I'd say that 40# would be the absolute minimum that I would allow anyone to hunt deer with, and I'd cap the yardage at or near 20.

farm - I know AR pretty well, and I think you're misinterpreting what he's saying, or he just came across incorrectly. Trust me, he's not the kind of guy who turns a ten-year-old loose with a bow, leaving a trail of crippled deer in his wake. He's a stand-up guy, and would never let anyone just go willy-nilly through the woods taking irresponsible shots with irresponsible equipment, just for the sake of having a good time.

Instead, I think he was trying to say that anytime you have first-time bowhunters, there is some risk of making a bad shot - we've all done it when we were kids (at least I know I have). You grow from it and move on. Those are things that you have to experience to appreciate - you can say "yeah well, it would really stink to hit a deer and have it get away," but you really don't know until you've been there, losing sleep for 2-3-4 days, wishing you'd done X or Y, hoping that it's not suffering somewhere.