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Max range

What is the farthest distance you would shoot at your target buck?

  • 20 yards

    Votes: 7 6.5%
  • 30 yards

    Votes: 30 28.0%
  • 35 yards

    Votes: 22 20.6%
  • 40 yards

    Votes: 26 24.3%
  • 45 yards

    Votes: 7 6.5%
  • 50 plus

    Votes: 15 14.0%

  • Total voters
    107
I always write the same response to this question. I think almost everyone is full of crap. Its so easy on a public forum to give a number and know youll be judged for it. It's entirely different to be out in the middle of the woods without a soul around to judge you.
It's easy to say you'll pass on game if you know there's a great chance you'll see another.
But take the scenario of the poor guy who had a brutal season. Just hasn't gotten on much game. Is tired, burnt out, feeling pessimistic, and on the final day of the season a giant 10 steps out at 80 yards. He's not coming closer. How many truly aren't going to sling one at him? I bet it's less than 5 in 100. If youre the guy who could hold off, bravo for you. But you are extremely rare

This is my argument for pods.

Private truths public lies.

Brains wired for deception. Of self and others.

Stop peeking behind the curtains man, the show must go on…
 
This is my argument for pods.

Private truths public lies.

Brains wired for deception. Of self and others.

Stop peeking behind the curtains man, the show must go on…
I am all but certain it would drastically cut down on the unrecovered deer shot with a bow. Wont help much for the unrecovered deer shot with stuff that goes bang.
 
30 yards for me as well, I have shot deer out to 35 yards, that 15 to 25 yards is my bread and butter. I would say that 80% of the deer I've killed have been at this range.
 
I shot one a few years ago with a longbow that was facing left when I dropped the string. I watched her fall and walked over to find the entrance on the right side. 15 yards, heart shot, turned completely around before the arrow got there. With a whisper quiet longbow.....
 
I always write the same response to this question. I think almost everyone is full of crap. Its so easy on a public forum to give a number and know youll be judged for it. It's entirely different to be out in the middle of the woods without a soul around to judge you.
It's easy to say you'll pass on game if you know there's a great chance you'll see another.
But take the scenario of the poor guy who had a brutal season. Just hasn't gotten on much game. Is tired, burnt out, feeling pessimistic, and on the final day of the season a giant 10 steps out at 80 yards. He's not coming closer. How many truly aren't going to sling one at him? I bet it's less than 5 in 100. If youre the guy who could hold off, bravo for you. But you are extremely rare
This mentality - not that you have it specifically, but in general - needs to disappear. I’m not going to let that arrow go even at 40.
 
I’ve noticed that answers will vary to this question based on where the individual bow hunter resides in the U.S. When I travel out west, they tend to be okay with shooting longer distances. East coast and south east seems to be 40 and under due to foliage, etc.
I think it has more to do with what @boyne bowhunter and @redsquirrel mentioned. At distances beyond 20-30 yards, there's just too much mischief that a whitetail can get up to. This summarizes it pretty well:


At 20 yards, there's not much a deer can do about an arrow coming at it. At 30, they can get up to mischief. Beyond that, and you're relying on luck.
 
I always write the same response to this question. I think almost everyone is full of crap. Its so easy on a public forum to give a number and know youll be judged for it. It's entirely different to be out in the middle of the woods without a soul around to judge you.
It's easy to say you'll pass on game if you know there's a great chance you'll see another.
But take the scenario of the poor guy who had a brutal season. Just hasn't gotten on much game. Is tired, burnt out, feeling pessimistic, and on the final day of the season a giant 10 steps out at 80 yards. He's not coming closer. How many truly aren't going to sling one at him? I bet it's less than 5 in 100. If youre the guy who could hold off, bravo for you. But you are extremely rare
No way that's happening for me in the whitetail woods. I have other priorities, and success is judged differently by each individual. Although I have a few buddies who... LOL!
 
Levi Morgan has some interesting thoughts on this subject. He was on the meateater podcast and I think he said 20 and in and 40 and over were easier than 20 to 30. Or something along those lines. Podcast below.

My ethical range with my crossbow is 35 in the woods. I would shoot 100+ yds if the deer has already been wounded. That's the only reason I use a calibrated scope with marks to 100yds on my crossbow instead of a red dot.

 
I think it has more to do with what @boyne bowhunter and @redsquirrel mentioned. At distances beyond 20-30 yards, there's just too much mischief that a whitetail can get up to. This summarizes it pretty well:


At 20 yards, there's not much a deer can do about an arrow coming at it. At 30, they can get up to mischief. Beyond that, and you're relying on luck.
Here are my thoughts on this. Let's assume you're shooting a compound bow with a speed of 300fps. Let's also say you're shooting at a deer that's 25yds (75ft) away, considered well in range for most of us. At that speed and distance it would take .25 seconds for the arrow to reach the deer. Sounds and feels like its almost instantaneous right? No way that target can be missed with those circumstances.

Now let's consider another scenario. A deer is walking at the very leisurely pace of 2mph (approximately 3 ft/sec or 36 in/sec). How long was it we decided it would take an arrow to get to target? . . . oh yeah, 1/4 second. In that same miniscule amount of time that deer will have moved 9 inches. That means, that in spite of your shot being perfectly placed based on where you were aiming when the arrow was released, its going to hit 9 inches back on the moving deer. That's the difference between boiler room and liver and that's not taking into account any deer reaction to the shot.

My point is that a 1/4 of a second is actually a lot longer than most of us realize or can conceptualize. Longer distances increase that time proportionately. And before you say well, I'm shooting 400fps, realize that that's only a 25% increase in speed which only improves the "miss" distance by 25% so just under 7 inches instead of 9.

I guess the real point I'm trying to make is that as bow hunters our weapons are slow and we have to draw that line somewhere but we should be cognizant of the real world ramifications of our shot distances.
 
I think it has more to do with what @boyne bowhunter and @redsquirrel mentioned. At distances beyond 20-30 yards, there's just too much mischief that a whitetail can get up to. This summarizes it pretty well:


At 20 yards, there's not much a deer can do about an arrow coming at it. At 30, they can get up to mischief. Beyond that, and you're relying on luck.
I can't remember where I saw it. But these 500 fps xbows cannot be ducked out to 40 yards or so
 
This article makes a lot of sense to me - max effective range should be dictated by the speed of your bow based on deer having an average .16 second reaction time (if they react): https://www.fullpotentialoutdoors.com/deer-reaction-time-jumping-string/

Also below is a snippet from a recent Dudley podcast, sounds like he pretty much agrees with the article above article.

"There's a mid-range that is extremely dangerous in bow hunting. People don't appreciate that but for me, anything over 33, 34 yards from there to 70. I honestly do way more contemplating on that shot than I would on anything sub 30 and anything from 70 and beyond. 70 and beyond the sound that goes off isn't within their danger zone so they're more like "where did that sound come from I'm just gonna look at it and try to figure it out" but man that 30 to like 60 is just a everything needs to be in the right way for me to be comfortable on shots like that yeah they'll do things that seem to defy physics."
 
I always write the same response to this question. I think almost everyone is full of crap. Its so easy on a public forum to give a number and know youll be judged for it. It's entirely different to be out in the middle of the woods without a soul around to judge you.
It's easy to say you'll pass on game if you know there's a great chance you'll see another.
But take the scenario of the poor guy who had a brutal season. Just hasn't gotten on much game. Is tired, burnt out, feeling pessimistic, and on the final day of the season a giant 10 steps out at 80 yards. He's not coming closer. How many truly aren't going to sling one at him? I bet it's less than 5 in 100. If youre the guy who could hold off, bravo for you. But you are extremely rare
I'm not shooting 80 at a whitetail in any scenario
 
I always write the same response to this question. I think almost everyone is full of crap. Its so easy on a public forum to give a number and know youll be judged for it. It's entirely different to be out in the middle of the woods without a soul around to judge you.
It's easy to say you'll pass on game if you know there's a great chance you'll see another.
But take the scenario of the poor guy who had a brutal season. Just hasn't gotten on much game. Is tired, burnt out, feeling pessimistic, and on the final day of the season a giant 10 steps out at 80 yards. He's not coming closer. How many truly aren't going to sling one at him? I bet it's less than 5 in 100. If youre the guy who could hold off, bravo for you. But you are extremely rare
Yeah, like I could hit him at 80 yards? :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy:
 
Best friend heart shot a standing rocky bull at 75 yards in the desert whyle it was buggling....sometimes its worth it.i shot a rosivelt a t 50 this year.arrow went right where i wanted it to..dropped him.dropped a bear at 40....deer, under 20 so far, might try 30. ...40 would have to be standing there in a clearcut stairing the other way.like its à mule deer hunt
 
Like grandpa i dont care what people think.government awarded him metals for getting drunk and shooting people over seas.....but he is unethical if he shoots deer while drinking here.....he got stains in his underoos older and tuffer than you....the hell you gunna tell him dude?.he killed people he thought where better than you and he regrets it too when he looks at you.live hard wild n free and shoot for the moon or go home empty handed and hungry but atleast you will feel hollyScreenshot_20231031_054735_Gallery.jpg
 
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I won’t shoot over 40. I shoot up to 60 every day I practice. I usually shoot 3-5 days a week, and I feel confident I can make a 60 yd shot. I just don’t feel confident I can miss all the obstructions. That being said I missed a 140+ 8 pt at 18 yds 4 days ago. It was 1 minute before legal light the deer was in the field at 55 yds. I snort wheezed, and he came in on a string. I was 6’ up deep in a hedge tree that had limbs that went out in the field. When he came in he was clear of the limbs. I drew as he was walking to me, and he stopped 18-20 yds out just staring in the woods facing me. When he finally turned, I put it behind his ribs and cut loose. He was quartering away fairly well. When he tuned he got a branch between he and I that I couldn’t see. I skipped the arrow off the bottom side of that branch, and shaved his belly hair.

The moral of my story is, it doesn’t matter your yardage if you don’t have a clean shot. Sadly in the heat of the moment you won’t always be able to see all the branches between you in your target. I am glad to say the buck was back to chasing does the next morning, but I never saw him again the rest of the week.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You miss every shot you don't take. I try to get as close of a shot as I can and try to limit myself to 40 yards for deer, but every situation is different. Last year I shot a doe at 9 yards and a small buck at 46 yards. It was a wide open, clear shot, slightly quartered away, unalert deer and I felt solid at full draw.

I practice out to 100 yards or more pretty often, and out to 60 or more frequently and make sure my broadheads are hitting with field points to at least 60.

I'd probably shoot an elk at 60 yards or more depending on the situation. If I'm confident and everything feels good I'll take the shot.
 
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