My Dad is having trouble drawing a 50# Pearson that I bought him for Christmas.  I am going to buy him a 40#er.  Will that actually be enough weight to hunt with.  He bowhunts mainly for whitetail.
I am sure that it will be fine for bunnys or squirrels. But deer?

yes

yes

It will depend on your Dads hunting and shooting ability like with any other weight bow.The bow will do the job just fine if your Dad does his.

40# is plenty for deer but you have to make sure the shot is good (as with any weight).  Check your states laws to make sure that it's legal to hunt with.  Here in Ohio 40 is actually our minimum hunting weight, so yea he'll be fine.

A friend shot a 150 class deer with a 42# Shrew and a 2 blade broadhead last fall, The shot was 17 yards from the ground and was a complete pass thru. The picture was on Ron La clairs web site. If all is right, its enough.

with the right arrow set up you bet it will work
just make sure those arrows are properly tuned

Would I use it when I am capable of pulling 60?  No
Will I use it when I can only pull 40#-  not even a question.....

Thanks guys.  I really did not know if his shoulder problems were going to permit hunting whitetails, as I see, it should not be a problem.

sure it will....my dad used a 40lb york recurve for years with old bear cedar shafts and bear razorheads...no troubles for him

It should be fine.  Just think of it this way: A 40# recurve (esp. a new one that takes a faster string) will shoot a 550 gr. arrow faster than a lot of 55# selfbows using the same arrows (10 gr./# arrows) and you hear about a lot of guys hunting even bigger animals (elk and such) with those 55# selfbows.  This is exactly my situation this year with shoulder problems.  I'm trying to talk myself into going after elk with a 40# Quinn recurve this year.

No problem,it will do the job.My father has been bowhunting since the early 1950's and most hunters back then used bows of 45# for everything.Only when the compound bow was invented did shooters start shooting over 50#'s.Use a SHARP broadhead and your father will do just fine.  

yes, but 40# at his draw length.

Get close and put it in the boiler room.  40 lbs with a clean shot wil kill anything in America.

yes

i like rob...he has a nak for understanding.

where can i buy some of that...LOL.  

I have had numerous passthroughs with a 40# bow on deer shooting about a 500 grain arrow.

I had 2 full pass thrus on deer this year.  I also had 2 spined deer.  On the first spined deer, the head passed thru the spine (dropping the animal) and lodged into off shoulder blade and then broke at the aluminum threads.  Onn the 2nd spined deer, the head lodged into the spine dropping the animal but the head did not bust thru spine.  

I had previously reported that the bow was 40#@ at my DL.  I was wrong.  I recently put the bow on a scale and it scaled to 40#@28 and 37#@27.  My DL is 27" so I am pulling 37.  Its a '65 Howatt w/ B50.
I shot the above deer w/ 515-580 grain arrows.

Over the next few months I am going to practice form and execution to hopefully avoid more spined animals in the future.  Also, I'm going up in bow weight.....not b/c I need to, butb/c I think it will be a fun challenge.  I'll report back with my results.

for a deer? absolutely
for a squirrel? no

40# will work.  I'd use a skinny 8125 for sure though.  4strands padded to 16 will work well.  BTW 4strands is good up to 49# of draw weight.  I think OL found an increase in speed equivalent to 15# of draw weight with a skinny string vs a dacron.  A 4strand padded to 16 will work for old bows too.  An important thing to remember is that from 37-49# of draw weight 4strands of 8125 will be the SAFEST string.  More strands will put more stress on the tips and less will put more stress on the string.  Also try to get his foc as high as possible.  Basically take advantage of all the newer research to help penetration.