• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

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
HuskerInIowa

HuskerInIowa

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2022
Messages
1,000
Curious what people’s max range they will fling an arrow. I used target buck because I think there is a chance some people might possibly take a shot at their dream buck they wouldn’t on a freezer queen so that longer shot is the true range.
 
I said 40 and I’d even try 50 under the absolute right conditions. I’ve been practicing more long distance archery over the last year due to TAC and it has improved my confidence on game. That being said, most of my saddle setups are within 15 to 20 yards before a shot opportunity would even materialize. However, my impetus to try TAC was chiefly because of the following story:

Last year I had a shooter daylighting in the early season very predictably to an overgrown Apple orchard next to a field edge and the only way I could set up without buggering things all up was to get into an adjacent uncut corn field about 60 yards away from a lane he used each evening. I was predicting based on camera data that he would hit the apples then move on into the clover and corn throughout the evening. Which he did. However, that night, instead of staying and feeding toward me in the clover field I was overlooking, he went right back into the woods!! I had about a 2-3 minute window where he worked a bush with his antlers then a boundary scrape and as he moved past that. He was perfectly broadside several times and at ease at approximately 50-55 yards and I didn’t have confidence to take that shot and I vowed to not be in that scenario again. He was a big 10!
 
Last edited:
I've said it before and I'll continue to say it . . . My issue with long archery shots has nothing to do with an individual's accuracy at the range but everything to do with how far the target can move between arrow release and its arrival at the point of aim.
 
boyne bowhunter said:
I've said it before and I'll continue to say it . . . My issue with long archery shots has nothing to do with an individual's accuracy at the range but everything to do with how far the target can move between arrow release and its arrival at the point of aim.
Click to expand...
Totally agree! However, practicing shooting at 60 to 80 yards does build one’s confidence to take 40 and 50 yard hunting scenario shots under the absolute right conditions and situations. I’m not sure, still that I would take a shot on a nice buck at those distances because as you said not only can the target change but also it’s a lot different shooting at that buck of your dreams you’ve been dreaming about all year compared to an inanimate target. I don’t know about you guys but I still get all worked up when a nice buck comes into range!! If I didn’t I wouldn’t hunt anymore.
 
HuskerInIowa said:
Curious what people’s max range they will fling an arrow. I used target buck because I think there is a chance some people might possibly take a shot at their dream buck they wouldn’t on a freezer queen so that longer shot is the true range.
Click to expand...
I'm the one vote for 20 yards even though I may push that to 25 yards. I've probably shot 75 deer with my bow under 22 yards. The 3 deer I've taken shots at around 30 yards didn't turn out well so I won't do it anymore. I look at bowhunting as a game of getting them in close. "I'm bringing him in closer merlin". I haven't shot one with a gun in 12 years but when I'm gunning hunting even 40 yards feels far to me anymore lol.
 
Deer I limit myself 25-30 and will shoot at a hog further, so say 40-50, if it's the right situation.

32 is my furthest but the deer wast getting any closer and it was getting down to end of legal light. I had just missed 1 the weekend before at 11....I was having lots of second thoughts but dang...I get only so many days to hunt and I work so hard to get in that situation I wasn't gonna let a couple yards scare me. I just need to get better at choosing my ambush locations
 
Confidence is key, and questionability or accountability should be weighed. I answered 40 yds., because that is my self imposed limit in the whitetail woods. I won't take a shot that surprises me that it impacted on game. Out west, or spot-and-stalk, that would be re-evaluated.
 
I'll take a whack at 50 if it's ideal conditions. What the heck. Flame away. I don't hold myself to a 100% standard in hardly anything in life. I'm a bit of a natural risk taker. 50-50 is a no go, but if I feel like I have a 90% chance of hitting a pie plate at a given distance that I practice and the conditions are otherwise perfect? Send it.

Normal hunting conditions I'd say average max is 25-35. For me very rarely are target deer hanging out in environments where I can shoot 50 yards. They lika the thick stuff.

I'm to the point where if an animal is alarmed I'm not sure it's ethical to take a shot at just about any distance.

Judging the animals body language is one highly important variable that too often gets left out of these discussions. There's a tremendous difference between shooting at a totally oblivious animal vs. one that is on the edge of hauling out, with a whole lot of nuance in the middle.
 
I was a gun hunter for a long time until I realized what I was missing out on. I have been bowhunting for 6 years now and it's so much more fun and rewarding. I have gotten much better at shooting but getting close was the biggest learning curve--picking a good set-up where I won't get busted that allows for a high percentage shot. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take lol, but after being left with that bad feeling a few times due to wounding a deer and spending all night searching for it, I just limit myself to a chip shot.
 
I have my single pin set at like 27 yards. I can keep them in the kill zone out to 30 without adjusting my sight. I don’t plan on adjusting it. So 30 and in. Crossbow I may push it to 40 in ideal conditions. Realistically I probably won’t have a clear shot that far.
 
The_Fit_Ness_Monster said:
Practice regularly out to 100-110, furthest chance so far to shoot a deer and have is 23 yds, I think if one was bedded or just absolutely calm and still I’d take the shot no further than 60 or so. But I’ve killed hogs at 73 and 82 yds. The elk I killed with my bow was 48 yds.
Click to expand...
Shooting at bedded deer is a real gamble. I shot my first with the bow while it was bedded,from 20 yds and hit exactly where i aimed but the body position is almost impossible to read right. I got a pass through and broke the does foot on exit but also got guts and lung. It was a long track job but I did recover her. But seeing the exit was a real eye opener in how much the deer was turned and rolled.
Now I would wait for the deer to stand.
 
Bowmanmike said:
Shooting at bedded deer is a real gamble. I shot my first with the bow while it was bedded,from 20 yds and hit exactly where i aimed but the body position is almost impossible to read right. I got a pass through and broke the does foot on exit but also got guts and lung. It was a long track job but I did recover her. But seeing the exit was a real eye opener in how much the deer was turned and rolled.
Now I would wait for the deer to stand.
Click to expand...
Yes, and I’ve always thought of that, never even seen a bedded deer but I was just saying that’s a still position they’d be in but it would be a guess as to how the internals are situated as they lay. Realistically in the public land woods here in LA you’d have to seek a spot out to get a shot further than 20-30 yds. Most of my setups I can’t see a deer past 20 much less get the op to shoot them. All of my kills with whitetail have been under 23 yds with majority being right under me.
 
Bowhunting for me is about getting as close as possible. I have killed most of my deer under 25 yards and I like it like that, but I have also killed a few over 40. When I practice I practice out to about 90 yards(adjustable sight). My furthest shot on a white tail is just below 50. That is a "chip shot" in practice, but when you add in adrenaline, extra clothes, angles, etc I don't like to shoot that far. Sometimes my desire to kill them outweighs my ethics or things just feel "perfect" and i'll take the shot. I have wounded more deer at 25 yards or less than past.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top