My son has his draw weight set at 51 pounds right now and I wanted to know what y'all were thinking about how much weight you need to really get good penetration?

51 will do just fine. A good cut on contact broadhead and a heavy arrow will get all the penetration you will want.

with todays bows, 51 lbs is fine.


as wes mentioned, use a stout arrow and a good cut on contact broadhead

More importantly is how well does he draw the bow? Best way to see if it's the right draw weight for him is to have him sit on the ground with his feet apart. Have him draw the bow back on his left side or right depending what handed he is. He should draw the back smoothly without having to point it up. A 45 pound bow will kill anything we have in North America with proper arrow placement.

Draw weight is one of the most misunderstood things in archery today. In the last ten years it has to be faster, more powerful, and the newest gadget. Funny how 40 years ago we were smoking deer and elk with the new concept of compound bows that were 45DW shooting 600+gn arrows!

51# is plenty, like the others have said.

Recently joined in a conversation at an archery shop with "I apologize to the deer I took with a 45lb recurve for eating them alive". The conversation was about poundage needed to cleanly kill deer and one had just told a man and his son that a 55lb compound was required to cleanly take whitetail deer.

The advice of using the poundage that can be drawn from sitting on the floor is good.

In states where a minimum draw weight is required like OK and many others 40lbs is the minimum for deer hunting and IMO is still a good minimum to use. If using the lower poundage skinny arrow of good weight spined for your bow with a good cut on contact broadhead will get the job done if the hunter does their part and doesn't extend the range too far.

Uncle Ted shot one with what he said to be 42 I think. If that's true, 51 is plenty.

I will just say the lower you go the more picky about broadheads and shots you should be.

One thing people forget about poundage is range.

It's true, a 45# bow will kill a deer no problem, within 20-25 yards.

At 40 yards, it's a different story.

A heavier poundage bow affords a greater effective range and gives you more margin for error

I see faster arrow flight time could be good but shooting a bow with proper d/w for hunter and arrow placement/range is important to. Faster bow you can't shoot make for fast miss. I have no room to talk I shoot 60 d/w and missed 160+ deer last year at 28 yards and I am very comfy with mine!

You've come a long way Grasshopper!

I will bring a bow when I come up next week, I still might stop off at the ranch on the way back even if it's just to check on things, I don't think I want to chase any pigs in this heat, but I do have a few places I want to add some stands.

Yep your the one who told me the "fast arrow/fast miss" statement! Same holds true for firearms...what goods big gun if you can't shoot it well? Majority of what I know about archery you pointed me in the right direction. Now everyone knows who to blame for my poor opinion on subject!

Its hard to say what draw weight is good there are a lot of factors that play into it. How far does he want the shoot, what will he be shooting, his draw length, broad head wanting to use.

It boils down to what he can draw comfortably! It does no good to want to shoot 50 or 60 yards and can only be comfortable and safe at 45 or 50#...

That is the determining factor. I have done hundreds of clinics and demonstrations; this question comes up quite often, and it's all about comfort. It's so easy get an injury by shooting a bow that is beyond the person's ability; a good way to miss a whole hunting season or worse. I've seen grown men think they were still in the 20's and get a 70# bow and after a few weeks they are not able to even shoot a bow again. The number one reason people shoot x bows is they are not able to shoot a compound or traditional bow.

I think a large population of X-bow shooters are just lazy.

I bought my 70 year old uncle a X-bow because he cannot physically pull a bow back due to several shoulder and neck surgeries. someone like him has no other choice and I applauded guys like that for trying


but I see a lot of guys who are out of shape, physically unable to pull a 60# bow so they automatically move to a crossbow with a scope and proclaim themselves archers, instead of getting their back muscles conditioned to be able to pull back a bow

Well I'm 65 and when I hate to think I'll never be able to draw a bow again. I did stay away for a long time due to a traumatic brain injury from a car crash and I had no balance. Your right there are a lot of couch potatoes that are just fat and lazy to get back in shape to be able to draw a bow so they X bow hunt... I'd just assume gun hunt.