Until you make your own osage bow, whittle your own arrow, make sinew for your string, and knap your own arrowhead- don't come telling us that a modern bow is not an advantage. My bow has an 80lb draw weight, will easily shoot 60yds, and the new cams make let off a dream. It's more challenging than a rifle but not by much. The key to killing a big deer is to have a property good enough to produce big deer. That's it. Truth be told, the guys killing the most big deer are spending the most $ and have the best places to hunt.