Compound Bows
A compound bow is little-affected by changes in
temperature and humidity and gives superior accuracy,
velocity, and distance in comparison to other bows.
The modern compound bow uses a levering system of
cables and usually cams and pulleys to draw the limbs
back.
Compound bow limbs are usually much stiffer than
those of a recurve bow or longbow.
This limb stiffness makes the bow more energy efficient
than other types of bows, but the limbs are too stiff
to be drawn comfortably with a string attached directly
to them. The compound bow uses a string attached
to pulleys, one or both of which has one or more
cables attached to the opposite limb. When a compound
bow string is drawn back, the string causes the pulleys
to turn. This causes the pulleys to pull the cables,
which in turn causes the limbs to bend and thus store
energy.
The use of this levering system gives the compound
bow a characteristic draw-force curve which rises
to a peak weight and then "lets off" to a lower holding
weight.
First developed and patented by Holless Wilbur
Allen in Missouri in 1967, the compound bow is now
the most popular type of bow in the United States. | 
