Planning to hunt moose in Alaska in 2017. I just sent my limbs back to have the weight reduced to 56#@30.5". I kind of wish i had left them alone now that we are planning this trip. I don't have any experience hunting moose with a trad bow, and I'm trying to decide if I want to get a set of limbs around 61-62@30.5.
Those who have killed moose in AK, what was your set up and how was the penetration?
And to avoid the "I've never hunted moose, but your set up sounds good...or, so and so did it with a 49# bow....or, just use a quality scary sharp two blade broadhead and wait for the perfect broadside shot at less than __ yards...or, shoot as much weight as you can".....guys I want to hear from people who have actually done it, what they used, and the penetration they had. So I can take their experience and make a better decision. I can handle more weight, but shoulder issues keep me from cranking out 50-60 arrows the way I used to. I'm trying do decide if I need to just eat the pain for a few months and bump the weight up.
Thanks
John took a big bull in Alaska a couple of years ago with 51 @ 30 and would have shot clear through had he not hit the shoulder bone on the far side.
He was shooting Tuffheads and a pretty heavy arrow.
I hope to put one down this year and my setup will be 51 @ 30 1/2 with a 560 gr arrow and two blade heads.
Mike
I'm going to try to keep my arrows between 10 and 11 grains per pound with 210-250 grains on the front. Shooting cutthroats or helix broadheads. I've not used tuffheads. It's hard for me to put that much weight on the front of the arrow as keep it in spine with such a long draw and shooting skinny axis shafts. May have to look into the meathead.
The cutthroat looks like a very good choice. I'll be using Solid Broadheads this year for the first time. They are along the line of the German Kinetics.
I like about 11 gpp if I can get it. I'll tell John about this thread and he can share the arrow setup he shoots.
Mike
The bull in my avatar was a 1200 lb Canada moose with 53" spread - not an Alaska Yukon sub but large nevertheless.
Shot him at 6 yds. with a 54# LB pushing a 750gr arrow with a SB broadhead. Got complete penetration.
IMO a heavy, good flying arrow with a 2 blade head would do it for you at that poundage.
Arctic Hunter,
If you use a full-length shaft with a deflection of .280" at your draw weight and draw length you can hang 300 grains on the front, no problem. The above is especially true if you have an elevated rest where you can play with center shot just a bit.
Below is the bull Mike mentioned. You can just barely see the fletching protruding from his right chest. About half of the fletching was inside the moose. That's a 32"-long shaft with a 3"-long broadhead on the front. Alaska-Yukon moose are very large. Like Mike said, it would have been a through-and-through had the arrow not buried in the off-side shoulder socket. Total arrow weight was right at 675 grains.
(http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt113/JCHavard/IMG_0111_zps1f66e9c2.jpg) (http://s603.photobucket.com/user/JCHavard/media/IMG_0111_zps1f66e9c2.jpg.html)
You have enough if you use a good heavy weight forward arrow as John did, above. I think you should try to get your arrow in the 650 grain range with a fair amount of FOC. I killed an Alaskan Yukon moose quite a few years ago with a 66# longbow at 28 inches. Used 725 grain birch shafts and Zwickey Delta head. Your long draw gives you the equivalent of several extra pounds of bow weight.
I have not killed moose in AK but I have killed moose in BC Canada ... your set up will be fine at the reduced weight. I was shooting a 55# Bill Stewart LB with cedar arrows in the 600 grn range and my two hunting partners were both shooting 55# Bill Stewart recurves ... not sure of their arrow weight as they were carbons, but neither had extreme FOC I'm sure of that. All our kills were pass through double lung shots. Two of us were shooting two blade BH's and one was shooting three blade Thunderheads. I truly believe you do not "need" to shoot 60-61#'s to kill a moose efficiently ...
Not to high jack ... But when y'all are giving your arrow weight is that including the point as well?
Someone mentioned they're shooting a 660 grain arrow.... Is that total or 660 plus the point
I killed my AK moose with a 58# @ 29" Osage selfbow, 625 grain arrow tipped with a 145 grain Eclipse (625 total weight with broadhead). 4 yard shot shot. The broadhead went through a near side rib and the tip was protruding 1/2" out of an off side rib. Penetration was hampered because the arrow was still in archers paradox.
QuoteOriginally posted by DXH:
Not to high jack ... But when y'all are giving your arrow weight is that including the point as well?
Someone mentioned they're shooting a 660 grain arrow.... Is that total or 660 plus the point
I believe they are referring to the total arrow weight. This is good information. I had considered my 56@30.5 with a 597 gr arrow to be slightly over borderline until I heard from some of you. I draw an honest 30-30 1/2", so I should be looking at around 55-56 lbs. That is assuming that the widow guys don't take off too much wood. I consider 56 lbs to be pretty much the ideal weight for me.
Anybody else?
I doubt your set up will work if you have so little confidence in it.
BW,
I believe, as with most everything, it isn't a matter of confidence in one's setup, it is a matter of ones confidence in themself.
QuoteOriginally posted by Walt Francis:
BW,
The broadhead used, regardless of how sharp, is nowhere as important as being able to place it in the correct spot.
That is very appropriate.
QuoteOriginally posted by BWallace10327:
I doubt your set up will work if you have so little confidence in it.
So I should already know what my set up will do even though I've never killed a moose with it? Why on earth do you think I posted this? The ability to get on a forum where I can call upon the experiences of others is, in large part, what gives me confidence to do something I have not yet done.
I'm not new to this, but I'm far from being someone who even pretends to know everything. Everybody at some point hit the wood with a bow in their hand for the first time with confidence that they had enough umph to get it done, which was most likely gained from somebody else with experience telling them that they did.
I have gotten some good feed back though, and will likely stick with my set up.
Don't let ole BW raise your hackle. Your questions were legit and your set up will do just fine. Be sure to send moose pics when you pile him up!
51# Bamboo backed Maple longbow.
625gr total weight Forgewood shafts with Journeyman 2 blade broadheads.
2 dead moose. Shot in Newfoundland
1 shot at 18 yards with penetration to the fletching. 1 shot at over 30 yards with complete penetration.
Don't you just love the keyboard haters. You're doing the exact thing you should be doing this time of year. Testing your equipment against the expected challenges of the coming year.
Your setup will be fine as everyone that has taken a moose has said, so go forward with step 2 and get your arrow and broadheads setup when your bow comes back.
Mike
I don't know what I "hated". I just pointed out an obvious, unnecessary insecurity in a bow that can take anything on this continent. I didn't know it when I originally typed it, but it's good to have a little criticism to balance out all of the coddling.
BW I understood exactly what you meant. With his weight and draw, his only real consideration for equipment choice is which broadhead. Way back in the 60s Howard Gilean (spelling?) in his monthly archery article wrote about a moose hunting camp. Bows from the mid forties to mid fifties were used. If I remember right, some of the lower weight bows were very effective. I crossed paths with a fellow on a Canadian canoe trip that killed a moose with about a 55@26 self bow with obsidian heads. He said the first shot at about 12 meters hit a rib and broke up the head, the second one did not hit any ribs and went straight through. "Look at pics here, it's a big one aye." It was aye big one and shot from a canoe.
I don't consider asking about others experiences, in order to better understand my own equipment, as being insecure. I asked who had shot an ak/Yukon moose with a trad bow, what their set up was, and what kind of penetration they got. Not if you deemed me worthy of being concerned about bow weight/performance, or being interested in knowing what others have used.
If you haven't killed one, the only way you can truly know what will work is from what other people tell you.
55# at 28" is my personal minimum in a moose bow, and my arrow will usually be 750+ gr. I recommend a 2-blade coc head and I happen to use a single-bevel 250 gr. I'm not big on touting any success I've had, but will say every AK-YK bull I've killed has run off to die with 2 holes.
The biggest and baddest bow/arrow combo won't compensate for lack of accuracy. Shoot a solid rig and hit accurately...they will go down.
QuoteOriginally posted by BWallace10327:
I doubt your set up will work if you have so little confidence in it.
Really.
Really.
Sharp broadhead, heavy well tuned arrow is the key. :campfire: :coffee: I would probably shoot them with the same thing I use for squirrel.
Dad shot his Alaska bull with a 55 lb @30 horn longbow 2315 xx75 with a big wide zeypher sasquatch up front broadhead was poking out the far side bull went 50 yards
I agree with Brent. U have to have confidence in yourself and your equipment when you draw back and anchor at that bull. Your mind has to be clear of any doubt of any kind.
So do your research like youre doing and be confident in what u hunt with.
5 moose taken....all Canadian moose not Alaskan
should not be any different...they are bigger but body wise.. not much wider...still go down the same
results
...65# hill longbow for 2 moose (fir arrows about 600 grains ),
61# longbow R/D with 650 grain laminated birch shaft for one, 63# recurve with 630 grain carbon for another and lastly 55# Recurve with 630 grain carbon.....all moose were shot with two blade broadhead with either zwicky,magnus, or eclipse
*****should note my draw is 26 inches***...your draw as long as it is should be fine with the bow you mentioned....
I have a friend who shot several moose with a 52# Hill style bow with wood arrows and had no problem..600 plus grain arrows...two blade
I was mistaken on my last moose...it was 53# bow..with 26" draw...630 grain (total weight including insert and broadhead) carbon arrow with eclipse 145 grain two blade with 100 grain insert...penetration was stopped on the far side shoulder,,but deflected off bone and the point of the arrow was pushing out on the hide on the far side ...shot was at 30 yards while moose was walking..moose went less than 100 yards..
In my opinion your set up is more than enough.
I've taken a couple with the recurve. My first was when I was a pretty new bow hunter , used a Chekmate recurve about 50@29, arrows were too light, don't no the weight but they were 30" 2114s with 145 grn bear two blades, sharp but not sharp enough. Two arrows one perfect behind the shoulder, both with poor penetration maybe 10"s got lucky and hit a major artery .
moose number two I shot with a Chekmate Hunter 58lbs , cx heritage 250 , with a sharp Magnus two blade, about 600grn arrow. Shot at 7 yd broadside and got a complete pass threw
Got notification the other day that I should have the bow back Monday. We'll see how the widow boys did. Gonna break it in on turkeys in a couple of weeks.
Thanks to those who helped me out.