Ratatat,
I think there's one or two posting on this thread that aren't shooting a line of BS.
You do have elk in PA.We don't have elk in GA. I've hunted them, though. I got in my car and went where they have elk.
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The idea that we have different setups for different animals is to me a little odd. You don't see golfers changing clubs, or baseball players using a different bat because the ball park they're playing in today requires the ball be hit further to get over the fence.
A guy a lot older and smarter than me told me that successful bowhunting was the elimination of mistakes.
Setting yourself up to hunt one bow and arrow for whitetails, then travel out west with a different setup for elk or moose or brown bear or sheep- you're working against the very thing you're always trying to do- groove your swing.
Your hair-covered computer then has to keep track of which setup your using and remember the flight of the arrow differently from your home setup- a perfect scenario under pressure to then go on automatic and shoot that grooved swing-and make a bad hit.
I shoot the same thing at squirrels and turkeys I would use on a moose. Dead is dead. The turkey doesn't care that my arrow goes 1 foot past him or 50 feet- he's still dead. Neither does the elk.
The margins for error are big in our game- and bad things happen to good people all the time.
I run an archery hunting operation and I've seen firsthand quite a few shots on game made by a fairly sizeable crowd of people.
You are right- all of you-when you say accuracy is he most important thing. But accuracy with an unsharpened broadhead?
We have had perhaps 120 guys come through HH. Some know sharp, and some are struggling. There's no doubt in my mind that the biggest hurdle for a lot of the guys who switch from compounds, where they use presharpened heads- to stickbows- is learning what is and isn't sharp and how to get them and keep them that way.
I'm not putting anyone down here....I'm saying if you have no reference by which to judge "sharp" then how do you know? Ron at KME is working on something that will aid even the most tender-footed person to get them hunting sharp, and I hope he gets it put together.
How about a medium weight bow and arrow combination that strikes a bone like a moose rib? There's lots of variables and situations that occur in the field- take all these variables and more into account, then add game movement into the mix- and the potential for something unplanned can quickly become reality.
I want to build up to, and hunt with, the most lethal combination of bow and arrow I can get to with comfort and accuracy- not work down to what I can shoot most accurately- which is a 30 lb bow and knitting needle arrows. A guy on here posted that a woman shot a 400 lb hog with a 32# bow and killed it. I don't think I'd recommend people use 32 lb bows for hogs, based on that occurrence.
I've had lots of guys hit pigs at Hog Heaven- we've had two or three pass-throughs in the bunch. A hog is a far cry from an elk or moose.