Traditional Bow Draw Weight - How Much Draw Weight Do You Really Need To Hunt Deer?

Hey guys, today I want to talk about why I shoot a 37 pound bow and why you might want to consider shooting a relatively lower poundage bow if you don't already today. Of course, strength is relative from person to person regarding your draw weight, but I have a suspicion that a lot of traditional bow hunters are shooting a bow too heavy for their own good. To put things into perspective, I consider myself a stronger than average person and an average intermediate weightlifter. I have no problem deadlifting well over 300 pounds for reps in multiple working sets and I have proportionate numbers in the other compound barbell movements. Really, I could choose to shoot most higher poundage bows made today by mass manufacturers or custom bowyers, yet I still choose to shoot a 37 to 43 pound traditional bow. Actually, when I first decided that I loved traditional archery, one of my first nice bows was a 55 pound Bob Lee. I ended up eventually selling that bow for the reasons I'm about to go over. I decided to drop my poundage after weighing the upsides and downsides of shooting lower versus higher poundage bows for the type of bow hunting that I do. Now, I'm not talking about elk or moose because I have no idea about any of that. This information may or may not apply to that size game animal, but for whitetail deer and medium-sized game, I don't think you can go wrong with the recommendations that I'm about to make. Now, let's talk about the upsides to a lower poundage bow. From a practice and target perspective, you could shoot a lower poundage bow for hours. Every shot can be a quality rep throughout the practice session. I think you're going to be less inclined to develop target panic at full draw because you're more comfortable at anchor. I think you're more inclined to be accurate because you can hold more comfortably at anchor, and I think for these reasons you have more potential to achieve greater archery form. From a bow hunting perspective, it is much easier to come to full draw in colder weather with a lower poundage bow. For ethical bow hunting, we're really only talking about shots 15 to 20 yards max. Now, the downsides to a low poundage bow, there's not as much power behind the shot, and I think that could be mitigated with a moderately heavy arrow and a two-blade head. So, is that even relevant to what we're talking about here? The upsides to a higher poundage bow are you have more power behind the shot, and again, you can mitigate that with a lower poundage bow by using a moderately heavy arrow and a two-blade head. If you can think of any other upsides to shooting a higher poundage bow over a lower poundage bow, please let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear what you think about that. Now, the downsides to shooting a higher poundage bow is literally the opposite of every single upside I just mentioned with a lower poundage bow. It's harder to draw in colder weather. You're more inclined to develop target panic because you're less comfortable at anchor. I think you're more inclined to develop bad habits in poor archery form. I think that your practice sessions are going to be limited before you get fatigued and start to develop bad habits, and I think you're less inclined to be as accurate than with a lower poundage bow because you're eager to let the arrow loose at full draw. So, why would you really ever need anything more than 35 to 43 pounds, especially to shoot medium-sized game like white-tailed deer or even black bear? Of course, this goes without saying, but you should always look at your state's hunting regulations or your government's hunting regulations to make sure that you're within the low end of the draw weight before you make a decision like that. Listen, it's just food for thought. If you're looking to get a new bow or you're getting into traditional archery, you might have this idea that you need to shoot a higher poundage bow because your compound was 65-70 pounds. Also, if you've been shooting traditional for a while, for some reason it's just commonplace to think you need to graduate up to a higher poundage when in reality, again, 35 to 43 pounds is like the sweet spot in my opinion. Thanks for checking out my channel, guys. I have a ton of stump shooting videos if you're into watching that. I also have some archery release and technique videos. So, thanks for checking it out, guys. I really appreciate the support.