Thirty pound bow for white tail deer?

[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 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]

why use the 30# bow if u have and can shoot something better?

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]

practicality also depends on the hunting conditions

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]

just for the record. . . . .

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.

 

[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?