Compound Bow Sizing: Get Draw Length Right First

Draw length decides whether a compound bow fits you. Not the brand. Not the draw weight. Not the speed printed on the limb sticker. A compound locks into a mechanical wall at full draw, so unlike a recurve — where you can sneak a half inch either way — you're stuck with whatever the cam says. Set it an inch wrong and it stays an inch wrong on every shot you ever take.

Flagship compounds like the Mathews ARC 34 and Hoyt Carbon RX-10 advertise IBO speeds of 338 to 357 fps. None of those fps matter if the bow doesn't fit. A $2,149 flagship set wrong will lose, every time, to a $500 package bow set right.

Finding your draw length

Stand with your back against a wall, arms out in a T, palms forward. Have someone measure fingertip to fingertip, then divide by 2.5. A 70-inch wingspan works out to a 28-inch draw. That's the method the Archery Trade Association's coaches teach, and it gets most people within half an inch.

Half an inch still matters, though. Being even one inch off can cause anything from dropped accuracy to injury. At full draw, the string should touch the corner of your mouth and the tip of your nose. Craning your neck forward to reach the string? Too short. String buried past the corner of your mouth with your release hand drifting behind your ear? Too long.

Two more things worth knowing. Manufacturers measure draw length from the nocking point to the deepest part of the grip, plus 1¾ inches — so the number on the spec sheet lines up with the wingspan math. And your draw length sets your arrow length, which sets your arrow spine, so changing it later means buying new arrows too. Run your wingspan through a draw length calculator, then confirm at a pro shop on a draw board before you spend real money.

Axle-to-axle length follows the job

Axle-to-axle (ATA) is the distance between the two cam axles, and it's usually hiding in the product name. Mathews builds the ARC 30 and ARC 34 on the same platform — the number is the ATA in inches. Same convention with the Bowtech Alliance 30, the Prime Divide 33, and the Hoyt Alpha AX-3 33.

Short bows in the 30-to-31-inch range are for hunters. They swing inside a ground blind, clear a treestand rail, and strap to a backcountry pack without snagging. The trade-off is stability — a shorter bow is twitchier to hold on target, and the string angle at full draw gets sharp enough to crowd your peep sight if your draw runs 29 inches or longer.

Longer bows hold steadier. That's physics, not marketing: more length between the axles resists torque, which is why dedicated target compounds stretch well past anything in the hunting aisle. For most bowhunters, 32 to 34 inches is the honest sweet spot. If you're tall, bias long — a 30-inch draw on a 30-inch bow is fighting geometry the whole way down.

Mass weight and the carbon tax

Bare-bow weight gets ignored on spec sheets and felt on every hunt. Whatever the scale says in the shop, add a sight, rest, quiver, and stabilizer before you judge it — a rigged hunting bow carries noticeably more than the bare riser you held at the counter.

Heavier isn't automatically worse. Mass damps vibration and steadies your float on target, which is why target shooters bolt weight on deliberately. It's mountain hunters who pay for every ounce, and they're who carbon-riser bows like the Hoyt Carbon RX-10 and PSE Sicario Carbon FDS exist for. Carbon also stays warmer against a bare hand in a November treestand. Small thing, until it isn't.

Expect to pay for the diet. Flagships in this class run $1,300 to $2,149, with carbon risers sitting toward the top of that range. If you hunt from a stand fifty yards behind your truck, skip the carbon and put the difference into arrows and a better sight.

Right hand or left hand starts with your eyes

Here's the part beginners get backwards: bow handedness follows your dominant eye, not your dominant hand. A right-handed bow is drawn with the right hand and aimed with the right eye — your weaker arm holds, your stronger side pulls and sees.

Test it now. Point your thumb at something across the room with both eyes open, then close one eye at a time. Whichever eye keeps your thumb planted on the object is dominant; the other one makes it jump sideways.

For roughly 74% of people, eye and hand agree and the choice makes itself. The other 26% are cross-dominant, with two ways out: draw with the weaker hand and aim with the dominant eye, or keep the dominant hand and train the weaker eye (an eye patch over the dominant eye during practice does the work). For a new compound shooter, following the dominant eye is usually the cleaner path — an awkward draw feels normal within weeks, while fighting your own eye never really stops.

Decide before you order. A compound can't be converted; the riser, rest, and sight are all side-specific.

Youth and adjustable bows

Kids grow. Sometimes two inches of wingspan in a single season.

A bow with a fixed 26-inch draw fits a 12-year-old briefly, then becomes a wall decoration. Adjustable-cam bows solve this — Bear's Cruzer line is the standard example, and the current Cruzer G4 adjusts from a 14-inch to a 30-inch draw length on a 29-inch axle-to-axle frame. Bear built the Cruzer platform so draw changes take an Allen wrench, not a trip to a shop with a bow press. One bow covers a kid from first season to adult-sized.

The catch is efficiency. Wide-range cams give up performance to the fixed-draw cams on a flagship like the Bear Redeem or Bowtech Alliance 30 — that's the cost of flexibility, and it's worth paying for a growing archer. An adult who's done growing should buy a bow with a rotating module near their actual draw length and have a shop dial it in exactly.

The order of operations

Fit a compound in this sequence and the rest of the spec sheet mostly sorts itself out.

• Measure your wingspan, divide by 2.5, and verify the result at a pro shop on a draw board.
• Run the eye dominance test and commit to a side before you order anything — handedness can't be changed later.
• Pick axle-to-axle by use: 30 to 31 inches for tight hunting setups, 32 to 34 for all-around work, longer for target lines.
• Judge weight with accessories mounted, and only pay carbon prices if you carry your bow farther than you drive it.
• Buying for someone still growing? Get an adjustable like the Cruzer G4 and re-measure their draw every season.
• Stuck between models? The Find My Bow quiz turns your draw length and use case into a shortlist.