Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Recurve Draw Wt. - Minimum for deer?

I see where you are coming from. I consider the .243 Winchester to be marginal for deer, a finesse cartridge best left to accomplished shots and hunters, but usually given to unskilled boys. It works for them only at closer ranges, under the discipline of an adult.

If you visit other archery web sites very long, you will see lots of posts about boys and girls killing deer with 28-lb to 35-lb bows, usually at 15 to 20 yards, and under the close supervision of their parent. They are getting complete arrow penetration and clean kills when they hit the right spot.

That is why I object to laws which establish bow draw weights for deer with are too heavy for young hunters. It would be like setting the 12 gauge or the .308 Winchester as the minimum for deer - no guarantee of 100% clean kills, and fewer young hunters.

And if you are new to traditional archery, you would be smart to buy a 35-lb bow to start out on, and keep it, even as you move up to a 45-lb or heavier bow.

Tom I agree on the sound but I also believe if a deer is close and looking straight at you they see the release if you're shooting fingers. Plain and simple they see the movement of your hand not the arrow.

As far as 35# being enough it depends on the bow and how well the bow is tuned. A straight flying arrow with a good 2 blade cut on contact will work. Plenty of people loose sight of how well an arrow flys being part of the penetration factor.

A deer has peripheral vision greater than 180 degrees in a 360 degree arc. Its eyes are highly evolved to detect and react to motion, and its reflexes are a lot faster than any human's.

i shoot a 63# long bow.i know a rather large fellow from Louisiana that shoots a 110# longbow but he's 6.6 and was a competitive power lifter

I hunt with recurves exclusively. A 40-45# recurve will definitely take care of a whitetail if you do your part. I would shoot heavier arrows for better penetration. I shoot laminated birch arrows that average 690 grains with a 125 grain Wensel Woodsman broadhead.
These 3 Blacktails are 50, 51, & 52#'s and all have given complete penetration on whitetails, and I've taken whitetail up to 267lbs.

The Blacktails are nice. The riser design is similar to the Brackenbury. I shoot a 579 weighted Gold Tip with 160 Snuffers. Here is a Silvertip and Assenheimer.

Most states require a minimum of 40#'s for deer, check your regs. If you can go lower, the arrow should be tuned perfectly and the 2 blade broadhead shaving sharp, as well as being put in the sweet spot (this is good advice for any setup, even if it's 100#'s.) At low draw weights you should keep the arrow weight up as well, somewhere in the 425-450 grain range. Most guys seem to be shooting anywhere from 45#-65# for deer and at least 50# for elk. As far as the feel of a recurve vs. longbow, at least for me, a recurve feels easier to draw than a longbow of equal weight. YMMV. If your son is just starting to shoot, check his eye dominance and get a bow that matches, ie. if he is right eye dominant, get a right handed bow; left eye dominant, a left handed bow. It will make the learning curve less steep. Have fun shooting with him!

Good info here: http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=082053

65BR,

I currently hunt mostly with the very first longbow I acquired, my Bear Montana. It is rated for 50# @ 28 inches. I draw it about 29 inches and I honestly don't know my actual peak draw weight. After about 7 years of practice, I started hunting and killing deer with 2018 aluminums cut to 31" and tipped with 125 grain 3-blade Thunderheads. Those 2018s fly extremely well. I have also killed deer with 11/32" and 23/64" cedars spined at 70-80# and wearing either Wensel Woodsman or Zwickey Eskimo heads. The aluminums fly a heckuva lot faster than those big heavy woodies! I only started shooting woodies because I started competing in the IBO longbow class which requires wooden arrows. This fall I dug out the old 2018s after shooting the woodies for a few years and "holy cow" what a difference, especially beyond 20 yards. I think I will be shooting the aluminums at my informal indoor winter leagues at the local club. The only problem is making the considerable adjustment back to the woodies if I decide to do an IBO shoot.

I have owned, shot, and hunted with other longbows through the years with various draw weights up to 70#, but after 5 shoulder surgeries for rotator cuff injuries, I don't shoot that heavy any more. It's not really necesary for deer hunting or competition, and I find it difficult to shoot with my arm in a sling. I have done it though. Please don't tell my orthopedic surgeon!

Any more I usually hunt from the ground with my longbow. I have killed deer from various treestands, but there are definite restrictions as to where you can shoot from a treestand with a 66-inch bow. There's a lot of stuff in the way. I suppose that's just as true on the ground though. Let's just say I hunt where I want.

-

I can say this much, no deer has ever ducked out of the way of my arrow because of vision, because I choose when to shoot.

Its always NOISE that does them in to get them moving. And you can't counteract noise basically.

As to trajectory issues thats a crock, especially with a stick bow because its self compensating. It takes YEARS to get good but once good it does it all itself.

I"ve taken more than a few with a stick and one I actually cannot remember anything other than seeing the deer while going to a stand, and then all of a sudden seeing and arrow go through it. I don't remember anythign else about the shot.

To the OP question weight wise. 35 is WAY more than enough on a deer, the things, as mentioned, arrow has to have enough weight, IE dont' sacrafice arrow weight for speed, the old ping pong vs golf ball deal. Then once you have weight, you add a good 2 blade cut on contact head IE Zwickey Eskimo. Keep that sharp and flying straight and you'll be surprised what it'll go through.. wife shot 52 pounds and same setup, complete penetration on a 350 plus boar(scale bottomed out....) and over 2 inch shields, tip was sticking out the other side is what I mean by complete, of course the arrow was still through the middle of his heart, but it cut through a shield, ribs, heart, ribs and poked out the other side. If you know anything about hogs, thats actually fairly impressive.

As to deer and such, I try to stay around 40-45 as a personal minimum on recurves if legal or even longbows IE stick bows. Same setup as above. Lighter than 40ish, you want to avoid bone structure, and keep the shots fairly short, IE 25 and less for my tastes, but I don't shoot past 20 ever, and try to shoot at 10 and under mostly...

Draw wise you mention holding, and thats something you don't do with a stick bow basically, once you hit anchor the shot is gone. But don't over bow yourself
And try different bows and let the shooter decide, they all feel different and they will stack so it depends on the bow, generally bows that stack are cheaper, but not all can afford custom.
I can say this, after shooting factory recurves and longbows, teh best thing I ever did was get a custom brackenbury.... WAY different... IE better, smoother, lighter, just better all around.

Jeff

rost495,

Good post. I have a couple questions for you if I may:

If I understand you correctly, you said that a stickbow is "self-compensating." Would you expand on that a little for us please? I think I understand what you mean, but maybe not.

How do you practice? Do you practice at various yardages, or do you practice at only one range because the bow is self-compensating?

Thank you.

-

This is just my personal experience with recurves with which I've taken upwards of 20 deer. I have a Bruin recurve with two sets of limbs, one at 53 lbs and one at 57 lbs at my draw length. I use the first in colder weather because your muscles weaken when on a stand for long periods and in a blind for turkeys or deer due to their shorter length (54" vs 57"). I also have a Fedora recurve at 62 lbs (62") which is my fair weather bow or for elk.

I have no experience with long bows but these, particularly, the Bruin have killed many deer; I'm in no way saying those weights are minimal-far from it. I'm sure one could go lower in weight as mentioned and do well. In fact the biggest errror with bowhunters switching to recurves is to over-bow themselves.

I do use cutting-on-contact broadheads; no trochar heads for me though they are very popular.

That is a good point. My hunting bow weighs in at 54# @ 27". 27" is about all I get when hunting...and probably 26" when I am twisted around a bit.

It stacks 3# for the next inch and 3# less for 26"--am told 3# per inch is a pretty good rule of thumb.

We have glued up a bunch of sticks (not as professional bowmakers by any stretch of the imagination) and chronoed them. Bows are different and have different velocities.

Bows differ in the ability to cast a heavy arrow. The weight of the bow doesn't tell the whole story--it is not the sole indicator of outcome.

Some guys turn out some great bows...and it shows.

Depends on what I'm hunting, if its local whitetails then I have a small window of range... IE usually 10-15 yards and as such practice statically at 13 or so usually.

IF I'm going out of state etc... last trip was for caribou some years back, I start at 15 regardless until I get my form tuned up, and then once tuned up after a month or two of static shooting, the only shooting I"ll do is walk through our pasture each nite and try to "stump" shoot 50 plus arrows.
For workable distances its all self compensating at that point. It almost works for long shots too.. I mean I don't practice stumps at 80 yards but I did fling a blunt at 80 yards on the caribou for grins on a young one... and though I missed, I was only off about 6 inches high over the back. The Ptarmigan on that hunt were great practice to stay tuned up with.

You don't have pins(generally) so its all what instinctive is about... just like throwing a baseball or football, you don't practice at one distance, you learn all of them and at that point your mental computer helps the eye make instant adjustments to the "hold" and makes it work out in theory.

Jeff