mtn archery hunters: Does your total bow weight matter to you???

Several years ago after a couple elk hunts I started to pay attention to my actual total bow weight and how I carried my bow, I noticed the fatigue I would have in my arms from carrying my bow.

I graduated to a bow sling which helped greatly.

Then I started looking into a lightweight bow and that led me to a carbon bow.

This past summer/fall I moved to the Sling-a Ling as a bow sling that doesn't need to be removed for shooting and is very light. I also moved to the Quivilizer which helped me get rid of my short heavy stabilizer weight on the bow and I now use my quiver as a stabilizer that extends about 18-20 inches in front of the bow.

Until today I never weighed the bow and arrow hunting setup, it turns out my bow/sling/arrows/quiver etc weighs exactly 5.0 lbs. sorry for the lousy picture but its 15 below and this shed aint heated so I was fumbling with cold fingers. So I am curious does the weight of your setup matter to you? It is a Bowtech Carbon Knight bow weighing 3.2 #

My bow is about 1.5 lbs heavier than yours and I don't pay much attention to it. I carry my bow in many ways in each hand which doesn't seem to cause much fatigue and I don't use a sling. I haven't gone more than 7 days in the mountains though. I use my stabilizer to fit against my body and on long walks in or out, I put it over my shoulder. My stabilizer extends to 21" though so it is easy to carry in weird ways

I don't pay attention to bow weight at all. I run a front stabilizer and a side bar and feel that I can take the extra weight if I feel it will make me that much better shooting long range. I think I read an article by Brady Miller from GoHunt somewhere saying that he doesn't care about having weight on the bow because you need to big comfortable in the set up you are shooting and if you need extra weight to shoot confident than do it

I dont, but i also use my gun bearer for my bow as well. Ive only ever had it come out once while running the mountains.

I don't care what my total bow weight is. Although a heavier bow is easier to hold steady when you are pumped full of adrenaline. I build my bow so I can shoot it well not for weight.

No.

406LIFE said:

I dont, but i also use my gun bearer for my bow as well. Ive only ever had it come out once while running the mountains.

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I have done the same thing. Works fairly well.

While hunting, my bow is in one of my hands almost 100% of the time. If I'm hiking, I'm hunting - grouse, elk, deer, etc. Can't shoot one when your bow is tied up in your pack. Weight is not super important to me with these modern compounds. If I feel like one hand might be getting tired, just shift it to the other.