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Question on draw weight

J

jdavis

Guest
My shoulders are not getting any better as I get older so heres my question. I now have backed my bow draw weight down to 57#, I am shooting well with field tips and broadheads but I am worried about power of the punch. Does anyone shoot that light of poundage? In the past I had been shooting about 65# but just can't do it anymore with my bad shoulders.
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I would say that the shooting your bow well is the most important part, my bow is only at 60# and has shot clean through 4 does at out to 30 yds this year. Extra poundage definately cannot hurt, but being able to draw easily and smoothly is more important IMO. I think you should be in great shape--good luck
 
57 lbs is more than enough. I kill all my bow deer with boiler-room shots with 40 -45 lbs. You may have less effective killing range than you did before though.

Speaking of bad shoulders, I highly recommend this book. It has helped me more than I could have imagined:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/188923625X/qid=1129733283/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9904883-8264838?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I'm shooting without pain, increasing my draw weight, and improved my accuracy to boot! I can't say enough good things about this book.

Hope this helps.
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I don't know for sure but 57# sounds like it would be enough to me. I bought a used bow from a archery dealer when I was in my early teens that was a 50# bow and the owner of the store said his son had shot 2 deer with it the last two years at that time so I'm sure you'll be fine.
 
It's all about shot placement. A 70lb. draw doesn't do any good if you can't hit anything with it. Take good 20-30 yard shots and you should have no problem. If you were going after bigger game, say elk you may want a few more pounds. 57 lbs. and a properly placed arrow will do just fine on whitetail. Good luck.
 
Saw the program "Archers Choice" the other day and they took a bull moose with a 57# bow - sunk the arrow up to the fletching.
 
Never shot more than 50 lbs up until last year, never had problem killing a deer either. The arrow didn't always blow through the deer when I was below 50lbs. but that is not always a bad thing either, sometimes they stay in the deer and really do some extra damage. Once I went over 53# I got plenty of pass throughs. Know I am up to 67, and other than speed and a little more range the draw weight increase has given much.

Kratz
 
I ratcheted up my draw weight this year to ~65 lbs., was shooting around 60lbs. My accuracy increased noticeably.
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However, 57# is more than enough to kill deer ethically.
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My boy was shooting at 48 pounds last fall, and shot a buck broadside at 15 yards from the ground. The arrow took out one lung, and stayed in the deer. I was a little surprised that he didn't get better penetration. This fall, he is shooting at 52-53 pounds, and has a faster bow. 57 pounds would be more than enough on deer. I only shoot 62 pounds, and have got pass-throughs at 20 yards with Muzzys. Go for it !
 
I'm very new to bow-hunting and my hunting buddy (11 year old step-daughter) is interested as well, so this discussion fits right in as a topic I've recently researched.

I was curious what minimum draw-weight I needed her to work up to in order to be effective next year when she'll be old enough to go. What I've found is that some states actually have minimums. Most are 40# draw weight, but some posts on another forum said their state was only 35#.

I had 40# in my mind. Is that unreasonable for a kid this age? She's pretty scrappy. ;-)

Also, I got complete pass-through on my first buck this past weekend at 40 yards w/ 60#.
 
I used a 45 lb. recurve exclusively for 30 years. Limit your range to less than 20 yards (might be 15 if you use 40), and opt for the firearms option if you go cape buffalo hunting.
 
One extremely important point that I have not seen mentioned here is what is on the end of the arrow.... a quality FIXED blade head is highly recommended on bows lower than 55lbs. Don't start flaming me boys
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... I know a number of you like expandable heads, BUT they just do not perform well on lower poundages contacting bone, etc. I know of a number of individuals that harvest elk, whitetails, etc. using 40-45#lb recurve bows... the KEY is that they all use heavy hunting arrows with quality fixed blade heads ie. Magnus, grizzly, etc. I currently shoot 55# on my recurve and would easily go down 10# without concerns. I have never not penetrated through both sides of a whitetail with my current setup. My largest buck field dressed at 250lbs... broadhead penetrated through both sides... guys, there are NO bonus points for how deep your broadhead buries in the dirt
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Good point. For many years I only used 2 blade broadheads. If I take the recurve out this year I'll probably use the g5 Montecs.
 
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