With a recurve, the bow will increase 3#'s per inch. Your draw length will most likely decrease with a recurve, at least 1-2 inches. A 40# bow is quite adequate to kill whitetail deer and game that size. Get the bow weighed at your draw length then set up your arrows to be at least 10grs per pound of bow weight. This is very important when shooting traditional bows to get good penetration at the slower speed of the bows.

If you're not sure about the bow you can send it to me and I'll test it out for you to make sure that it still will perform properly under hunting conditions.