Through the use of the bow’s cams and pulley system the compound bow has been designed so that as the string is pulled back towards its firing position the draw weight decreases. The weight that you are require to draw back and then hold while aiming the bow is significantly less than it was at the start of the draw. This difference is measured as a percentage and is what is referred to as the let-off. A bow that is advertised as having 80% let-off will exhibit the phenomenon of requiring only a small fraction of effort once the let-off point has been reached.

There are two kinds of let-off that are regularly spoken about or mentioned in bow specification charts: effective and actual let-off. The let-off that most people would be concerned about is the actual let-off which is the measure of the weight transference that takes place when drawing the bow. Effective let-off refers to the difference in weight experienced when letting the bow back down without firing the arrow.

Knowing the level of let-off that a certain bow has will give you an idea of the comfort level you are likely going to experience when you have the bow at full draw. It may be an important factor the next time you are looking at Hoyt compound bows for sale and you see that although the draw weight of the Hoyt Katera compound bow is 80lbs the fact that the let-off is 70% means you will be able to handle it.