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Hey guys
What is a good draw weight to have for deer? Reds and fallow, or ideally what is a ethical minimum?
Mate of mine getting back into hunting but his buggered shoulder makes it hard to draw his 75lb weight that its set at, could he dial it down to 50 or so and still be safe that he will knock a red over?
He is using a compound bow of some sort and using muzzie broadheads.
Cheers
No problems with 50lb but the arrow will be more important. With the lower draw weight a heavier arrow with a cut on contact 2 blade broadhead will give better penetration
50 55lb would be fine. Better to build up strength and accuracy and increase the poundage slowly as he heals.
Shot placement. Broad head selection. Be interested to see what the hard core struggle stick shooters here say...
50# compound bow will kill a deer no problem. The question is ,can the coumpound bow of your mate be safely turned down to that weight? Some compound bow have a huge range of adjustment ( 30 to 70lbs) and some only a narrow range ( 60 to 70), past that point the screws holding the limbs in place will not be engaged enough and might rip off the thread.
Your mate might also have to buy a new set of arrows for the lighter poundage.
The muzzy will still work but don't expect full penetration if the broad head encounter a heavy bone on the other side.
As said above, a cut on contact broad head will help for penetration specially if you target big stags.
DOC has a minimum draw weight of 35lb and you should be happily able to shoot anything in NZ you desire with that.
Like already alluded to previously it is your arrow and head combo that is the deciding factor.
Get the balance of penetration required by arrow weight and head design.
Cut on contact heads use less energy so by design penetrate better than say a mechanical, use a two blade traditional style head and it penetrates even better still.
Heavy arrow/head combo holds more kinetic energy so that adds as well but to heavy and you may have to shoot up on a 45degree angle to hit a 30m target lol.
Balance is what you need and realistic Ideas of shooting ranges.
A light poundage bow that is easy to shoot accurately and not tiering to shoot repetitively is much more lethal than a 90lb 380fps monster that you can only just pull back.
A well tuned 45lb recurve or longbow will take a deer just fine, complete pass through on the vitals. I shoot trad bows, 50-60lb and they are already overkill for deer. Shot placement, arrow tune (including front-of-center and arrow weight), and sharpness of blade is what does it.