[walking arsenal]

Minnesota just passed a law moving the draw weight restriction down to Thirty pounds for deer hunting. They did it so more youth and females that cant draw a heavy bow can hunt.

Wisconsin did it years ago and have apparently had good luck with it.

Does anyone have any experience with hunting with this poundage?

What kind of arrow heads do you use?

I'm a little cautious about using a bow that light for deer. I have a PSE recurve bow and am a good shot with it out to thirty yards or so. Im sure i could hit a deer with it im just not positive the arrow would do its job.

The bow itself cronos the arrows i shoot at 135-140 FPS.

[scbair]

In my admittedly limited experience, the primary benefit of the heavier draw weights (that translate to higher arrow velocity) is a flatter trajectory.

I believe a 30-pound recurve will propel a properly honed broadhead completely through a whitetail, broadside, within the range of the tackle. The key is placing the arrow in the vital zone.

[Kingcreek]

In my youth, I terrorized all the wildlife with a 28# Savage recurve and cedar shafts. Harvested a lot of small game and stuck arrows in almost everything within walking distance. I have no doubt that, under the right circumstances, a 30# bow with a razor sharp broadhead would kill a whitetail. However, I have some real concerns. Oftimes folks with underpowered bows have a tendency to shoot light arrows and trade some kinetic energy for a flatter trajectory. Personally, I would discourage use of any bow under 40#.
My 105#, 5'0" wife can shoot a 40# bow with no problem.

[walking arsenal]

I shoot 3050 white tail carbon fiber arrows. I also have 6 cabelas carbon fiber arrows that are 6080.

What do you think about those weights?

[Kingcreek]

Those are manufacturer's coding for spine and/or wall thickness. I don't know what the actual weight is for your shafts with a broadhead.
I have 40 years experience, but I don't claim to be an expert. I get my bows and accessories set up in a way I feel confident, and don't pay much attention to what everybody else and the magazine experts say.

[Soap]

My brother killed a bunch of deer when he was younger with a 35# Bear so penetration shouldn't be an issue. As with all hunting, shot placement is key.

[wheelgunslinger]

Generally speaking, people who shoot a heavier bow are better archers in every respect when you hand them a lighter weight bow tuned accordingly with the proper arrows. This includes accuracy and precision.

I shoot recurves and have for a long long time. In my opinion, you will do fine with the smaller poundage bow on game like deer. Just make sure you do your part and practice, practice, practice so you can hit those vitals and not cause the deer a prolonged and agonizing death.

Go for it. Just make sure to use good form and get the properly spined arrows for the other bow.

Go here (http://www.eastonarchery.com/products.asp?show=chartsSelectors) for an easy to use arrow selector that will let you dial in your arrow choice.

I'd use a 75 grain broadhead on a bow that light. If you want to roll your own, the Zwickey Eskimo 2 blade is a big crowd pleaser and one I've started employing.
Other people like the super slinky montecs, and the german kinetics stuff. Both are expensive. If you buy your broadheads at wally world, make sure to sharpen them properly before hunting.

Anyway, I've rambled long enough here. Go and pick out your arrows and broadheads and start practicing with them. With any luck, you'll have a deer on the grill with your "small" bow in no time. Deer season is upon us already.

[moojpg2]

I would go with the heaviest draw weight u can comfortably shoot and maybe a little lighter. Yeah, a 30# bow will do the trick with the right broad head and a nice close range shot, but a 50# draw will do all of the same and give you the possibility of a longer range shot, it's also like saying a .243 is enough gun for elk:banghead:.Yea, it'll kill an elk cleanly most of the time with a perfect shot and the right load, but a 300 win mag will do it all of the time with a less than perfect shot. why use an inferior tool if you have the right one for the job. same with a bow and white tail. i'd hate to only hunt with a 30# draw, it would severely limit my range and there'd be much more of a chance of wounding the animal. Best thing to do would be to get the person using the 30# bow to practice a lot and get a little stronger, so maybe they can shoot a 40# draw, even that would be much better.

if you have to hunt with a recurve, do what everyone else does, get one with a enough draw weight that you'll be comfortable hunting with it and confident that it'll do the job, rather than trying to make the light weight bow work. plus it's a good excuse to get a new bow. you'll be kicking yourself in the arse if you're sitting in the stand and a nice buck walks by at 40yds on the last day of the season and you can't take the shot because you went out with too light of a bow.

[Kingcreek]

Many hours of practice will make an archer more accurate, but an underpowered bow for the task at hand will always be an underpowered bow.
I shoot a 70# Mathews compound with carbon arrows or I shoot the 55# longbow that I made from osage orange. I consider 40 yards a long shot with modern gear and ideal conditions. With my stickbow, 20-25 yards is really pushing limits and I don't expect a pass-thru at much over 15 yards. Of course, I'm talking about our typical Illinois whitetail. I kill an average of 3-5 per year with arrows.

[walking arsenal]

moojpg2

Let me try and get all this.
1. I already own a 30# recurve.
2. I'm poor, not all of us can rush out and by a new bow whenever we like
3. I cant pull a 40# bow

I feel hunting with a 30# will take more skill because i will have to be close. I practice a lot and am able to pick my shots well. I can do it. I wondered if the bow could, seems it can.

[wheelgunslinger]

nevermind

[whistler]

what is draw length? if it is more than 28 in. you will shooting more than 30#

[Soap]

I could be wrong here but a compound transfers energy to an arrow more efficiently than a recurve or stickbow does. I would try to limit my shots to very close range, say 15 yards or under, if I were you.

[Kingcreek]

could be wrong here but a compound transfers energy to an arrow more efficiently than a recurve or stickbow does.
Not sure it is more efficient, but it is different.
a longbow or recurve has a straight power curve, ie the peak wt will always be at the end of the draw. a compound bow's peak is before full draw then decreases some to allow you to hold at full draw at a reduced wt. newer bows are anywhere from 65% to 85% let-off at full draw.

[moojpg2]

I don't know what your typical stand setup is in MN, but over here in MA, we can't hunt food plots, bait, feeders,etc i don't know what kind of a stand u typically hunt, but up here the deer tend to be very skittish, and getting a decent, mature deer within 15yds around my area is almost unheard of, even with the right wind and a perfect setup,(it does happen,but not very often), my average shot has been at around 35yds and my longest was at a touch over 45. always got a clean kill, almost always passed through, I also use a mathews compound bow with a maxed out 80lb draw,i am luckily able to shoot that draw weight, so it's a lot different for me. I based my post on what type of hunting I am doing.

the comment about not being rich was uncalled for,i am certainly not rich, my college bill makes sure of that, i only own one bow, but i saved every dime I could, and made sure that the bow i bought could do anything i wanted it to do and was the best i could afford, i also hunt black bear with it so i needed something with a little more oomph

You seem to be confident that you can get a worth while deer to get within 15yds, so go for it, but around here 40ft or less is just not a practical expectation, i was commenting the same as everyone does, based on personal experience, also, u did not mention in the original post, that you couldn't pull more much more than a 30lb draw, you simply stated that the law was relaxed, I figured u were just contemplating the 30lb bow for the challenge, not because you had to, so ,I apologize if my previous post irked you, i say go for it if it's the only thing you can use. and good luck getting that 15yd shot, at least you're out hunting

[22-rimfire]

I personally would not use a bow under 40 lbs for deer. Part of the deal with the higher draw weight is the speed of the arrow. If you can't draw more than a 30lb bow, I frankly don't know if you should be deer hunting with that bow. I shot a 35 lb bow when I was 10-12. How old are you (or are you a senior)? You ever try black powder hunting?

Added: Seriously, I did not mean any offense with this. Archery hunting is a blast and you can get very close to deer often. I have been close enough to touch them with my arrow and they didn't even know I was there. Great fun. You can have a great deal of fun just being out in the woods and not even shooting. The weather is mild and the woods quiet. It is a great time of the year. The insects tend to bite though as there often has not been a killing frost yet. :)

[walking arsenal]

No worries, meant no offense.

[coelacanth]

an enormous amount of game has fallen to bows in the 30# range. The 30# bow is a natural step up to legitimate hunting power for thousands of kids who have learned to shoot using 25# recurves in youth archery programs all over the country. If you think a lighter draw weight bow isn't up to the task, volunteer to let someone shoot you with a blunt tipped arrow from say, 20 yards. Let us know how many weeks it takes for the bruise to heal. Then imagine how fast your nimrod a$$ would have bled out if there had been a Zwickey on the end of that shaft. :scrutiny:

[Soap]

Kingcreek-

Not sure it is more efficient, but it is different.
a longbow or recurve has a straight power curve, ie the peak wt will always be at the end of the draw. a compound bow's peak is before full draw then decreases some to allow you to hold at full draw at a reduced wt. newer bows are anywhere from 65% to 85% let-off at full draw.

I'm thinking more in the energy transfer to the arrow. For example, if draw poundage and overall arrow weight were kept the same, the compound would still have a higher velocity.

Does anyone else know if this is accurate or if its just in my imagination?

[Sunray]

"...have any experience..." Nope. 45 pounds is the legal minimum for deer up here. Mind you, minimums for anything up here(and most other places) are arbitrary with no basis in any kind of science.
A 30 pound bow will send an arrow far past 40 yards with no fuss. Mind you, it might not have enough penetration at that distance to kill cleanly. Broad head or not.
The arrow 'passing through' isn't that important. Getting it into the kill zone on Bambi is.

[Kingcreek]

The arrow 'passing through' isn't that important. Getting it into the kill zone on Bambi is.
Pass-thru IS important to me, Yes an arrow into the vitals can be lethal but the blood trail is vastly different from an animal bleeding freely from 2 sides.
I arrowed my first deer about 25 years ago, have hunted hard ever since, and have worked support for an outfitter. I've had an oportunity to track many deer. I want an arrow through that animals vitals and out the other side.
I've seen arrows stopped by the offside shoulder that resulted in some real tough tracking. I don't know how much deer hunting some of you folks have done with a bow, but I can't quite understand this endorsement of 30# bows. You still have to have enough energy to get the job done well and you need some combination of speed and mass that is adequate.

[walking arsenal]

Kingcreek

Are you saying that it wont work? Or that it is a poor decision to hunt with a 30# bow?

[Kingcreek]

It might work sometimes, but a 30# bow is not made for deer hunting.
In my opinion, hunting deer with a 30# bow is a very poor choice.

[22-rimfire]

This is sort of like the discussion that goes on from time to time here with using a 223 for deer hunting. The 223 is not big enough, but it will kill a deer with the right hit and proper bullet choice. Your 30lb bow will kill a deer if you hit it right, otherwise you will just wound them, the blood trail will stop, and they'll run off and die a slow death. Not very sporting. It is hard to track deer when they aren't bleeding well. You will be tracking them for hours more than likely unless you get lucky.

[walking arsenal]

22-rimfire

What experiences in bow hunting have you had that you have that opinion?

Have you hunted with a low poundage bow and had bad luck with it?

[22-rimfire]

I used a 35lb bow recurve when I was 12 to hunt groundhogs and rabbits. The arrows just didn't fly fast enough for hunting anything larger. Sometimes the animal actually jumped out of the way of the arrow even with a silenced string and so forth. I used a 40lb recurve at age 14 which is the first year that I officially hunted (family rule). I couldn't hold a 45lb bow (which is what my brother used at the time) at that time at full draw for any length of time and the 40 was about all I could handle. I went to college and quit hunting deer with a bow because I just didn't have the time anymore. This is about the time when the compound bows really became accepted and were legal. There is a reason why compound bows are popular. They work. I've shot them and they are easier to handle at the higher pound draw weights than the recurves. Of course now, I would have no problem what so ever with a higher poundage bow.

I never personally shot a deer with that 40 lb recurve. I missed some. Was only hunting bucks and wouldn't take a shot on a doe at that time. My younger brother used it and he shot a couple. I spent one very long evening following a blood trail (chest shot) that stopped as the arrow did not go out both sides. You find the arrow about 50-75 yds or so away yanked out by the deer. If you make a hit slightly behind the heart lung area, then it is even worse. Blood trail stops and you start to do circles looking for any sign. We finally found that deer the next morning. We just would not give up. I've help track deer others have shot with similar results since then.

Compounds work so much better that I would not really consider a recurve for hunting unless it was 50-55lb draw. But that is me. I said 40lb because I know it will work, but a 45lb would be better. The let off at full draw is what makes the compounds really work well and of course arrow components have really improved a lot which allows the arrows to fly faster. Good arrows are down right expensive these days.

Now, working and time is even a larger problem. So, I limit my whitetail hunting to handguns and rifles. I'll use a shotgun if I hunt some WMA that does not allow rifles or handguns. Just got a BP rifle around Christmas and I'm looking forward to shooting that a bit. The interesting thing on the BP rifle is that I would rather shoot 22's and larger bore handguns these days and really don't expect to do that much shooting with the BP other than just to shoot good enough for 50 yd shots in the woods on a deer sized target (ie 6" paper plates with X's drawn on them). They just don't really interest me much yet, but I want to give them a try. The only reason I even consider using a BP rifle is because many WMA's have restrictions and limit shooting to shotguns, BP's, and archery. Plus many states have an earlier BP season that allows you to go out earlier.

I wouldn't characterize my experience as fantastic, but I shot a lot of bow and arrow. You look at the penetration in targets, bales of straw etc. and it gives you a perspective on penetration potential. I know getting a good hit from a 30lb bow will kill a deer, I just think you'd be better off with a higher poundage bow even if it is hard to draw back. Small game hunting would be quite fun and reasonable with the 30 lb bow though. Compound bows aren't cheap these days.

I would suggest that you shoot it a bit and make a judgement on penetration and go with it if you are comfortable. Try to shoot some ground hogs and decide if the bow performs adequately. You are perfectly legal to use the bow, so it's your call ultimately. My experience would not qualify me as anything close to expert, but I do tend to have a rational approach to choosing equipment for a particular task based on some background.

The fish & game departments are relaxing some of the rules to allow younger hunters into the field. The draw weight of a bow is a limiting factor on age or physical development. In my state, you are allowed to use any centerfire caliber for deer hunting where as before it was 24 caliber or larger. I suspect this is again to attract more people to hunt who might only have an SKS, AR or something of that sort. The fish & game departments want to sell licenses, but they are also seeing the whitetail population exploding in many states with fewer hunters to hunt them.

Sorry if I have bored you with this as it got a bit long.

[walking arsenal]

Naw, its good info. Thanks for your time.




I feel comfortable enough with the bow at short ranges (under 20yrds) that i feel i could make a clean kill with a good broad head.

I think if i went to a heavier bow I might gain the power but lose the accuracy. My brother owns a 45# bow but i cant shoot it well.

[Steve499]

If a compound bow, a static recurve bow, a working recurve bow and a longbow, all of the same draw weight, are compared at the same draw weight and length with the same weight arrow, the arrow speed will be fastest with the compound and slowest with the longbow. The relative efficiency is caused by the manner in which the energy is stored. The sooner in the draw the energy is stored, the more efficiently it is transferred to the arrow on release. There are many variables within each design which can make a poorly built recurve shoot slower than a very well made longbow, but generally they rank as I listed them.

Walking arsenal, your 30# PSE bow is certainly well designed and manufactured. You can kill a deer with it. Native American bows were often of low draw weights also, and they successfully took deer with them. I would imagine, though, that almost every kill they made required a substantial amount of tracking skill before they got to eat any venison. I am not a very good tracker and without a pass through hit with the resulting blood trail, I, personally, have a tough time following a trail once the deer has stopped running. You can increase your chances of a pass through shot by using a sharp 2 blade head, keeping the shot close and avoiding the shoulder blade, which can be tough to shoot through even with some of the heavier bows.

A better solution would be a heavier bow. Unless you have some handicap, you will quickly build up muscle for bow shooting just by shooting your bow for the large amount of practice most bow hunters engage in. You may not be able to afford to buy a heavier bow, but you can make yourself one. It isn't brain surgery or rocket science and you don't need anything more than a hatchet, knife and wood rasp to start. There are lots and lots of folks around who do that, myself included, and if I can do it, ANYONE can! I would venture that, again, unless you have some handicap, you could be comfortably drawing and shooting a bow twice your present draw weight by next year this time if you start making your own equipment.

[Zeke/PA]

I'm not sure that you would get an arrow passthrough on a whitetail with a 30# bow making tracking more difficult.
I would limit my shots to 20 yards or less and to do this, treestand hunting is a must.
Zeke

[Soap]

Steve499 - Thanks for the clarification regarding the relative strengths of the bow types.

[cracked butt]

I wouldn't bother with a #30 bow. I've been bow hunting since age 12, and at that time, I was able to drAw a 45# compound- after months and months of practice. My wife shoots that same bow for 3-d shoots and has no problem drawing it. Bowhunting isn't a sport where you can walk out of a store with a bow and plan to hunting with it the same month let alone day- it takes months of practice to become proficient with a bow, and if you are going to practice that much, you might as well get a bow with adequate draw weight and strengthen up your back muscles with the practice involved.

A 30# bow might kill a deer with a very well placed shot at very close range, that being said, I've been shooting a bow of one kind or another on a regular basis for the last 29+ years and currently use a bow with a 75# draw weight.

A 30# draw weight may be legal in my state, but I've never heard of anyone using one.

[cracked butt]

Walking Arsenal- how long is your draw length?

The reason I ask is because all of the recurves but the custom made bows such as the Black Widows, are made with a 28" draw length. beyond 28" draw, the poundage stacks almost exponentially, so you could potentially be getting 40# of draw weight out of a 30# bow if say your draw length is 31 inches. Of course it works the other way as well- if your draw length is shorter, the draw weight decreases.

[Rem-brent-browning]

WA- My biggest concern with the poundage of bow you shoot has to do with penetration. Let's face it. Not all situations in hunting are perfect. You will be limiting yourself severely. Not all of us are Native Americans who had the time and skill involved to track and bag the game. Likewise, we can't always have a 15 yard shot quartering away. I don't know enough about the equipment you have selected for this enterprise, but I would expect you to do the homework to make sure it will provide adequate penetration to insure a good blood trail.This would mean a pass through. I have personally tracked 6 deer,for me as well as others, that were not pass throughs and we only recovered one. The longest I have blood trailed was well over 1 mile in the baddest swamp in East Texas- and I had 2 other guys helping me.

I respect deer too much to use any thing under #45 of draw at my length of pull. This will allow you to shoot a heavier arrow with much more arrow speed to give you a better chance at that pass through. I was like you at first. Overbowed at#50. I trained and practiced on developing muscles that draw and hold your bow at full draw for 10 seconds- without wobble. I gradually worked up to a #65 recurve and an #80 longbow.It took me 6 months of dilligent practice. It allowed me to shoot more confidently and increased my effective range on big game. Deer are big game my friend. They are not bunnys or squirrels or carp.

Why don't you build up your muscles instead of shooting an underpowered setup? Is it a physical disability that prevents you? If so, I can understand. Otherwise I think you are just not dedicated enough or lazy. Respect your quarry ,man!