The wife of a good friend would like to again join her husband on a moose hunt and hunt herself also. She took a bull last year with her 308 at 18 yards but since we are traditional bowhunting only starting next year and she is only shooting a light bow right now, to what weight would you think she has to work her way up to?
I get asked that questions by guys regularly and I tell them around #55 and up but that might not be doable for her.
Here a reminder what the bow has to put that arrow in to:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/cap003-1.jpg)
Mooseman,
It would really depend on the design of the bow. I high efficiency bow could shoot at a lower draw weight and yield the same momentum as a heavier draw weight bow that is less efficient. Some of the top end recurves or top end D/R longbows could probably do it at 50-52# with a heavy arrow, i.e. 600-650 gr. Please note, when I say top end, I'm talking price, I'm talking efficiency/performance. The broadhead up front would also need to be of heavy construction and be scary sharp.
Bill
Mike, is that from your hunting area??? I'll see you in 2010!
Bill's right.
I'd be happy with an efficient 50#, heavy arrow, a broadhead like a modified Grizzly ala Ashby, and most importantly, the right shot. All the weight in the world does no good if you make a bad shot.
From a guy who never hunted moose. . .How can you make a bad shot on a target the size of a car door?? Besides- how far apart are the ribs?? I would think a moose would be easier to kill than say. . . a hog!??? :) ;)
A cannot imagine you would need more than 50# with a heavy sharp arrow.
Here's something to think about!
"WELCOME TO MY OUTDOOR WORLD"
GEAR REVIEW
46" STALKER RECURVE
RODNEY WRIGHT ARCHERY
205 Fulford RD
Fulford, QC
J0E 1S0
www.rodneywrightarchery.com (http://www.rodneywrightarchery.com)
e mail info@wrightarchery.qc.ca
tel 1-450-539-1848
click to see Firehawk longbow Review
VISIT RODNEY'S WEB SITE FOR ALL YOUR TRADITIONAL ARCHERY NEEDS.
LONG BOWS / RECURVES / TAKEDOWN OR ONE PIECE
ARMTEX GLASS / ARROW SHAFTS / BOW BUILDING SUPLIES AND MORE
REVIEW
46" stalker recurve
41# at 28"
Osage/bamboo limbs with Armtex clear glass,
black phenolic and moose antler tip reinforcements .
Bacote riser with Osage accent stripes
Avaliable in weights up to 65#
The 46" Stalker Recurve from Rodney Wright Archery is the smallest bow I have reviewed to date.We often hear that short bows are hard to shoot, have excessive finger pinch and are not acurate. WE did not have these issues with the stalker . I found that the stalker was a great little bow to shoot.The Stalker is not a bow for shooters with a draw length of more than 28". It draws very smooth to 28" and then hits a wall.It does not stack , it stops.
With an AMO of only 46" and a strung up length od 40" it is idealy suited for what it's name implies,stalking. This bow is also ideal in any close quarter situation where our normal length bows are hard to shoot.In a blind it is the easiest trad bow to shoot that I can imagine.The typical limb clearence problems with longer bows are not there. In heavy cover it is very manouverable , making clean shots possible where other bows just could not get limb clearence.
The very large brace height makes the stalker very easy to like. This is a factor that I feel helps reduce the finger pinch issue. We all shoot 3 under, and that is an advantage with pinch also.
The craftsmanship on the Stalker is flawless. Rodney does not cut corners.Glue lines are perfect,and the finish is impecable.The ARMTEX clear glass is flawless and clear without the streaks and spots we find in other glass laminations today.
We shot the bow extensivly before this review was written and have not one complaint with it other than the draw weight. A heavier weight would have been preferred but this is the bow that was avaliable. Shannon liked the stalker so much that he chose to hunt all fall with it even though he had free access to some very high performance bows in draw weights that would be considered a better choice by myself and other hunters. He was concerned with not being able to shoot a heavier bow because of shoulder injury's. His success story is below.
If the Stalker had been a heavier draw weight I would have been hunting with it,instaed of Shannon, but I chose not to , only because of the draw weight.
For those that hunt in close quartess, thick bush and blinds the Stalker is an ideal design.It is completely shock free, quiet and extremely manouverable.Turkey hunters will love it. You can even sit flat on the ground and shoot straight ahead without any worry of having to cant the bow to get ground clearence.
46" Stalker Recurve By Shannon Kuzik
Shannon Kuzik in thick stuff where the stalker shines.
I have always been a fan of short bows and when Pete called and told me that Rodney Wright was sending the 46" Stalker Recurve, I couldn't wait for it to arrive. When I first saw it, it looked like a kids bow, small and very light. It is 41 pounds at 28", a little on the light side for moose and elk but I was up for the challenge. Shoulder injurys have made shooting with heavier poundage bows a problem this year and the Stalker was a bow that I could draw and shoot without any difficulty. It seemed a better choice to drop the draw weight and shoot acurately than to run into trouble with a heavy draw weight that I could not handle properly.
I had to buy new arrows to match the poundage of such a light bow but once I was able to tune my hunting arrows, the bow shot quiet and extremely accurate, I even had my first traditional Robin Hood. My hunting arrows weighed in at 497 grains with a 125 grain, 2 blade Magnus Broadhead.
When hunting season came, I started chasing elk first. I hiked over 150 km and had some close calls but no success. In early season the bush is so thick that you could be 5 yards from an elk and not get a shot. I guess that is why they call it hunting and not shooting.
Elk hunting with the Stalker
My main goal in 2005 was my bull moose. I waited 8 years for my draw and I finally got it. I was looking for a bull moose with at least a 50" wide rack and I was willing to go home empty handed if I did not see one.
September 24, I started hunting for my bull moose. I saw 3 bulls the first day; the biggest was a 45" wide. I even had a 35" bull broadside at 8 yards which was so tempting but just not the one. I had lots of bulls well within bow range, a 38" at 10 feet and a 40" at 15 yards.
My second last day, I had a nice 45" bedded at 40 yards... but still he wasn't the one. I was starting to think that I had made some bad decisions by not taking one of the many bulls that presented broadside shots. I walked over 230 km throughout my hunting season, saw 83 moose, 3 bulls over 50", one at the magic 60" mark that would have scored around 200 P&Y, but no shot. That bull still haunts me in my dreams at night.
Only one day of hunting season to go. I left my truck at 6:00am and started my last walk into the pitch black bush. I had a 2 hour walk in front of me before I reached the swamps where the moose hung out. My plan was to still hunt the game trails, just like every other day. It had worked for me for the last 9 years that I have been bow hunting and I was hoping that it would not fail me now.
I was still hunting up a steep hill on a game trail, peeked over the ridge and there he was, moose number 84, broadside looking away from me. Now I would like to say that I made a perfect stalk or called him up from 200 yards away but I didn't, I was just in the right place at the right time. I grabbed an arrow out of my bow quiver; it took me 3 tries to put the nock on the string. When I looked up, the bull was staring at me trying to figure out what I was. In one fluid motion, my finger touched my lip and the arrow released sinking into the bull's right side. He spun 180 degrees and ran into the bush. I had no clue what had just happened, it all happened so fast. I knew he was a good bull but the arrow didn't look like it penetrated enough. I was shaking like a leaf. I started to think that I hit a rib or the shoulder blade; I didn't even know how far he was. That is when I heard crashing sounds... then quiet. I regained my composure and walked 10 yards to where the bull was standing. I made the decision to go in and see if there was any blood on the trail. To my relief I spotted blood 10 yards in and lots of it, which made me think that I hit a lung or maybe both.
Then, there he was, only 40 yards away with the arrow half an inch behind his right shoulder blade. The arrow hit the far shoulder and bent the Magnus broadhead which is why it didn't look like it penetrated enough.
Recovered BH from far shoulder hit
If I didn't hit the shoulder, I am positive that the arrow would have gone completely through the bull. The bull measured 51" wide and scored 163 P&Y.{green}
Stalker and Shannon's moose
Thanks Rodney for making the 46" Stalker Recurve. I have been looking for a short bow like this for years. I just showed that you can take a large bull moose with a short, light poundage bow. You definitely have to pick your shots and wait for a broadside or quartering away target. A 50 pound at 28" bow would be better suited for moose and elk . I definitely would recommend the Stalker Recurve as a hunting bow. I got a lot of attention from other hunters all asking who makes that bow and the answer... Rodney Wright.
SHANNON KUZIK
LICENSED BIG GAME GUIDE
PRODUCT TESTER
Stalker chrono results 41# at 28"
Note I only used 2 arrow weights for this review because of the light draw weight of the bow.
DRAW LENGTH
DRAW WEIGHT
ARROW WEIGHT
FPS ARROW WEIGHT FPS ARROW WEIGHT FPS ARROW WEIGHT FPS ARROW WEIGHT FPS
5 NA
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
3
13 6
14 9
15 11
16 13
17 15
18 16
19 18
20 20
21 21
22 23
23 25 ARROW WEIGHT FPS ARROW WEIGHT FPS ARROW WEIGHT FPS ARROW WEIGHT FPS
24 27 NA NA NA NA
25 30 NA NA
26 33 356 139 494 127 NA NA
27 37 356 151 494 137 NA NA
28 41 356* 159 494** 145 NA NA
* 8.6 gr/lb **12 gr/lb
Pete ward / Shannon Kuzik
"Welcome to my outdoor world"
QuoteOriginally posted by KSdan:
From a guy who never hunted moose. . .How can you make a bad shot on a target the size of a car door?? Besides- how far apart are the ribs?? I would think a moose would be easier to kill than say. . . a hog!??? :) ;)
After I booked my moose hunt, a funny thing happened. It seemed everyone I talked to either knew someone who'd bricked a shot or had bricked one themselves. From what I could gather, two problems came into play:
1) Moose, being huge, often appear closer than they are, especially for those of us used to shooting whitetails.
2) Because they're so huge, and you basically call them in by working them up into a fit, they can be a little intimidating. You have to turn off the part of your common sense that says, "You shouldn't be this close an agrivated animal this big."
I don't think shooting a moose is so much a matter of being able to hit a car door as much as it is about keeping your head on straight while a half-ton 7-foot animal is mad a heck, looking to stomp you into a mud hole. ;)
In Quebec the legal minimum poundage for moose is 40 lbs, which is a little too light.
I'm an experienced moose hunter (43 seasons) and I agree with Bill and Kevin L.
A 50 lb (or very close to it) efficient bow, proportionately heavy arrow, good 2 blade broadhead (very sharp), proper shot placement = High odds for success.
I've been close to a couple of moose and they are enormous compared to deer. The shock of something that big, if you are not used to it, can be enough to cause a bad shot.
A moose is a big animal and any bowhunter wants to achieve full penetration, not just 8-10 inches to get into the vitals. I would say about 50 pounds using an efficient bow with well tuned arrows and a sharp two blade head would be about minimum. With a perfect hit a lower weight bow will certainly kill a moose. But not all hits are perfect and the bow/arrow combo needs enough energy to get sufficient penetration when the hit is less than perfect. With a big animal like this you want to err on the conservative side.
I did not read all the responses but ya have to remember her draw length. A 45-50# bow at 28"s gives quite a bit more penetrating power than a 45-50# bow at 25 or 26"s. If her draw is 26"s or so than I would say 55#s would work by keeping them close and getting a good quatering away shot and sneak one behind the last rib and towards the opposite shoulder. If ya hit a rib on a broadside shot it can stop most anything. I know Ken Beck killed a good moose with around 48#s. Shawn
Alaska has a minimum for their state hunts of 50# for moose. So it doesn't matter how efficent or matched your bow or arrow combo is. Its 50# at peak draw weight period. For the Federal hunts the minimum bow/arrow combination required is measured by minimum arrow weight and the cast that your combo can get. Good bow efficiency/arrow weight can allow lighter then 50# draw weight bows to qualify.
Oh yes it is quite easy to miss a moose at 15 yards. Got to pick a spot and not the whole moose which can be hard to do with a mad bull. Yeah I have "research" data accumulated by me on just this question.
I agree with Shawn. 55#@26 or 50#@28 is bare minimum. Of course, folks will provide anecdotes of moose killed with less. Not as forthcoming are the stories of animals where penetration was poor due to low poundage bows.
Before the question is asked, find out the minimum state or provincial poundage to legally hunt moose, then it's up to her to be able to comfortably draw it back and shoot it. THEN you have to be honest and see just how effective that particular set up is. Just because the bow reaches the minimum draw weight doesn't mean that bow is capable of casting an arrow with enough significant force to do the job....some bows are just dogs, they draw heavy and shoot terribly inefficient...just my two cents worth,because these are animals deserve more respect than hoping the minimum setup is "good enough"
trapper
Norbert, Yes and It is a bit of a wait for you yet....sorry :knothead:
I am more looking for the ethical answer and I think that I hear a minimum of 50#'s at the archers draw lengh???
Obviously good propper matched arrows with razor sharp broad heads are a given.
:archer:
Keeping your shots short and using the heaviest arrows possible can help. I have severe shoulder issues which prevent me from shooting heavy bows. i killed a moose last year with a 47 lb recurve. i got great penetration to the far shoulder. But my shot on the moose was from only 6 yards. I used a 600 gr arrow and a two blade head. My arrow went thru the bulls heart. I have killed two Caribou with the same set up, but I keep all my shots very short. I wrestled with the same issue but decided I would not take any shot i felt wouldn't kill the animal quickly. There is all ways a risk of wounding an animal regardless of the bow weight. In my opinion it is more of a self control issue rather than a bow weight issue If she is willing to limit her self to that great extent, then i say go for it.
So-perhaps the better question is: What poundage bow can you still hit a car door with, while having a life flashback simulatenously as you are poopin' your pants? :D :eek:
QuoteOriginally posted by KSdan:
So-perhaps the better question is: What poundage bow can you still hit a car door with, while having a life flashback simulatenously as you are poopin' your pants? :D :eek:
:biglaugh:
Nice photo of a nice bull, Mooseman. Makes my heart pump just looking at it. LOL Darryl
Hey Darryl...Does that one look familiar to you!! LOL
David
Darryl, nice bull, eh?
Mooseman,
One thing is for sure...your a blessed man to have a wife that wants to go after Moose with ya!
And the picture gets me all excited just looking at it. Not sure I could hit a thing with a Moose like that at 6 yards, but I sure would like to try.
RayMO
It was an incredible experience to say the least!
(http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e30/jgilmer/DSCN1256.jpg)
Nice bull Jim. Nice bow too!
And now comes the fun part of packing him out :bigsmyl:
RayMO, You have no idea how blessed I am with my wife :notworthy: She is out there in camp with us for two month in the year and does everything else but hunt. There is actually roomers out there that she works harder then most man, especially me and I would have to agree.
My question was actually for a friend's wife.
My wife shot a 1400 pound Bison with a 46# @ 28 inch recurve that she was drawing 26 inches at the time and buried the arrow up to the feathers with a 620 grain arrow tipped with a Eclipse BH. Joseph
A real important factor is the draw length of your wife. Most american longbows and recurves are not buildt for shorter draws,because the short draw people are a small percentage of the customers. I only draw about 25", but my bow shoots a 600 gr. arrow with 185 fps with a 70#@28,so I have about 61# on my fingers Bow length is 48". This bow is a korean Hwarang model 25 bow.I shoot a 28" CX Heritage 150 with a 100gr insert and 175gr. fieldpoint/broadhead.
This bow feels like 10# lighter compared to my other longbows and recurves at full draw which helps a lot. Price is $440 shipped to your door for under 60#@28".When is comes to distance, the same arrow I shoot 230 yards+. I once shot a 700gr. arrow and still got 165 fps with this short draw. Another good arrow is a Beman MFX 500 withreal heavy tip(225 gr.)Go figure:-))
"Nice photo of a nice bull, Mooseman. Makes my heart pump just looking at it. LOL Darryl"
Mooseman and darryl I enjoyed watching the hunt on DVD last night...someday hope to get a chance to hunt a moose! The grouse action was awesome too!!
Check out the ACS/CX Longbow site. The way they are designed you should get 10-15 percent more performance out of the Bow. So a 45# Bow should give you about the same performance as a 50# Bow. I noticed that my 47# really zips out my 640gr Grizzlystiks. Duane
Howard Hill stated that a 40# bow with an arrow of a certain weight (forget but reasonably heavy) was capable of cleanly killing all deer species in North America. He stated that arrow weight was a critical factor. I could look it up if you want, but basically a 50# bow with a heavy arrow and no shoulder=kill shot. Those scapulas are big, and really too high for what we would be shooting at, so a good lung hit on a moose with any sharp head will seal the deal relatively easily, they are thin skinned as well.
Maybe the moose you shoot are thin skinned, but the ones I shoot sure aren't. Skin over the ribs is at least 1/4 to 3/8 inches thick, more than a half inch toward the back, where one wouldn't want to hit them anyway. That's just skin thickness, not hair. There are beasts with thicker and perhaps tougher skin, but I don't consider a moose thin skinned.
Hows it going Mike? Wow thats a nice bull in the pic.
I have never hunt them monsters, but have read a lot & what everyone is saying about 50# with a very scary sharp BH well placed will do the trick.
"Personally, I like a bow as heavy as I can handle without straining.... In shooting animals such as wild boar, moose, elk, and wild jackass, one wants a reserve of penetration so that if a large bone is hit, or a thick shield, ... the arrow will not be stopped.... One hears how effective a bow and arrow is and that a 50-pound bow will kill any animal in America. In some cases this is true, yet there are many other occasions where a 50-pound bow just does not have the power. If one can place the arrow right in the chest cavity, a 50-pound bow will do the trick, but is is not always possible to find an animal standing in the proper position for a perfect chest shot." Howard Hill, Hunting the Hard Way, pp. 73-74.
How many years ago was it they did articles in TBM on the women hunting in africa w/ bows in the mid-40# range and very, very heavy arrows??
They kicked butt as memory serves me on a variety of plains game and some were sizeable, but that is when memory gets foggy on details.
I'll 2nd the notion on thick moose hide. Living in MT in the early 80's, a guy brought in a tanned moose hide to get chaps made... unsplit!
:) They were some heavy when done...Wore em once in the rain and brought them back to be undone, sent out to be split in Billings to half thickness. Guess the rain made em pretty heavy!
Doc Nock,
The article you're referring to was in the April/May 2002 issue. "You're Hunting With That?", by Tina Portman.
http://www.tradbow.com/INTERACTIVE/GETISSUES_Detail.cfm?ID=99
JRW,
Man, you're sumpin, bro! I'd never have been able to find that...
That article sure made me sit up and take notice... It's the reason I went to carbons and started weighting them up...straight, don't waste energy wigglin down range in pradox and I got mine to 615 gr outa a 50# bow and have never looked back.
I want to go moose hunting!!