For the sake of comparison…

My paternal grandfather hunted midwestern whitetails for decades with a recurve pulling 42# at his 26″ draw length. With swagged aluminum arrows and three-blade heads (total arrow weight under 500 grains) he rarely had anything but pass throughs on deer. You don’t need a lot of weight (draw or arrow) to kill a deer. Get it sharp, get it flying straight, get it where it belongs. The rest takes care of itself.

If his setup was great for our modwestern whitetails, it would be far more than up to the task of shooting through a little roe deer.

Aaron

Just so ya know, the legal min draw weights for most states were in effect long before compounds were ever popular. In addition, most early compounds had little if any energy advantage over traditional equipment.

The 40lb bow will do the job. I would advise a heavy for weight or EFOC arrow to insure good penetration, especially on the boar. Ibwould also use a good COC 2 blade head. As for deer as was stated the standard setupp works great.

Good luck and take pictures please.:D

If that setup is tuned for your bow it will be way more than enough for roe deer. I would check those same arrows with heavier heads just to see how they fly, but 14% is still pretty decent. I am sure many of us have hunted in the past with similar setups and never gave it a second thought.

Aaron,

Here in PA, I believe the minimum draw is 35#, so you are good as far as that is concerned (I am assuming most other satated are similar, if not same). That said, with my (very) limited experience, I would say you are good for what you are doing/planning, up until you hit Bulgaria/Boar. Those are some nasty, well armored creatures. Before I began with traditional archery, I hunted some deer with a .44 lever action. Never got my bullet back. The 2 boar I killed with the same gun/load, I got both mushroomed rounds. Scary, to be honest. I am sure there are people who have successfully hunted boar with a set-up like yours, but I would look into it a bit more, just so your trip isn’t ruined by a wounded animal that isn’t recovered. Again, my experience is very limited, so someone may be able to elaborate. Hope it helps. Good luck and be well.

Alex

😀

Aaron,

Again, I’m not an expert, but be wary of advertising. I could kill a full grown bull moose with a .22LR rim-fire. Heck, with a “reset” button (or immortality) I could kill a grizzly with a toothpick, eventually. Thing is, it’s not the norm. Again, I want to stress that I am still pretty new to hunting, and trad gear in general, but I am just going from my (limited) experience. Thing is, advertising is great to show successes. They don’t make a point in showing the animals that ran off with an arrow in them and were never recovered.

Also, I believe that 40# is 40#. The mechanical advantage of a compound lets you shoot 60# while holding 40# at full draw, but I don’t believe there is much difference with the speed (if using the same arrow, etc). Again, someone may correct me on this, but the difference is 40# at full draw versus 40# at half draw. Howard Hill shot a 100# longbow. I don’t think he had issues with speed, penetration, etc. In fact, he was probably better off than someone shooting a 75# compound with a 10 grain arrow (exaggerating, but you get the idea).

Anyway, I hope this helps. There are plenty of great resources on this, and other, traditional archery sites. Use them, practice, have a great trip, be safe and be well.

Alex

😀

Obviously at 40 lbs you’re at the lower end or the scale. Stick to an arrow of 400 to 500 grains and tipped with as sharp a single blade (two-edge) broadhead as you can manage. The Stos 130 gr or Magnus II 125 gr would be excellent choices. Try to perforate both lungs.

Truthfully, I know a few folks who would do much better with 40 lb bows than fighting with the 60# bows they insist on carrying.

I have been using a 41# Red Wing Hunter since I was forced to switch to left-hand and, judging from relative penetration on my bag target, the 41# bow with 11/32″ properly spined arrows doesn’t give up much to my 55# 23/64″ normal set-up. The arrows are 500 gr cedar vs. the 620 gr D.fir of my heavier bow.

Shot placement is critical. But whether the head barely exits the far side vs. sticking in a tree behind the deer is less so.

The bear in my profile pic was taken with my 40# recurve and a 145 grain Bear Razorhead.Total arrow weight just under 500 grains. At 18 yds, it zipped through both lungs and hit the barrel on the other side of the bear. After skinning, I noticed that my arrow never touched bone but I have absolutely no doubt that,while on the low end of draw weight, 40# is definitely enough to hunt with !!

Sharp broadheads and well-tuned arrows, you will have no problems.

Aaron –

What’s your draw length? Keep in mind that if it’s less than 28″ you will be drawing less than 40lbs.

Aaron,

Hei gutt, er du Norsk eller Svensk? Hvis ja, her du sett den tradisjonelle pil og bue shoppe i Norge? Det ser ut aa ha god utstyr og erfaring.

Si ifra hvis du har flere sporsmaal.

J

Uhhh….translate please, J? LOL!!

Michael

Something like this?

“Hello boy, you are Norwegian or Swedish? If yes, here you set the traditional bow and arrow shopaholics in Norway? It looks like you have good equipment and experience. Say something if you have multiple sporsmaal(?).”

Last word didn’t translate.

I used to have multiple sporsmaal but I couldn’t afford to keep them all so I only have one now… 😛

I think they give you meds when you have multiple sporsmaal…

Ha,you guys crack me up:) I was just asking Aaron if he was a Norsky or a Swede, and if he knew of the trad shop in Norway as a resource. I used to live over there for a time and it pained me not being able to bow hunt in Norway grrrrr. Some bogus claim that it is inhumane or something! Ha, I’ve seen a lot more “inhumane” shots made with a rifle than I ever have with archery equipment!:)

J

Aaron, there is an old study on this site showing penetrative capacity of well set up arrows on a 40# bow.

https://www.tradbow.com/members/309.cfm

You may find it interesting.