Laws on Bowhunting

Hello. I have a question for y’all. I’m a strict primitive hunter (archery blowgun boomerang spear and atlatl) (sorry lost all my photos with my other phone) I currently shoot a 70 pound compound bow and was wondering what the largest African animal I could legally take with it would be. I am planning on upgrading to an 80 pounder some day but 70 is just right for now. Any info will be greatly appreciated I ask because I don’t know how to translate velocity and weight to kinetic energy if I did I’d of figured it out myself. Thank you in advance

Buffalo and Giraffe is the most likely limit on size. Possibly Hippo in some jurisdictions.

Check this post out and ask the hunter what he was using.

https://www.africahunting.com/threa...h-traditional-archery-gear.44485/#post-468637

Alright. Thank both y’all very much

Hunter Franklin said:

Hello. I have a question for y’all. I’m a strict primitive hunter (archery blowgun boomerang spear and atlatl) (sorry lost all my photos with my other phone) I currently shoot a 70 pound compound bow and was wondering what the largest African animal I could legally take with it would be. I am planning on upgrading to an 80 pounder some day but 70 is just right for now. Any info will be greatly appreciated I ask because I don’t know how to translate velocity and weight to kinetic energy if I did I’d of figured it out myself. Thank you in advance

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@Hunter Franklin,

As BRICKBURN mentioned, you are quite capable of taking an animal as large as a giraffe or Cape buffalo with a 70lb. draw provided you are shooting a heavy enough arrow. As we are now learning, total arrow weight, and specifically, the weight distribution of the arrow is the key factor to generating enough momentum for good penetration. At 70lbs, you would need an arrow/broadhead combination to weigh a minimum of 900 grains to get the penetration you would need for an ethical kill on a Cape buffalo or giraffe. Broadhead choice and design also plays a huge factor into translating momentum into penetration.

For most plainsgame at 70lbs, you can expect good results with arrows/broadheads weighing in at 450 grains or more.... The general rule is the lower the draw weight, the heavier the arrow needs to be to achieve that precious momentum. Don't get too hung up on those energy calculators... They are a guideline at best, and they do not translate well into practical field results.

Limcroma Safaris said:

@Hunter Franklin,

As BRICKBURN mentioned, you are quite capable of taking an animal as large as a giraffe or Cape buffalo with a 70lb. draw provided you are shooting a heavy enough arrow. As we are now learning, total arrow weight, and specifically, the weight distribution of the arrow is the key factor to generating enough momentum for good penetration. At 70lbs, you would need an arrow/broadhead combination to weigh a minimum of 900 grains to get the penetration you would need for an ethical kill on a Cape buffalo or giraffe. Broadhead choice and design also plays a huge factor into translating momentum into penetration.

For most plainsgame at 70lbs, you can expect good results with arrows/broadheads weighing in at 450 grains or more.... The general rule is the lower the draw weight, the heavier the arrow needs to be to achieve that precious momentum. Don't get too hung up on those energy calculators... They are a guideline at best, and they do not translate well into practical field results.

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Alright thank you very much. For whitetail here in the us I normally use an arrow with total weight of 475 grains and that’s what I was planning on using for plains games. And for the larger tougher game I was going to try for a 1000 grain total weight arrow. Would this be good medication for an ethical kill on big buff/giraffe?

You’ll be fine with a 70

No need for 80 lb unless you want an elephant or hippo

I read somewhere that the minimum for elephant. Hippo. Buffalo. Giraffe and eland were 95 pounds so I wasn’t sure. But thank you all for your intel

Agree with all posted above. Your draw length and the actual speed of the bow also matter. My Halon 6 32” shoots faster at 65 lbs than my diamond black ice does at 72 lbs. There was a post here last year from a guy looking to hunt giraffe. His 70 Lb bow shot the same speed as his 80 LB bow. A well tuned arrow with an extremely sharp broadhead are also critical.

I think there is a lot of missing information still. 70lb draw doesn't really tell us what we need to know. I can get more speed and penetration at 50lbs with my bow than my daughter can at 70lbs with her compound bow (and hers is actually newer than mine!). What is your draw length and what is the IBO speed rating of your bow? If you have a 27" draw and a 316 FPS speed bow, then 70lbs is not enough for a Cape Buffalo and forget a giraffe.

I also have a Halon 32-6 and it is a nice fast bow. I would still use my Monster Safari on a Cape buffalo though. Even at the same draw weight, it is 8fps faster. That said, I think if all I had was a 70lb Halon 32-6 and I put a 950 grain GrizzlyStik arrow in it, I could probably take down a Cape Buff. Giraffe are even tougher than the buffalo.

At 70lbs, assuming a decent draw length, a fairly modern bow with a good IBO FPS rating and the appropriate arrow and broadhead, anything smaller than an Eland, Zebra, Wildebeest is going to be way easy. When you get up above that, I think we would need to look more closely at the other variables of draw length, IBO speed and arrow weight.

South Africa

https://www.environment.gov.za/site...s/nemba_huntingindustry_g32798gen1614_0_0.pdf


Categories of wild animals for bow hunting 27. The following norms apply to the hunting of wild animals with bow and arrow- ( a) small game, including gamebirds, small carnivores, hares, hyraxes, rabbits and pygmy antelope (Category 1 )- (i) bow with a minimum draw mass of 40 pounds; (ii) bow generating a minimum kinetic energy 30ft/lbs; and (iii) minimum arrow weight of 300 grains; (b) medium game, including reedbuck, impala, blesbuck, warthog, bushpig, springbuck, and nyala (Category 2)- (i) bow with a minimum draw mass of 50 pounds; (ii) bow generating a minimum kinetic energy 50ft/lbs; and (iii) minimum arrow weight 400 grains; (c) large game, including wildebeests, kudu, gemsbuck, zebra, waterbuck, sable, and hartebeests (Category 3)-(i) bow with a minimum draw mass of 60 pounds; (ii) bow generating a minimum kinetic energy of 60ft/lbs; and (iii) minimum arrow weight of 500 grains; (d) Cape buffalo (Category 4)- (i) bow with a minimum draw mass of 80 pounds; (ii) bow generating a minimum kinetic energy of 8Oft/lbs; and (iii) minimum arrow weight of 750 grains; and (e) giraffe (Category 5)-(i) bow with a minimum draw mass of 90 pounds; (ii) bow generating a minimum kinetic energy of 90ft/lbs; and (iii) minimum arrow weight of 750 grains. Additional norms for bow hunting equipment 28. Notwithstanding the requirements contemplated in Paragraph 27 the following conditions apply- (a) in the case of mechanical broad heads 5% additional kinetic energy is required for Category 1, 2 and 3 wild animals; (b) broad heads must have at least tv.o cutting edges; and (c) the minimum permitted arrow length is 50cm.

https://phasa.co.za/bird-and-bow-hunting/

mrpoindexter said:

I think there is a lot of missing information still. 70lb draw doesn't really tell us what we need to know. I can get more speed and penetration at 50lbs with my bow than my daughter can at 70lbs with her compound bow (and hers is actually newer than mine!). What is your draw length and what is the IBO speed rating of your bow? If you have a 27" draw and a 316 FPS speed bow, then 70lbs is not enough for a Cape Buffalo and forget a giraffe.

I also have a Halon 32-6 and it is a nice fast bow. I would still use my Monster Safari on a Cape buffalo though. Even at the same draw weight, it is 8fps faster. That said, I think if all I had was a 70lb Halon 32-6 and I put a 950 grain GrizzlyStik arrow in it, I could probably take down a Cape Buff. Giraffe are even tougher than the buffalo.

At 70lbs, assuming a decent draw length, a fairly modern bow with a good IBO FPS rating and the appropriate arrow and broadhead, anything smaller than an Eland, Zebra, Wildebeest is going to be way easy. When you get up above that, I think we would need to look more closely at the other variables of draw length, IBO speed and arrow weight.

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I have a 29.5 inch draw length. And I haven’t an idea about ibo. Speed rating or anything of the sort

Hunter Franklin said:

I have a 29.5 inch draw length. And I haven’t an idea about ibo. Speed rating or anything of the sort

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With a 29.5' draw length @ 70lbs, you can expect excellent results on most plainsgame with an arrow/broadhead combination of 450 grains or more... And, I would not hesitate to build an arrow into the 500-600 grain range... Momentum and shot placement are far more important factors in achieving good penetration than speed. Our recommendation to our bow hunters is to use a heavy arrow with a foc of 20% or more. Top that with a quality, fixed-blade broadhead that flies well with your set up, study your shot placement on African game, and you will enjoy a lot of success.

Yeah, that is a nice long draw length. You will be rocking.

I have shot game with heavy arrows and light arrows. I will never shoot light arrows in Africa ever again. I have been using the high FOC arrows from GrizzlyStik and been very happy with their performance. There are lots of options for heavy arrows and high FOC builds, but I think GrizzlyStik has a massive advantage over them because the shaft is already 5% FOC just on the tapered design. I don't know of any other manufacturer that has an FOC arrow shaft before the insert is glued in place.

With your numbers of 29.5”, 70 pounds and 450 grain arrow you are probably shooting your bow at about 35 FPS slower than what it is IBO rated at.
Good if it was a 330 FPS rated bow but not so good if it is an older bow that was rated less than 300 FPS. It would be great to know what it is shooting now or what it was rated at.

1/2" of draw length is only about 3% loss or addition in Kinetic energy, so he is close to the "maximum" kinetic energy output of his bow. Adding 1/2" to draw length to my Monster Safari would result in approximately 3 FPS more. A lower speed from a heavier arrow will happen, but it will be more than offset by additional force in Kinetic Energy and momentum as the bow becomes more efficient at transferring energy into an arrow as the arrow weight increases.

Hunter Franklin says he does not know what his bow is rated at. I would say that if he knew the make and model, I could probably look it up. It would help if he knew the year or roughly how old the bow was. I do not use the online arrow speed calculators - they are notoriously inaccurate, especially as one increases arrow weight, but my software I have on my computer is pretty accurate at modeling arrow speeds and kinetic energy.

My guess is that he does not have a brand new bow and so is unlikely to be shooting something in the 340+ FPS realm, but probably over 300 and if I were to try and make a prediction, I would guess 315 FPS. If he posts the mfg/model, we can look it up and he will know what he is shooting as close as is possible without shooting over a chronograph (always the best option).

mrpoindexter said:

1/2" of draw length is only about 3% loss or addition in Kinetic energy, so he is close to the "maximum" kinetic energy output of his bow. Adding 1/2" to draw length to my Monster Safari would result in approximately 3 FPS more. A lower speed from a heavier arrow will happen, but it will be more than offset by additional force in Kinetic Energy and momentum as the bow becomes more efficient at transferring energy into an arrow as the arrow weight increases.

Hunter Franklin says he does not know what his bow is rated at. I would say that if he knew the make and model, I could probably look it up. It would help if he knew the year or roughly how old the bow was. I do not use the online arrow speed calculators - they are notoriously inaccurate, especially as one increases arrow weight, but my software I have on my computer is pretty accurate at modeling arrow speeds and kinetic energy.

My guess is that he does not have a brand new bow and so is unlikely to be shooting something in the 340+ FPS realm, but probably over 300 and if I were to try and make a prediction, I would guess 315 FPS. If he posts the mfg/model, we can look it up and he will know what he is shooting as close as is possible without shooting over a chronograph (always the best option).

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I hunt with my dads bow he gave to me. She’s about 20 years old or so. Hoyt raider.

That is a bit of a concern then. I looked and could not find the IBO or AMO speed on that bow.

The Raptor model was introduced in 1996 and made through 1998. In 1999 offered it only in the less expensive solid limbs and called it the Raider. It was discontinued in 2001 I believe and put into the Reflex line. My database on bows, speed curves, etc goes back to 2002. I have nothing on the Raider or the Raptor. I did find this on the net though:
"I LOVED that bow. My best buddy back home shot my 96 A-cam up until last year when he finally bought a new UltraTec..he still has the Raptor as a back up..it wasn't fast but was super easy to draw, and super quiet."

What concerns me is that the Raptor isn't as fast as an UltraTec. The UltraTec had several models ranging from 273-305 FPS. Let's just say for the sake of discussion that your bow's IBO speed rating is 273 FPS, which is the speed of the Hoyt UltraTec XT3000 AW from 2002. You are doubtless using a release, so you will have a D-loop and a Peep on the string. I removed the small brass nock point from the calculations to get as much speed as possible.

With a 29.5" draw length and 70lb draw weight, you would have 59.5 Ft-Lbs of Kinetic energy with a 500 grain arrow and 62.3 Ft-Lbs with a 650 grain arrow. Even cranking it up to 80 lbs will only move you up to 68.67 to 71.77 Ft-Lbs depending on arrow mass. While that is enough to take down anything up to an Eland, you would be shooting 80lbs to do it.

Compare that to how it would be if you shot a used 2015-17 Mathews No-Cam HTR. (I chose that bow because it is infamous for being incredible smooth and one get get them relatively cheap online used for maybe $600 or so, often with accessories). At 60lbs, you can get 70.48 Ft-Lbs with the lighter arrow and 72.66 Ft-Lbs with the heavier arrow. That is 2.6% more kinetic energy while shooting TWENTY POUNDS LESS WEIGHT! If you bought a 70lb No-Cam, you would be shooting 85.87 Ft-Lbs with a 650 grain arrow. That actually is enough to meet the minimums for Cape buffalo, giraffe, lion and leopard. I used heavier gear on giraffe and Cape buffalo, but have taken multiple lions with 70lb Mathews bows and 650 grain arrows.

And just for reference, if you get access to a chronograph, here are the formulas:

Kinetic Energy (in Foot-Lbs) = Arrow Mass (in grains) * Arrow Speed (in FPS) * Arrow Speed (in FPS) / 450,800
KE = Grains * FPS^2 /450,800

Momentum (in Slugs) = Arrow Mass (in grains) * Arrow Speed (in FPS) / 225,400
Mo = Grains * FPS / 225,400

Most people have a general idea of Kinetic Energy, but are harder pressed to understand Momentum. This definition might help:
The unit of measurement for momentum is slug-feet per second. A slug is a portion of the subset of coherent units known as the gravitational foot-pound-second system. The physical weight of one slug of mass equals 32.174 pounds. One slug of mass will acquire an acceleration of one foot per second per second when acted on by a one pound force (at sea level).

The easier analogy for people to understand is that if a Ferarri driving 160mph crashes into your house, it will pass through your dining room and end up in your kitchen. If a diesel locomotive crashes into your house at 20 mph, it will pass through your dining room, your kitchen, your living room and end up in your pool in your back yard. If you do not have a pool, your neighbor behind your house will likely have one in his or will have a locomotive in his living room and a large opening in the fence between your back yards.

So I’ve decided to upgrade. I now have a bear archery cruiser with an advertised speed of 315 FPS