So, the warden would have to ask you to draw your bow, mark your draw length, then redraw the bow to that length on a scale to see if you were "legal".

Sorry but as a career LEO I've had lots of warden friends, and rode with and helped them on their rounds.  I've never met one who would have gone to that extreme unless he thought someone was gaming the system, like shooting a #25 bow for example.

I met a game warden that went to extremes.  First, he wanted to know why I was back at my car before sundown.  I already had my deer and my wife was out hunting deer and the turkey i was after busted and it was after hours for pheasants.  I asked if he wanted to see my license, "What for?  I know what they look like." Then he wanted to know why I have my back quiver pointing one way one day than the other the next.  I showed him my duo shooter Berry longbow.  The next thing, he ran back to his pick up to get his arm guard and shooting glove and off he went with my bow and my judo point arrow.  A natural with a longbow.
That reminds me, I should get out to get some pictures of illegal tree stands with compass points to send to the game warden we now have, to give him more time to remove them.   

Great story Pavan. 

Five of us went to the Black Hills years back for deer hunting. We set up camp on one end of a campground that had about 10 compound hunters at the other end.  We hunted the next morning, to no avail and bumping into others and came back to camp for lunch.

The local game warden drove up and stopped when he saw our bows leaning around.  He asked us how badly we needed to be in a campground.  We assured him we did not.  He then gave us directions to a great spot back in the hills where we set up camp for the rest of the week, had great hunting, and never saw a sole.  Life was good.

When I run into hunters that consider game wardens are their enemies, the hair stands up in up in my neck.   Far important than a the numbers on the side of the bow is the ethics of the hunter, way too many deer are shot in verbally dark conditions around here.  So dark that they cannot see through their peep sights, the hit or which way the deer ran.  If game wardens don't have night scopes they should get one.

I was in a new area hunting elk in Idaho one year because the unit I normally hunted was on fire.  I got some tips up front from the biologist for the unit and spent the first 3 days scouting/hunting the tips to no avail.  On day 4 the game warden stopped in camp mid day and looked over our trad bows and gear.  He was a trad hunter himself.  After talking a while I asked if he could give us any advice on elk as we were coming up blank.  He said to stay in camp, we were sitting in one of the best spots in the unit.  The next day both Jason and I missed bulls.  We had a great final week chasing multiple herds within 2 miles of camp.  Rusty even got a shot at a big mule deer buck.

Mike

If your bow is marked 40# but your draw length is less I'd say no game warden is going to check you. If, however, your bow is marked 35# and your draw length is 31", I'd say you'd have a problem explaining that one to the game warden.

If it were me, I would hunt with a bow marked at least 40 pounds per its stats on the riser or limbs. I wouldn't be trying to convince a warden my 30-something bow is really a 40-something bow at my something-something draw length. But that's me. I'm the guy who would get busted for having a broadhead that was sharpened just 1/16" shy of legal.....

Quote from: wingnut on March 19, 2019, 11:36:42 AM
We get into the letter of the law vs the intent of the law.
The letter says a bow drawing a minimum of 40#.

I intent is that the bowhunter be pulling a minimum of 40# during the draw cycle.

Mike

The letter of the law IS sufficient....no doubt about it...leaving no wiggle room for misinterpretation. 

So, know and understand the specifics of the law that govern yer hunting.  That is your job ...and  you will be GTG legally.   The rest of your hunting experience belongs to YOU

If you get checked and the warden pulls out a tape rule to check your draw length, just yank that sucker back to your ear and than tell him to measure.