TLDR go . cel mai uor sa ia vreo ' masura , o sa fiu atenta in totalitate . <| sep |> Fair enough for commending those forced to serve like in Vietnam . But soldiers go voluntarily now and many people seem to believe it ' s noble and honourable . <| sep |> I don ' t question your sincerity in contributing . Often in the case of a forum like rarchery , in the absence of an established register of qualified contributors , good advice is generally upvoted and bad advice is generally downvoted , regardless of how wellintended the post was . This works to an extent , especially considering trends of bad advice that have often appeared e . g . the Samick Sage Syndrome . Your particular explanation , which you say is nonconventional , is one such example of bad advice that could ruin someone ' s archery career and one that I would justifiably downvote for multiple reasons Depending on the bow , limbs aren ' t necessarily expensive . Your comment as a dude , you can probably pull back 40 lbs reinforces a macho stereotype that is actually false , but the high expectation for men to pull heavy weights is so dominant in the archery community that some charts recommended it see Draw Weight Egos . Furthermore , as an instructor who introduces people to archery , I will say that the average male cannot learn with a 40 # bow . Most struggle with anything above 24 # without some training . 40 # is something I would expect someone to reach in around a year , depending their starting point and training regimen . Casual target shooters never even go up past the mid 30 s . The minimum draw weight for hunting in many areas is 40 #, but this is never a justification for getting a high draw weight immediately . Personally , I tend to hammer any advice that someone err towards the higher draw weight . There is no harm in someone learning on a low draw weight , whereas a higher draw weight increases the likelihood of bad form , which leads to dissatisfaction and frustration , and the increased risk of injury . You later substantiate your opinion by referring to compound shooters transferring to heavy recurve bows , and that your background is from a hunting forum . In the case of the former , having prior experience in archery tends to make transitioning much easier which is not the case for an absolute beginner , and in the latter case , bowhunters and bowhunting communities tend to err towards higher draw weights . One could argue that many hunters that spend time in the field tend to have a higher level of fitness than the average person , and they don ' t need to shoot as far or as long a period time . Edit Also , many people overestimate what average is . I noticed later that you mentioned your starting point of 40 # due to the circumstances you were in . The fact that you were motivated enough to train up to a 40 # and go beyond is , in my mind , not typical of most people . In any case , the damage done by someone starting at too high a draw weight is enough for me to take a strong stand against most people who push the high drawweight recommendation . It ' s often irreversible . It is for good reason why , conventionally , we start people low . I ' ve seen far too many people who probably could have handled a heavy bow , but really could have hurt themselves and others with their unsafe practices . Hopefully this was the kind of feedback that you were expecting . I don ' t see at this point downvotes galore . It seems that no more than a couple of people have hit the downvote button . Try recommending the Samick Sage to see what that looks like .