There has been some controversy over my latest bow hunting video and I’d like to take a few minutes to address some of the concerns that people have raised. The video in question tells the story of my youngest son’s first traditional bow harvest, an 89lb hog, which he shot with a 20lb selfbow that he helped make.
Here's the Vid - • Fen shot a hog with hi...
We’ll work our way through all of this but I want to start with the question of legality. In Florida, where this hunt took place, the minimum draw weight for game is 35lbs. Fen’s bow was only 20 lbs at his draw length. So was the whole thing illegal? No. In Florida, feral hogs are considered trespass livestock on private land and property of the landowner. Therefore there is no minimum draw weight or any other FWC regulations that govern the hunting of feral hogs on private property.
Another concern was the fact that a 20lb bow was used. People on both sides of this issue have used that weight for their own purposes, some saying it’s way too low to reliably kill an animal of that size. Others pointing to it as proof that low poundage bows are perfectly acceptable to hunt big game. My own opinions lay somewhere in between. Let me explain. When it comes to penetration there are several key factors that come into play, draw weight being only one. Those factors, in no particular order, are, Bow efficiency, draw length, draw weight, arrow speed, arrow weight, arrow flight (tuning), shot placement, broadhead design, and all of Dr. Ashby’s FOC stuff which we’ll revisit in a moment.
I first want to address the broader idea of risk as it applies to the probability of wounding loss. It’s been said that with a 20lb bow the risk of wounding and loosing an animal is too high. I can intuitively understand the logic here but I think we need to flesh it out a little to better understand the flaw in this reasoning. Let’s look at a scenario with two hunters, one shooting 60lbs at 28” and another shooting 45lbs at 28” and everything else being equal. With perfect shot placement both those setups would efficiently kill a very large hog. But as we move to less and less perfect shot placement (around the shoulder and shield) the 60lb bow would be the safer bet while an arrow from the 45lb bow would have a higher probability of being stopped by the shield or heavy bone. All else is rarely if ever equal, but if it were, there’d a higher risk of losing an animal with the lower poundage bow and that risk would increase the lower you go. Some of you who shoot low poundage bows might be getting defensive right now but stick with me and try’n keep an open mind. Even though higher poundage bows give us a little more margin for error when it comes to hitting heavy bone or a boar hogs thick shield I’d never suggest that someone shouldn’t hunt if they can’t draw 60lbs at 28 inches.
What I would suggest is that they do everything they can to maximize the efficiency and penetrating power of their bow and arrow within their own physical limitations. And that they be proficient with that weapon and keep their shots close. In the case of my son, he could draw and shoot 20lbs accurately at his draw length of 20 inches. The low poundage and short draw are significant limitations when it comes to penetration. Luckily though, they are only two of the factors that affect arrow penetration. In order to overcome/mitigate for those limitations I maximized to the extent possible every other factor that I could control including broadhead design and sharpness, arrow flight, arrow weight, FOC, and shaft diameter.
I listed those stats in the video description but I’ll list them again here. The broadhead used was a razor sharp, cut on contact, 190 grain meathead with high mechanical advantage. The arrows were tuned well to conserve and delivery maximum energy. The total arrow weight was a little over 400 grains. FOC was 27%. And shaft diameter was ¼ inch. I won’t go in depth here about how these factors enhance penetration but will provide a link to Dr. Ashby’s research so you can look for yourself. The important part here is that the equipment used was carefully built and tuned to be as effective as possible, and mitigate to the extent possible, the limitations of draw weight and length.
www.ashbybowhunting.org/ashby...
So is the risk higher with a low poundage bow? Yes. Is it too high? I suppose that’s a question you’ll have to answer for yourself. It was obviously adequate. The hog was quartering to him, an admittedly risky angle I’ll address in a moment. The arrow struck in front of the shoulder traveling rearward into the chest breaking a rib on the way for a total of 9” penetration. Had he hit the shoulder he’d have got little to no penetration and the hog would have got away. But I suspect that same shot from 45lb bow into the heavy shoulder bones wouldn’t have been any different. With a 60lb bow, maybe you could have punched through with the right arrow setup.