There are a lot of good points in this thread. My thoughts are that with my set up (see signature) I get somewhere in the mid to high60's ft-lbs of KE. That has resulted in complete pass throughs of adult elk, caribou, white tail, and mule deer. The only non-pass through was a far shoulder stick on a whitetail buck last year and a near shoulder hit a few years ago[:@]. My largest bull caribou was quartering away, the arrow entered just in front of the rear rib and exited just behind the far shoulder (about 2 feet or moreof caribou) and still had enough on it to stick in a tree behind him. I had a complete pass through on a mule deer buck at 42 yards and the arrow was sticking a couple inches in the ground.Thus, I conclude that the mid 60'sis plenty of KE for hunting any North American big game. Like David, I have a short draw length and must therefore try to squeeze every bit of weight off my arrow that I can in order to get the speed that I want to be able to have one pin out to 30 yards.

This does bring up how ludicrous it is to have draw weight minimums instead of KE minimums. I don't think anyone would argue that a 60 pound recurve shoots less KE on average than a 45 pound compound. So, CO and other states allow people to hunt with the recurves but you also have to have a 60 pound compound... stupid, stupid, stupid.

Rob, I think your non-pass throughs have to be broadhead related seeing as how you have 30% more KE than me and I am getting them on larger animals.Either that or you hit the far shoulder every time and are the man.

I'm no expert, this is just what I think.