Oh please do tell... Is there something I am not aware of about the similarities of a pumpkin and a deer??

I know that a pig is an excellent stand-in for a human, and I've heard about other accurate substitutes for various things, but a pumpkin for a deer? Never heard that one.

I just posted a while ago about a penetration problem at 35 yards so I have a lot of interest in this.

thank you all for your input. I can shoot a 5 inch group at 55 yards but i want to know how far away a deer should be at the maximum to get a good clean kill

Head to a bow manufacturer site that has 'arrow ballistics.' Find your arrow speed and distance. The Excaliber crossbow site gives the kinetic energy for certain speeds at distances. Mentions that 30 ft lbs is needed for pass thru shot on deer; sounds light to me.
http://excaliburcrossbow.com/content/arrow_ballistics
Another issue related to "effective range" has to do with sound speed. Though I've never hunted 'whitetail' a read of veteran bow hunters generally allows 30 yards; further distances risk your deer jumping the string. Though 50lbs doesn't seem to be in the fast/powerful range for bows, it's likely powerful enough out beyond your ability to place 'a humane' shot, assuming ethics is part of your 'effective' definition.

Gunny I would say 30 yards would be my limit.I prefer 20.

32.6 yards

I don't think I would try and shoot a deer off a bow at all... I would try and shoot an arrow.

I kid, I kid.

Anyway... most of the answer to this is going to depend on your draw length. 50# at 29" will throw an arrow with plenty enough velocity to kill a deer out to 35-40 yards. If your DL is only 22" (like my wife), then you are looking at 25 yards or so, and that's with a sharp broadhead on a good heavy arrow.

my draw length is at 25 it is too small but it is all I have for now. I am trying to save for a new bow but that might take a year to get to that point. As of right now this will have to do

You're missing WAY to many vairables for a solid answer. However you yourself provided a good starting point. You said "5 inches at 55 yards" that tells me your range is well inside 55 yards. Why?

- I am assuming that is known distance, warmed up, on a target, with good footing
- None of which applies to hunting where its a possibly known distance (did it move after you ranged it?), you are NOT warmed up, you probably don't have great footing and can't stand rock solid up right.

So I figure an average persons effective range drops by ~30%, so you are down to around 40ish.

Work your archery skills until you can hold less than 1 inch for each 10 yards. Effective kill zone is about 5-6 inches on a whitetail. Shave a bit off that since you really can't see the edge, and you get "how far away can you hit a 4 inch circle pretty much every time".

After that the bow, arrow, broadhead all make a huge difference to penetration. Sure light arrows leave the bow fast, but they slow down faster than a heavy arrow, so at some point the speeds equal, then swap.

Way more to the question that you meant, but it really doesn't take much arrow speed to penetrate into the chest of a deer if you have the right arrow and broadhead.

You say 25 inch draw length, that's pretty low so you are somewhat limited on speed out of the gate, but it can be done.

please don't do this:rolleye0011:

Didn't think anyone could possibly take it seriously.