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Reducing Draw Weight Gets Mixed Reviews
By RAY SASSER, The Dallas Morning News
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission voted in April to drop the minimum draw weight requirement for hunting bows. Beginning in September, deer and turkey hunters will no longer be required to shoot a bow with a draw weight of 40 pounds or more.
The change was made to encourage more bowhunting participation from women and youth hunters, or any men with physical problems that makes it hard for them to pull 40 pounds of resistance. Hopefully, say veteran bowhunters, the absence of a minimum draw weight will not encourage overzealous fathers to outfit elementary school kids with tiny tot archery sets and encourage them to launch arrows at deer, turkeys or other game.
David Lassetter is one archery advocate concerned about the change. Lassetter is a certified bow hunter education master instructor and he's also a representative for the Lone Star Bowhunters Association.
LSBA encourages women and youth hunting, said Lassetter, but the organization asked the TP&W Commission to reduce the minimum draw weight from 40 pounds to 30 pounds, then do some research to make sure the lighter bows produce enough energy to dispatch game humanely.
The commission voted to eliminate draw weights altogether and most of the public comment favored that course of action. Approximately 30 states with an archery season require minimum draw weights that range from 30 to 40 pounds. Texas has joined about a dozen states with no minimum draw requirement.
Clayton Wolf, the state agency's big game program leader, is a bowhunter, himself. Wolf is convinced that accuracy is more important than arrow speed for a clean kill.
"If you're shooting a bow that you can barely hold at full draw, you'll shake a little from the exertion or you might rush the shot rather than waiting for the perfect angle," Wolf said. "I shoot better with my bow adjusted to 50 pounds than I shoot at 70 pounds, and the same principle applies to youth hunters."
Wolf said Texas archery hunting Web sites include stories of kids bagging large feral hogs with bows featuring draw weights as light as 28 pounds.
"One thing people need to consider is to use a razor sharp broadhead," Lassetter said. "Unless you're shooting with 50 pounds of draw or more, you should stay away from mechanical broadheads. It takes more energy to make the mechanical broadheads function."
Many hunters favor expandable, or mechanical, arrow points, with cutting blades that deploy on contact. When the blades are folded, the arrow flies with accuracy approaching that of a target point.
Arrow speed, which translates into trajectory, is another consideration for any bow hunter. For most skilled hunters, a bow and arrow has a maximum effective range of 40 yards. Experienced hunters prefer to be much closer – 15 to 25 yards.
The judgment and patience required to make an accurate, close-range shot on an alert white-tailed deer are lacking in many youth hunters.
Based on his classroom experience, Lassetter thinks the average 13-year-old boy can draw 40 pounds comfortably. Most women cannot draw 40 pounds on their first try, but they can work up to it. Drawing a bow requires muscle strength not commonly used.
He believes that 30 to 35 pounds is the minimum draw weight for deer hunting and then only if the bow is set up properly and the hunter has practiced both shooting and deer hunting skills.
"All we're asking is that people use good judgment while bowhunting," Lassetter said. "LSBA will have a youth archery booth at the Texas Trophy Hunters Show in Fort Worth on Aug. 15-17. It will give kids some exposure to archery hunting."
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