My wife has recently gotten into shooting her bow a lot and has decided she wants to hunt now. We're in Missouri which does not have a minimum draw weight limit as far as I can tell. My question is, what weight do you think she needs to be at in order to get a clean kill? Where she's going to be hunting, her longest shot is only about 25 yards, so she won't have too long of a shot. She has a 26 inch draw length and is only drawing about 28 pounds right now.
I would try to get her up in that 35-40 pound range and stick to 20 yards maximum shot with a good cut on contact head.
Get her arrow weight up. I set my son up with a 380 grain arrow to go with his 38# draw weight. I have no doubt that a good shot from 20 yards will be clean and lethal. It will probably pass through.
That's what our goal is. I just wanted to see what everyone else thought. I'm going to try and get her a little heavier of an arrow as well to try and maximize the KE.
The key is getting a heavy enough arrow to have momentum. Being a lower poundage setup I almost think momentum would be more important than KE to a certain extent. You want that arrow weight to drive that arrow deep. A light arrow at that poundage will hit a rib and not penetrate very well. At minimum I would want her arrow weight to be in the 10-12 grains per pound of draw weight Check out this article. https://www.qdma.com/momentum-beats-speed-lethal-arrow-hits/
It's really no different then guys shooting slower traditional bows with no let off...they build their arrows heavier and a good CoC head...still get pass throughs.
I definitely agree. I was going to look into arrows this week. Right now she's shooting 500 spine Blackouts for target practice, so I'm assuming we'll have to do some adjustments with a much heavier arrow. And I'll get her a coc slick trick broadhead, so no problem there. Any arrow suggestions??
My son had very good luck/results when he first started bow hunting with his bow set at 35# and we used 100grn WASP BOSS heads. I kept his arrow weight between 6 and 7 grains per pound but I can't remember what his draw length was it was so long ago. He killed three bucks with that bow at less than 20 yards with two being complete pass throughs. Granted, they were all perfect broad side shots but his set-up worked very well. I totally agree with other posts stating to use a good cut on contact head and a heavier arrow and I personally would suggest no lighter than 30#DW. Shot placement is huge when using a light draw weight bow but with a lot of practice you should be good to go. Bear Motive-6 Shadow Series 28"DL, 60#, shooting 294fps Tru-Glo Archers Choice Single Pin Slider QAD HDX Rest Carbon Express MAXIMA Blue Streak Arrows Dead Ringer Rampage 100grn Hybrid Broadheads APEX Quiver AXION Stabilizer
I looked it up it says Missouri doesn't have a minimum but they recommend 40 pound draw weight my girlfriend is set at about 35# and she has a 25 inch draw and shoots a 400gr arrow she is using my old Bow
I see you use Easton Axis and Slick Trick Magnum broadheads, so you know Axis is a great hunting arrow and Slick Trick is a great broadhead . Axis 500 spine (8.1 gpi.) at 26" carbon to carbon with a 100 grain broadhead and regular HIT inserts will weigh 353.6 grains. Axis Realtree 500 spine (8.9 gpi.) at 26" carbon to carbon with 100 grain broadhead and regular HIT inserts will weigh 374.4 grains. Slick Trick Standard 100 grain work great with low poundage. Easton Axis Realtree 500.....12 Easton Axis 500 Realtree Shafts N Fused Carbon 1 Dozen Shaft | eBay Axis HIT Inserts.....Easton Inserts Hit RPS 8 32 Arrow Insert Pack of 12 Axis | eBay Easton Axis.....New Easton St Axis N Fused Carbon Arrow Shafts 500 Spine 1 Dozen | eBay
I was actually just looking into this as well. You beat me to it, so thanks for the info!! We're hoping to get her poundage up to around 35.
According to that calculator, my set up is only suitable for turkeys, javelina and tiny whitetails. :D
I use Axis arrows (regular and realtree) and have several different weights, all 400 spine. The 404 grain Axis arrows in my signature are 400 spine cut 27.5" from the valley of the nock to the end of the shaft, they originally weighed 388 grains, this year I have added another HIT insert, so now they weigh 404 grains. If you buy the regular 500 spine axis you can use two inserts or add another insert later if needed, just remove the nock put a little glue (I use Insert Iron) on it and slide it in from the back, I used an old metal coat hanger straightened out to slide mine in.
