Originally Posted by
genejockey
Funny you should say that, because I just watched a video where an archer who routinely shoots warbows with draw weights in the 130-160# range struggles to draw a compound bow with a peak draw weight of 135#, mostly because the peak is early in the draw when it's predominantly the arms and a bit of shoulder doing the work while with the warbows the peak comes at the end of the draw, by which time you've recruited the whole body. He managed a handful of shots with the compound before exhaustion, whereas he could shoot dozens with the warbow.
BUT it was an arrow from the compound that was finally able to penetrate a replica 15th Century breastplate, which they'd never managed with any arrows from even a 160# warbow.
Fantastic. Have you ever done it yourself? I competed in archery with a 70 lbs recurve and used a compound as well. Experience has value. Compound bows rarely have draw weights much above 80 lbs.
It is not surprising that someone used to an extremely heavy long bow would falter using what is clearly a custom compound built well beyond anything you can buy.