Back to the draw weight issue... My wife's bow set at 42# is shooting faster than my old PSE (circa 1990) did at 60#. The arrows are roughly the same weight. Times have made needing a "heavy bow" a thing of the past.

Just my humble opinion here, but if you're not drawing at least 55#, you have no business bowhunting any kind of big game.

Sure, a 50# bow can deliver a lethal blow to a whitetail. So can a .22 Hornet, but you don't see many guys out there toting .22's on opening day. Why? Because it's ridiculous.

I just get so sick of hearing guys talk about taking their 11 year oldkids/wives out bowhunting with 40 pound bows, then talking to them 4 months later and getting the sob story about how Billy Bob Junior plugged an arrow in a doe's shoulder, or how Misses Billy Bob bounced an arrow off a scrub buck and couldn't recover it.

Bowhunting isn't a sissy sport. Sorry. IMO, if you can't man-up and draw enough bow to cut through some bone or generate significant penetration, you should stick to lead projectiles or playing with Barbies.

Face it, people get old, bones get brittle, joints go bad, most women aren't She-ra, and your kid isn't Little Hercules. There's a time to hunt and a time to hang it up. When you feel like you're having to bend the rules or cut corners just to meet the threshold physical requirements, then it's probably time to admit defeat and focus on rifle season.

Just my .02.

I'm actually surprised that some people are shocked that a 55# compound did the job on a Moose. I'm surprised that's it's an issue at all.

My personal setup for my upcoming moose trip will be my 70# longbow with a 2 bladed head and a grizzly stick. My backup will be my 60# Schulz longbow.

Currently my son is working his way up to his 40# longbow (he's still 12 and shooting 30#'s comfortably), in two years though, I'm pretty sure he'll be ready to hunt deer with it ground level up to about 20 yards. That is as long as I can get him away from hunting chip monks long enough.

Not really worth that

OK Quick, riddle me this... Do you think that it is fine for someone to hunt with a 60# recurve? If your answer is yes, then your argument has no merit and you are simply flexing your muscles.

And bowhunting is a sissy sport. We sit in treestands designed for comfort and shoot bows that "eliminate hand shock". How much more sissified can you get than worrying about the recoil on a bow?

edit: If by "significant penetration" you mean a pass through, I did that 16 years ago with a 45# compound. Only non-pass through I have ever had was with my Mathews at 64#. Got stuck in the far shoulder. Think that today's bows aren't faster?

But don't let the facts get in the way of your opinion.

I agree and disagree at the same time. For deer...i believe 35# at the very minimum. My girlfriend shot her first deer with a bow using 39#. I've heard of a girl 12 years ago (think...a lot less FPS than bows today) and she shot a 6 pt using 29#. A good sharp broadhead mixed with a very accurate shot is the lethal combination, not necissarily how much weight you pull.

BUT..

On the big game part (not including whitetail), i pretty much agree. We're talking big game. Thats why theyre called big game. I think thats great someone shot that moose with 55#...i definetly wouldnt doubt that story at all. But like quiksilver said, a minimum of 55# should be considered for stuff like Buffalo, Moose...etc. Like you said about no one using .22 for deer, why use a slingshot for moose??

What my point is, is that i think that unless you can comfortably draw the huge draw weights, it really isnt that neccessary for DEER. But for a lot bigger game, more energy shots should be considered.

You have to wonder if we don't get to the other end of the macho spectrum with using a light bow for big game. kind of like using a knife to tackle lions. A guy gets a rush out of using a light set-up to shoot a big aninal?

I completely see your point, but for well over half of the big game species in North America, a 45#-50# bow would be plenty. Caribou are easier to kill than deer and those two alone are about 1/3 of the species, then you have antelope, black bear, etc, etc that all could be hunted quite ethically and lethallywith those poundage bows.

...yeah, and I read about a few guys who were headshooting deer with a .22 long rifle. Should we all start buck hunting with .22's? Maybe BB guns? Slingshots? Maybe we should just throw rocks at them, b/c a well-placed brick to the head could be lethal.

Huntingson - I think you're grosslyunderestimating a 60# recurve. 55# KE isn't too shabby.
http://www.bowhunting.net/evaluation/GrovesBows-Mag2.html Besides, the number of people actually successfully shooting deer with primitive weapons is abyssmally low. That argument is like peeing into the wind.

...and anybody who would ever let a child hunt deer with a 29# bow should permanently be stripped of his license. He'd never hunt with me, that's fo' shizzle. Matter of fact, if anybody ever thought they were hunting with me with a 45-pound peashooter, they'd have another thing coming. Stay home and play with your Cabbage Patch Kids.

The key here is shot placement - and I've been hunting long enough to know that there are a lot ofclueless idiotsout there who are lucky to hit the deer. Hitting the vitals -Ha - that'sa bonus. Next thing you know, you've got some poor schlep in rifle season shooting a doe with gangrene in its hind quarter from where Mrs. Billy Bob pinwheeleda Muzzy 4" deep,square in the steaks.

Seriously, if you don't have enough physicalstrength to draw a 55# bow, you probably won't have enough strength to catch yourself if you'd slip from the stand. I really wouldn't want that on my conscience.

I agree with what most people are saying that you dont need the heavy bows to take down north american game species. I would think that 55 pounds would be able to take down anything no problem. I still cant believe what a little tiny broadhead can do to an animal when shot well. With that being said, if you can shoot a heavier bow as accurately as the lesser weight bow i think that you should. In the real world, we all know that arrows dont always go where you want them to and that little bit more weight and power might be what it takes to blow through a shoulder or any other bone that might be encountered. Why not have alittle more power behind you if you can still shoot it accurately.