Capper,
with the 70 grain load, your figures are absolutely correct. I was just using the closest figures I could find in the Lyman book to show the heavy loads that would be necessary to approach the initial 800ft/lb figure you gave.
Coming from the CF world, I understand, most of us here have been there. In my case, I still shoot the CF stuff, just prefer to hunt with the MLs due to it forcing me to actually hunt. Dont get discouraged by anyone here concerning your background. Just keep in mind that the two forms of shooting are different. With MLs and BP, your velocities are more limited, so if you need/want more power, you have to move up to a larger and heavier projectile. With CF on the other hand, you can stay with your chosen caliber (within reason)and control velocity/power with different bullet weights, different powders, etc (if you are a reloader). I have used the same .30-30 with light loads for rabbit, and then switched loads and taken deer with it. With CF, we tend to start off with a much smaller projectile (usually), and then depend on it expanding before it does the real work we require. With a ML, most times at least, we start out with a much larger projectile than the CF was after expansion, and then expand that some more.
As to the penetration issue that was brought up above, here's a little fact that many CF high power shooters have a hard time with initially. The faster you drive a given projectile, the more violently it expands upon impact, and therefore decreases penetration. Therefore, if you want to increase penetration, sometimes you need to slow the projectile down to help control (slow) the expansion. This is why a bullet that is designed for a .30-06 may sometimes overexpand and fail when fired from a .300 Win Mag, all while failing to expand if fired from a .30-30. It is also why you can expect more penetration from the same 70 gr load given above at 100 yds than if it had hit the same deer at 10 yds. It has slowed down, isn't expanding quite as quickly, and has less resistance as it passes through the deer, giving it better penetration. I am not advocating using squirrel loads for deer. I agree with you that we need to harvest our game as quickly and painlessly as possible. I am just saying that many of the things true with CF, just do not apply with MLs. We just had a member here, Micanopy , take a deer with a .32 Crockett. I have done it with .22 LR when I was much younger and dumber, and once even saw one taken with a Benjamin Sheridan .177 Pellet rifle (friend was trying to scare it away from his crops).
All this is just to say that if you as a shooter are up to the task, you do not need to be concerned with some table or graph put together by someone that is just there to try and sell you something you probably dont need. You put that ball where it needs to go, and it will get the job done.
Just go and try these things out for yourself, while being honest with yourself about your personal capabilities. I am like you, I wont take a shot I'm not completely sure of. But dont handicap yourself by thinking in modern terms because they just aren't accurate. Happy hunting and dont worry about the power so much as the accuracy.
As another thing, everyone knows that a RB is very inefficient if were speaking in terms of aerodynamics. Personally, I believe that the same exact principle that makes it so inefficient in air, is the same principle that makes it so wonderfully efficient on game. After all, we want resistance and tissue disruption in game.
ops,sorry,I see now the bow thing was already touched upon....I really otta read through the entire thread before shooting my mouth off sometimes,but this whole minimum ft. lbs. thing and what one 'needs" to kill deer really drives me nuts sometimes as a bowhunter.
