wv_mxr

how much drawback weight does it take to kill a fairly large whitetail deer because my son wants to get into bow hunting and i don't know anything about it. but after he tried a few bows at the store we determined he could only pull back a bow with a 55 pound draw back weight and the moron at the store had no idea how much power it would take and neither do I.

Dairy King

55 pounds in plenty to kill a deer with.

Paul L Mohr

Check out this link for some good info on the general workings of a compound bow.

http://www.huntersfriend.com/bowselection.htm


There is more to it than how much poundage he can draw. It also matters what his draw length is and how effecient the bow is. If he is drawing anything above 24 or 25 inches that is plenty. I would suggest that you go a bit lower on poundage if it is a struggle for him at 55.

Also keep in mind it is easier to draw a bow that is the correct draw length. If he was trying to draw a bow back that was set at 29 inches and he only draws 26 or 27 inches it will be harder to draw because it doesn't fit him like it should.

If he didn't have much trouble drawing 55 lbs I would say get a bow with a draw range from 50 to 60 lbs and start him at 50 lbs. In time he may work up to 60 lbs and can max the bow out. That would be plenty to take deer with.

I would also suggest that he get the bow now, and hunt with it next year. My personal opinion is that it is way too close to the season to learn to shoot well enough to try and take game with it. Let him practice for a year and get to know the bow, maybe shoot some 3-D next summer. Then he will be more than confident when he enters the woods.

As far as power goes though, there are people shooting short draws and 40 lbs of draw weight and taking game. It all depends on how well the set up is, what kind of broad heads you use and where you put the arrow. Shot placement and distance is much more important than the amount of power your bow produces.

Good luck,
Paul

Carwi

At the very least take him to a pro shop and have them measure his draw length. You can do a search here on "How to measure Draw Length" and get a pretty good idea on how to measure it yourself as well. He needs to shoot a bow that he can hold at full draw for one minute if he is going to be hunting with it. I would also say if he is pulling the 55lb bow ok a 50-60 bow set at 50 for starters would be ideal. He won't have to struggle with it and it'll be more enjoyable for him to shoot as well. Also, check your local game laws on minimum draw weight you can hunt with. Here in NC it is 35lbs for Compound and 45 for Recurves/Longbows. My Bow shop owner's wife hunts with a Mathews Mustang w/30-40lb limbs 26"draw length and kills several deer every year with her setup at 40#. She uses 2 blade cut-on-contact broadheads and has passthru's most of the time. But she limits her shots to 25yds also, however she is an excellent shot! Let us know how things turn out...