How Much Draw Weight Do You Need For Bowhunting? 

My kid got a complete passthrough on a deer with a 30# bow and 22" draw length. Arrow and boradhead choice is more important than bow draw weight.

My son shot his first deer at 12 years old, 35# bow, two blade, broad head sticking out offside shoulder. Deer ran maybe 50 yards. I use to shoot 82# bow, tore my labrum, went to 70#, several “hard cam speed bows” later and just over 60# tore my labrum in my shoulder again. Both times letting my bow down, not drawing. Now I’m 56 and shooting a mild cam 50# bow with a 652gr arrow 100 gr inoutsert 200gr single bevel broadheads. It blows through everything! Better penetration than I’ve ever had. Shared a campfire with uncle Ted, he helped me get my thinking straight, along with Ashby. Wasn’t that big of a deal in the 80’s, seems everyone has turned into speed freaks these days.... Accuracy, Penetration, Confidence at the moment of truth. If your new to Archery do not let your ego cause you to Over Bow with a heavy bow! Go light, you’ll enjoy it more and be more successful. If your young and want to shoot a 90# long bow, rock on while you can! I’ll watch and high five. Have fun and get someone new in the woods.

Shooting a 52 lb draw with a 30" DL - I shoot 100 grain Broadheads and can place 4 shots into a 5" circle at 33 yards. At age 63, having retired after spending more than 30 years, Army Special Forces, I have pretty serious osteoarthritis in both rotator cuffs areas of my shoulders (far too many pushups, recoil damage shooting heavy caliber rifles, carrying heavy rucksacks etc..) - and, all that was 15 years ago. I have found that tuning the bow, getting the sights perfect, the right arrows and broadheads - that is just as important as draw weight. I can draw smooth without spooking a deer only 20 yds away - and I can hold at full draw for a long time. I won't shoot a Whitetail past 35 yards anyway - even if conditions seem perfect (never had it perfect anyway). So, good video - adjust your bow to YOUR individual abilities and what feels comfortable for you.

Great info....!! I got back into bow hunting after a couple of shoulder surgeries. Use to draw 70#'s, now I'm at 52# draw weight (probably good do 55, but 52 is doing great for harvesting). It's comfortable, no struggle or sky pulls lol. Harvested a huge 8pt this past season at 30 yds. Great video. Need to let some of my fellow hunters watch this...lol...

Ted Nugent only draws around 48lb. It's all about shot placement, my local bow shop said to sit on a chair if u can make a full draw with keeping both feet on the floor then your good

Couldn’t have said it better myself!! Good job 👍

Just got into hunting and bows, this video answered a ton of my questions thank you! I definitely thought I needed to go as heavy as possible

I'm cool right at 60#'s. Dunno about the 1 minute thing since I shoot recurve. But I can hold it about 20 seconds.

Great video Justin, you hit all the major topics on draw weight!!

Great video! I'm getting my first bow here in Aus very soon

Thank you for the excellent and informative video. I have been looking at the kinetic energy and momentum calculators lately - maybe you could make a video explaining those concepts. Incidentally, two really accomplished archers (Randy Ulmer and John Dudley) shoot pretty heavy arrows and try to keep their speeds fairly constant - adding arrow weight as performance increases in order to keep the speed around 270-280 fps. Would be interesting to hear both your take and Todd's regarding this practice. Thanks again for the great content.

Excellent explanation and analysis. Thanks.

Solid advice. You can also hit the gym and get some tailor made workouts to build up strength but also strength all the muscles that you utilize in your draw, or should be using properly.

Pretty informative and well put together. Good stuff.

I have a old school diamond razors edge. It’s a kids bow I have it maxed out at #60. Slayed many mule deer bucks!

Great explanation, good luck this season.

Very informational. Thank you D WEST

Agree with the second two points. Pulling the bow back 30 times in a row I don't know where you got that from.

And finally, if you're sitting on stand for a couple hours, and it's cold, if you can't pull your draw weight, it's too heavy.

Excellent info for a beginner such as myself.

Good information. I have seen a ton of sky drawers and across the chest strugglers. You hit the nail on the head when you spoke of draw weight being some sort f manly thing. Worry less about DW and focus on accuracy. Good stuff, man

I likled quite a few deer back in the day. I'm 74. Most were ardowed at Under 20 yards. Some under 10 yds. I agree that you must be able to mount the bow to the aiming position and draw straight back. By the way in my 30's I drew 62 Lbs. Never had an arrow stay in A deer. All pass throughs. Great Video. It's not about muscle it's About stealth.

Excellent points.

Wellll lets talk about range as well vs draw weight. Here out west we can shoot 60 yards plus at game animals. Ethical range vs draw weight would be a better discussion...

Thanks that's all I needed get you a good one .

I shot my 1st deer with a 55lb bow, it was a doe who was 200 lbs on the hoof!!! XX75 2117's and a 100 grain Thunderhead!!! I shoot 59lbs today!!!

i shoot 40 pounds of draw weight with a 24 inch draw length and i pull it back perfectly fine but i am a sky drawer but i dont struggle pulling my bow back i just sky draw because its more comfortable for me

Thank you for the truth! This year I couldn't shoot 5 arrows with my hunting bow (63lb) so I shot with my target bow @50lb. One dead bluewildebeest!

I also test the sitting in chair and drawing it like another person commented. Reason for that is that more often than not I don’t have a good chance to stand up in my tree stand…and even if I do I don’t always feel comfortable doing it because I get too paranoid thinking I’ll make too much of a movement lol. So I prefer 50# overall. Plus I always like to consider the fact that I might have been sitting for a few hours and maybe it’s a cold day and I’m freezing, can’t be struggling trying to pull back then!

Why I love using a sb1 by diamond, can change weight from 7-70 lbs in the field no bench. with binary cams too for half the price👍

I have a VXR at 70# and 28 inch draw but my 2011 PSE Omen Pro at 60# is faster than most 70# bows. It’s not just the draw weight only it is also cam design! Some cams are faster generating more speed than others even at the same weight.

Hey brother I was wondering if you can do a review of the SAS ATMOS Survival Bow please.

I got a free bow from a buddy that’s 65 lbs and it’s is to much weight for me currently, but it has the perfect draw distance for me and it’s an “ antique” browning 1980’s bow so I wanna do it justice so I think ima hit the gym soon and keep practicing my draw on it, donw worry I’m not dry firing the bow. But would like some advice on how to get to a comfortable draw with it.

I bought an old second hand browning rage not sure about the weight, I think maybe 45-55 but im accurate up to about 50 yards, but hunting i dont think anything passed 40 yards

I got my first bow deer at age 11 and my bow was 28 pounds and it was a pass through

I shoot 52 lb on a recurve and tried the compound for the first time drawing 56 almost tore my shoulder. Needless to say I’m not going that route at least for now.

I have about 60 to 63 Lb draw weight on my Bear Inception. Do you think it is recommended to keep the strength training before every hunt or target shooting?

Great info

What should be the good arrow weight for a big game hunt?

this is a good video, thanks.

I recently got into archery because my 6 year old wanted to start it. I bought a 40# GenX bow with 600 grain arrows for myself. I was just going to do 3D targets but now i want to try Javelina hunts with it. Has anyone had success with Javelina and 40# bow? If so would you mind sharing any advice other than making sure shot placement is right on target? What type of broad heads, arrow spine, etc.

Good job

I for some reason thought sky drawing was proper form and my dad always said something but I would think that I knew what I was doing but he shot with pros and other great archers and knew a lot more than a 15 year old

I'm 5'6 150lb. Would a 40- 50 lb hoyt torrex be a good starter

Totally agree. I killed my first deer with a bow when I was 13 with a PSE Stinger set at 40 lbs. I practiced alot and shot it through both lungs. Deer dropped within 50 yards. Killed a buck with the same bow when I was 14 set at 50 lbs. Complete pass through at 30 yards with muzzy trocars. This year (I'm 15, and I'll have the same bow set at 60 lbs with mussachia NBS 100 broadheads. I shoot alot of outdoor archery, 3D and such. I use the same hunting bow set at 55 lbs. I shoot 112 arrows in 2 hours in the PSAA animal round, without fatigue. I know that the poundage will kill a deer, and the added accuracy from practice and shooting just makes the bow and shooter setup one less thing to worry about in the hunting equation.

Proper arrow foc, will complete pass through with 35-40lb draw 15+% is ideal. I've seen it many times.

Where I live the minimum is 40# which is Illinois as well and I shoot a 65 pound Osage rd bow

Good info

I’m shooting a 28.5in arrow with a 100grain fixed blade my arrow weight with the fixed blade is 330grain give or take 2-3grain I’ve been reading around and it looks to be on the lighter end for hunting whitetail what do you think?

I like 55# with a 570 gr arrow. Plus when it’s cold outside it feels harder.

I just got my bow back after getting it turned up didn’t no my draw wate it’s 45 and my velocity is 145

When using the hanging scale do you hang the bow on it and then hit “tare” before pulling down?

My bow came with 60lb limbs....but after a lot of shooting it's down to like 58 and a half. Is that because my cable's have stretched and will putting a couple twist in the cables rectify that? Also I have one yoke and a control cable... would I need to put twist in both of them?

Does anyone know if Todd's goggles are prescription and if so where he got them? I'm looking into doing the same thing for my poor eye sight lol

Did you think its possible to hunt with an elite echelon 37? 29draw lengh with 50-60limbs but i want to replace it with the 60-70lbs or to make that on my echelon 39 there are too the 50-60 on i used it only for target shooting but i want to make one hunting bow from that I want to use the magnus stinger or the magnus stinger buzzcut woth 2 blades as arrow i want to use my target arrows uncut full legth carbon express predator And when yes what is the biggest game i can kill with that Dont understand me wrong i dont want to kill the biggest game but iam interestet what i can theoretical kill with that setup

Thats all fine for compound bows but what about traditional bows?

I know this is old, but what stabilizer is that?

I wanna try our Matthew's bow.

Does the size of the whitetail deer matter for draw weight and if it will go through a bigger buck at 41 pounds

lol I use my dads old one and I weigh only 117 and my bows 54, I’m not the most peaceful thing when pullin it back

I would say drawing back 10-20 times and not get tired, not 30; that’s seems excessive. Keep in mind for hunting it’s about 1 shot 2 at most in a hunt not continual draws. I agree about being at full draw for a minute

I've watched most of the archery videos on RU-vid concerning "draw weight". What I've noticed is none of these videos seem to explain the basic issue of what is the advantage of more draw weight?

My friend gave me my first bow set to 90#... I had to buy another bow to get into archery

I agree with you 100% and I see a lot of you tube vloggers that vlog and hunt I've seen them air draw their bow. One vlogger Mule Freak went off the deep end on me when u told him that he was air drawing his bow and I him that he was pulling too much draw weight. He told me to ..ck off and he said I didn't know what I was talking about and didn't know what I was saying to him. Oh well.

As you age every year you turn your bow down a turn. Gone from an old pro vantage tracer at 80 pounds to a PSE at 50 pounds. Get my deer every time I can draw a tag.

I read somewhere the other day that i can put a twist or 2 in my cables and bump my draw weight up from 58lbs to the 60lbs my limbs are supposed to be. They said it could be a bit of string stretch and thats why i lost a pound or 2. Is there truth to this?

They told me my draw length is 31" n they gave me a 70 IB bow they told me if I were shoot a lesser draw length it will make it harder to shoot the bow now my question is is it possible to get a lesser Pound bow for example 45-60 bow and still have a draw length of 31"

Lol I just saw cris B doing a sky draw at the Iowa tournament, at every stage!! I can't wait to see him again so I can tell him that his bow is too heavy for him!!!

How long should you be a able to hold a bow steady at full draw as an indicator of what lbs to get ??? Ive heard 10 to 15 sec steady, is that correct???

Any recommendations for arrow weight for moose I’m shooting 70lb draw weight

Agreed, subbed

I have to say regarding injuries if you are going to pull a bow it will be a good idea especially if you are staying for some time in the cold to pull back your bow at least once every 10 minutes just to keep your arms warmed up. There is a very big chance after 2 hours in the cold that you might injure yourself once the adrenaline rushes in.

Can i use a single pin sight if im shooting 47-50 lbs???

Nice video!! my question is if my bow is rated at 60-70 lbs can I still take it down to 50 lbs? TIA

As a 15 year old kid. I’m looking to buy a new bow. So I have an idea what would be the best way to test my draw weight at home?

i have my bow at 70 which im 14 and pull that back fine but I think its way to much for the deer im shooting.

My LB is 62 , poundage 45.

Shot 70lbs for along time. I like 51lbs now. 70lbs isn't fun but also I'm more of target shooter. I like shooting at targets

Im 15 and have my uncles bow, it had a 55-70 draw weight. I dont have a bow press and i dont have money to get to a bow store. I think its around 60. I cant not adjusted down in fear that it will come apart and hurt me because i dont have a bow press but im getting into weight lifting and very fast it has gotten easier. Does anyone know some exercises that would help with this or should i just continue with what im doing

You are 💯 on everything you said, but 40lbs and even if your draw length was or is 32” at a deer @ 50yards🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 All power to you if you did, by the way good video.

I'm 12 will my 45 pounds pinitrait good

I’m 12 years old. I’m decently tall about 5 foot three. I’m not that skinny. I’m pretty strong, but I have a 40 pound draw bow and I can’t pull it back. It just gets harder and harder and harder and then I just can’t pull back anymore. Do you have any suggestions? I want to lower it but I don’t know if if I should.

A friend of mine had a pass through on a bull moose he draws 50 lbs. I shoot 60 pounds for whitetail. Don’t see the need for 75 lbs

How does weight pulling translates to bow. I can pull 240lbs dumbel for 3 times, and i can pul 270lbs one handed on cable macheen for 3 times.. i use straps for it.. i can pull 150lbs for 20-30 times. I weight 230 pounds. I am not interested in huntimg but i would like to buy bow for long distance shooting in mountains. I dont want to buy few bows and i dont have archery club to try what would i could handle... Is it too much for me to buy 70lbs bow? I can do 18 pull ups when i was 265 lbs body weight. I am droping weight now but i am not loosing too much power so i can carry lot of more crap on my hiking trips, so i thought about buying bow so i can have some fun when i camp for few days in nature, maby try to catch fish with it, but i would like to shoot card board targets at biggest distance posible.

Informative... but an assumption that all bowhunters use a compound bow!! There are many using a normal bow.... could you do one that includes these bows. Thank you.

what bow scale is that i went on their website and couldnt find them....thanks

Is it possible for one bow be harder to pull than another at similar poundage? I can pull a bear bow back at 60 like it's nothin but bought a pse and can't even budge it at 70.

warming up shoulders and conditioning them before hunting season is a must i guess cable exercises and TRX and strength bands are a good start.

How many pounds should I use to kill a deer from 70yrds? ..I spot and stalk out west. My bow is at 65 and now I'm ready to shoot from 70 but I'm looking for efficiency. Thank you.

I shoot mine at 72.8 lbs maxed out, and a 32 1/2” draw length.....and feels like drawing back a ladies bow honestly. I wish I had a bow that would allow me more draw weight, but as long as this one keeps ripping through animals I guess I’m good for now! Great video.

I pull 25 to 30 kg can i hunt a springbok

How much draw waight wood it be on a 43 lb bow

what should i do if im unsure if the limbs are even on each side?

Man i just bought my first bow and I'm at 50 lb draw weight, I would of been mad if I went on Amazon and bought a 70 lb bow

Hunting public has a podcast where they show a lady almost getting a complete pass through a Buffalo on a forward facing shot with a 43 pound draw weight

I have terrible right shoulder. All I can pull back comfortably is 45 lbs. Is that enough?

Today I gkt my bow at 35lbs so I can hunt now and im going tonight.

in Ohio the minimum draw weight to hunt deer with the compound bow is 40lbs

Os it ok to shoot my first buck on 45lb?? I'm 14 and my draw length is 27" ???

You said provinces about time eh