shoulders. To the point that I sometimes shoot left and other times right. Rather depends on which shoulder is the worst at the time.

In light of this, I'd like to offer up the suggestion that you at least consider a device know as the "Bow Trainer". It can be found on the Lancaster Archery site. A very simple, inexpensive device that has helped me a lot. It's a rigid tube (about 36" long) with 4 "rubber" tubes attached with differing degrees of resistance from very light to fairly heavy. Each tube, or combination thereof, used for different purposes from warm-up, to strength training, resistance training and such. It's been very beneficial to me.

For the past several years I've been cranking my draw weight down just to stay in the game. Within a month of beginning use of this device I was ready to start cranking it back up. They offer a weight to attach to the tube to simulate the actual weight of the bow. I don't have that but use a dumbbell to the same purpose -- I use 8 pounds since my bow is a bit over 6. That helps as well.

Just for reference, on last summer's trip to the RSA I was shooting 56 pounds and that was never an issue. On a nice big Zebra stallion I got a full passthru and the arrow wound up in the dirt about halfway between where the Zebra was at the shot and where he fell.

I think the worst possible thing you could do is to buy a bow of too great a draw weight. That can injure even healthy shoulders, and has done so countless times.

Some thoughts on that;
Most bows have an adjustable draw weight of 10 pounds. Some do/did have an adjustment of 15 pounds. Martin, as far as I know. The catalog draw weight listed is the max, and they can quickly and easily be turned down from that.

Two obvious options would be to either buy a light draw as a beginner bow and buy another bow of heavier draw later if needed, or to replace the lighter limbs with heavier limbs later as you feel comfortable doing so. Replacing the limbs will cost at least $150 for limbs as well as shop charges for changing them. Personally I'd prefer to have the second bow just for a back-up.

It seems to me that for most folks, just getting started, it can be very difficult to draw most any bow. Those muscles just don't seem to get used much in everyday life. But, if you're of moderate age, and in decent health, they respond very quickly. Pretty important to shoot regularly thru the year, at minimum 2 to 5 days a week.

Lastly, and most importantly, don't even consider doing anything without a frank discussion with your doctor. It seems that in your case that neither you nor your doctor will have a wealth of knowledge about the actual drawing of the bow. Luckily for me both my orthopedist, GP, and cardiologist bow hunt. Not many folks are that lucky. Wait, maybe most folks don't have a need for that many doctors.

Best of luck to you.

Butch

 

[G Skinner]

Butch .....My Dentist use to bow hunt LOL ! Didn't mind going when I was a kid even if it was just to read Field and Stream in the waiting room ,
Glen

 

[SAFalconer]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'll to sure to take it all into consideration when I do get my bow.

 

[H50]

Another thought is to get a hyper adjustable bow so you can adjust your draw weight as much as you need through a huge range of weights. I got a Bear Cruzer model of compound bow and you can adjust the draw weight from 10 lbs to 70 lbs and the draw length from 23 to 30 inches just with a hex wrench- no need for a bow press. Obviously with the changes in weight/ draw length you have to adjust your arrows as well. I have really enjoyed shooting this type of bow. I've had shoulder issues as well and I'm also looking at getting a crossbow- really amazing ones available there too. Best of luck..

 

[Savage Hunter]

I am (or was) double-jointed in both shoulders. Left shoulder is extreme. I can throw it in and out of joint at will. The right shoulder is very "loose" and has been painfully dislocated a few times and at
certain angles I could manually dislocate it.
I was an avid bow hunter for many years and started back last year.
At 25, when I pushed my bow forward my left shoulder easily slipped out of joint. at full draw, my right would be partially out.
Imagine releasing the arrow with both shoulders out of joint. lol. kinda freaky.
After many injuries to both, with multiple torn tendons, ligaments, and scar tissue I had to quit shooting archery. I've since had my shoulders reconstructed. They shortened the tendons and limited my "looseness". When my daughter got into bow hunting, I was just recovering from my second surgery and decided to bow hunt again.
I still have pain in left shoulder due to arthritis, but it is a joy to shoot my bow again. I got a nice buck last year on public land.

It is going to be trial and error for you.
Take ibuprofen each time about an hour before you plan to do any shooting.
Take it slow and on lower pull weight and work up.
An archery shop should let you draw their bows to make sure you can pull them back without a dislocation.
The bow trainer advice above is excellent.

 

[JimP]

As for your shoulder and shooting a bow, I would ask a DOCTOR about it. You may do more harm than anything else if you start pulling a string back. I would also advise against using drugs to mask the pain that you might feel. That pain is trying to tell you something and if you don't listen you may be up a creek without a paddle. I've been there on that one.

You might also want to check with a physical therapist and tell them what you want to accomplish. They can give you exercises to do that will not stress your shoulder and should help you to gain strength in both the arms and shoulders.

Screwing around with body parts is not smart if you plan on enjoying life for a long time.

 

[SAFalconer]

Thanks guys. All the above info has been very helpful.

 

[Savage Hunter]

Jim, I was only able to bowhunt for so long because I did do exercises to strengthen my shoulders.
I took Ibuprofen only when target shooting to keep the arthritis type inflammation down. (doctor's advice).
My situation may be slightly different because my joints were extremely loose, though.

Once I got to the point, lol, that they had been injured so many times, never through archery, I asked the Doc
should I quit archery. He said "your shoulders are so screwed up there is nothing you can do to them to make it harder for me
to do the surgery when you finally give in and have it done."

34 years ago, I was almost sent home from basic training because they did an xray. they told me to stand with my shoulders touching the screen.
when looking at the xray the army doc said "you're shoulders are f'up. I may have to discharge you. do you ever have problems with them?"
I lied and say "no" so I could stay in.

 

[JimP]

Savage Hunter, what I was saying is that drugs even low dosage ones like Ibuprofen will mask pain when your body is trying to tell you something. I used to live on the stuff until I finally got a correct diagnosis of what was a problem in my joints and now I am on a medication that takes care of the problems. But in the long run I have noticed that a couple of my joints just do not line up properly anymore. When I was taking the Ibuprofen it masked the pain but my joint knew different and my muscles compensated for the problem and are now slightly out of alignment.

In your case it sounds like you went to a doctor instead of a internet forum to ask for advise which in the long run quite possibly helped you out quite a bit.

Even when I had cataract surgery done a few years ago I asked the doctor when I could shoot a high power rifle after the surgery and he told me just a couple of days rest would be fine. When you have to live you life with what you have left of your body you don't want to take any unnecessary chances on damaging what you have left. There are always alternatives to a lot of the things that we enjoy doing such as using a crossbow if you can not pull and hold a bow string at full draw, or in my case when I asked about shooting a high power rifle after surgery I would of passed on that upcoming elk season or went to a pistol hunt.

When I was a kid and playing football and basketball every day I used to walk off sprains and hurts, but if I had a kid now days and the coach told him to walk it off I would deck the coach after what I know know about injuries and the healing of them.

Us old farts need to keep what we have working working for us if we want to enjoy the pursuit of wild animals with whatever means we want to chase them with.

 

[Savage Hunter]

totally agree Jim.
the main point of my advice was to start on a low pull weight and move up if you're going to try to shoot a bow.
With a loose joints, which is the usual cause of "easy" dislocations, you can feel movement before it goes out.
If you start at 65 pounds, it might be out before you knew any different.

Steroids and narcotic pain relievers mask that pain a lot worse than IBU, I would definitely not recommend those.