Deer with a 43# recurve, I now own one

[Izzy]

Oh no Stone.Look whats become of you!A helpless bow junky.What next,building self bows?You should be ashamed of yourself!!!!!         :biglaugh:Enjoy yourself man.

[Stone Knife]

Tell me about it, must be when i saw all the different types of bow at the bunny hunt something snapped.       I can quit any time i want.

[MATT_MO]

Originally posted by SlowBowinMO:
Matt, they dropped the minimum requirement a few years back.  Now you just have to use your good sense!  How unlike the government to trust you to do that.

My son shoots 38 pounds at 24", and got 16 inches of penetration on a buck twice his size this last season.  The broadhead stopped under the far side ribs but almost poked out.  That was with a compound though, he's just too small for a stick...yet.

I'm glad you set me straight on that.  I really thought it was 40#.  To bad it wasn't like that when I was that age.  I had a Browning fox compound when I was 8 years old at 35#.  That would of been fun to be able to take one back then.  I am looking into getting a longbow at 45#.  I have a plate and 6 screws in my shoulder and really don't want to risk hurting it and being out of work.

[Skipmaster1]

My buddy took a few deer with a 37# longbow. he kept his hsots at 15yds or so and used sharp BH's in the right spot. Never lost a deer with that set up.
For the record, he thought the bow was heavier, it was given to him by a friend. It was labeled 50#'s. Just recently i was shooting it and said "no way is this 50#'s". we looked closer and it was 50#@31".....he never knew he was "underbowed" either did the deer he killed!

[pintail_drake2004]

not with a trad bow, but with a compound...my first 2 deer were killed w/ 40#. the first was a doe at 40yd, the second was a 5pt at 18 yd. Although you do not need 40# to kill a deer, I personally feel (IMHO) that anything lighter and past 20yds is unethical.

[Stone Knife]

I have never even shot at a deer with a bow past 20 yards. I wouldn't take a shot at anything that i felt i couldn't kill cleanly, i like my game close real close that's why i bow hunt.

[Str8Arrow]

To add to the anecdotal evidence - the quickest kill I ever made was with a 45 lb bear recurve on a 650 lb elk. It went 20 yards after the shot.

This was back in the 70's and it never occurred to me that I was underbowed. I'm sure there were some, but I didn't know anyone shooting high poundage bows at whitetails in those days. It was a very common notion back then, that you wanted the arrow to remain in the chest to wreck more havoc on the internal organs. True or not, that recurve was more than enough bow to get the job done.

[Zano]

Originally posted by Guru:
I never said it couldn't be done...I know it can and guys do it all the time....my point was why do it, if you don't have to.

 Biggie        

For the same reason(s) why we hunt ~ even though we don't "have" to?    

[Riverrat43]

My arrow, insert, broadhead-field point ( both weigh 165gr), fletchings and nock all add up to 519.6 grains. I'm shooting a 30.5 inch Beman center-shot from a 45lb bow. Too heavy? About right? Comments?

[Mike89]

I would say it's better to shoot a bow you're comfortable with than the heaviest weight you can draw without hurting yourself.  I can draw a 50 lb bow, but I can hold at draw comfortably with my 40 lb, and I know it's going to go where I want.

Also, in addition to using a heavy arrow with a sharp broadhead, remember that it's important to have the arrow properly tuned to your bow! I've seen guys shooting heavier bows at targets and the arrow just falls out when my arrows are buried so deep they're hard to remove.  You can draw 60 lbs, but if your arrow isn't well matched, you won't get efficient energy transfer and some of that extra poundage is just wasted.  Tuning is even more important with a lighter bow, where you have less energy to waste.

[K.S.TRAPPER]

Originally posted by Guru:
[QB] Jim, Why would you want to try to hunt with 38#'s if your physically able to pull a lot more bud?

Yeah, It can be done and has been done. IMHO you're asking for trouble when you don't have to.

"The woods are not a testing ground to see how light we can go and still kill something."

X10, Guru is right on the money on this one. Never understand it either    

These threads get so old and I really don't understand why somebody would bring a thread up that is 7+ years old unless they are wanting to stir up trouble. Nope don't get it at all!

Tracy

[BWallace10327]

I don't think shooting the heaviest bow you can without hurting yourself is using the very best word choice, although the statement's driving principle is spot on.  I would revise that and state that someone should shoot/hunt with the heaviest bow that they can shoot accurately. I am settled in on the +-55lb range, seeing as I'm a deer/elk/turkey and hopefully someday moose hunter and not cape buffalo/bison/rhino hunter. I can draw and shoot with much more (65-70lbs), but that doesn't mean my arrows will go where I want. One day when I am unable to shoot a 55-60lb bow accurately I will move down to a 45-50lb range and be completely confident in my setup for the same game.

[JoeM]

Why did this thread pop back up 7.5 years later  

[tippit]

I wish I could shoot my bows of 40+ years ago when I thought 65# was the norm.  Now turning 69 years old in a month, I'm not quite ready for the rocking chair.  Well maybe a wheel chair as I'm sitting/typing here recovering from back surgery/spinal stenosis.  It boils down to that I Can Not pull over 45#.  For the time being luckily I don't have to worry about that because I Can still hunt with my 40-45# traditional bows.  This discussion should be try to hunt ethically & physically to your best ability.  These statements will end up pushing some of our traditional bowhunters toward using bows with wheels.  I want to feel welcome here and not give up my traditional roots.  JMHO...tippit

[Stone Knife]

I'm only 55 years old but still hunt with a 45# bow but I do have a few light weights put aside for the day I cant hunt with that weight practically.

[Sockrsblur]

A respectful debate is healthy and honorable. It actually makes a very good, thought provoking read right up to the point where people loose perspective and the conversation turns into something else.

I'm not commenting specifically on why this thread  was resurrected but being relatively new I've come to value reading thoughtful posts from both sides of more topics than I could have imagined alone.

Jeff I hope you get a great result from your surgery and heal quick!

[mgf]

Discussion is enjoyable enough but I shoot 42 pounds and there won't be any debate about it. LOL

I ordered 45 but it came in at 42. Do you think the deer will notice the difference?

I have several bows ranging from 55# to 65# but they mostly just sit on the shelf.

We talk a lot about "accuracy" and we hear about it but, when we look around, (or at ourselves) it isn't something we actually see very much of.

[mgf]

Originally posted by BWallace10327:
I don't think shooting the heaviest bow you can without hurting yourself is using the very best word choice, although the statement's driving principle is spot on.  I would revise that and state that someone should shoot/hunt with the heaviest bow that they can shoot accurately. I am settled in on the +-55lb range, seeing as I'm a deer/elk/turkey and hopefully someday moose hunter and not cape buffalo/bison/rhino hunter. I can draw and shoot with much more (65-70lbs), but that doesn't mean my arrows will go where I want. One day when I am unable to shoot a 55-60lb bow accurately I will move down to a 45-50lb range and be completely confident in my setup for the same game.

Maybe it's the engineer and tradesman in me but I believe in the right tool for the right job. I can hit "ok" with my 55# bow but I better with 45#.

I don't get to hunt anything bigger than a whitetail and most of what I shot is smaller. the one thing that's really lacking is a place to hunt to, truth be told, I shoot more paper and foam than anything. I've never lost a deer for too little weight...only poor hits.

The last animal I hit and failed to recover was a squirrel. Do you think it's because I wasn't shooting enough weight? LOL

[Diamond Paul]

I have about decided that I am never going to shoot a bow over about 41lbs again.  I have not shot a deer with a bow at the weight mentioned, but don't see any reason why it wouldn't be just fine.  I'm tired of struggling with bow weight.  After getting a set of mid-30 weight limbs to work on shooing three under and gapping, and realizing that there is no way that I've ever been able to properly execute good shots with 45-60lb bows because of this, I'm going to put together the fastest ILF 40lb setup I can figure out for next season and be done with it.

[Michael Arnette]

The gentleman who introduced me to traditional bow hunting has shot deer and elk with 40 to 45 pound longbows and cedars/two blade heads. I think it's plenty as long as you use an average two blade broadhead.
That being said, if you can shoot more I definitely would!