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What do you consider an acceptable 40yard group to feel confident on an animal.

If it’s a pig yeah I’ll take the shot I’m pretty consistent at 40 with softball size groups . A nice buck, well for me I would need the right shot . Meaning I’m not rushed and it’s not on alert , if it didn’t feel right I would wait for another opportunity.
 
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When my bow shoots with his team. Their cold round is supposed to be their best round. I will walk outside closer to season and just pick a random distance and shoot 5 arrows. Especially on work nights.
 
Practice from twice that distance. When you can shoot 8 inch group or less from 80 you are good to go.
 
Bowtie747 said:
Just gonna shoot this out there. Most of the people Ik who shoot 40 plus and do it “successfully” arnt telling you about all the times they missed and or wounded a deer to not find it. Not saying this is always the case but I find it happens a lot.
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100 percent

it's the whole concept behind the Dude Perfect youtube channel, but they at least show you all the outtakes

i can easily blow everyone's mind

i'll take a sip of coffee on camera, say 'here goes nothing', and then shoot my bow at a deer target at 80 yards and then without any edits walk up and show the arrow, you'll think i can do this at will

well, i took that sip and that shot 30 times until i pinwheeled the 3d

it's super obvious to me that social media influencers that make their living off appearing super human would do this

and yep, if you are a pro hunter and take bad 80 yard shots all the time....then some are gonna stick and you'll get 10 million hits on youtube and a big ad revenue check....just don't show the woundings
 
How does one find out what his true limitation is if he never tries to surpass the arbitrary number he limited himself to?

For example, an archer decides he has a 30 yard max because during practice he can only place X amount of arrows in a specified target size at that range. Now while out hunting a target animal comes in to 31 or 32 yards and presents a textbook broadside side, what does he do? According to his self imposed limitation he should wait and hope the animal gets closer. I don't see the logic in that and would accept the challenge of being outside of my comfort zone and take the shot. If the shot goes perfect my confidence and comfort level at "an extended distance" should increase and if I shank the shot then I know I was lying to myself with the 30 yard max I originally set in my head.

Anyone who has hunted for years has had a bad shot at a close range, it happens for whatever the reason. How come archers haven't decided to limit their range to 10 yards? or 5 yards? The chance of you screwing up a shot at 5 yards or 35 yards is the same. Of course the further the distance the greater the arrow will be off it's mark. My point is setting a number that you feel comfortable shooting game at depends on many factors such as wind, weather, animal's level of alertness, shooting lanes, archer comfort and vantage point, level of confidence, amount of practice, etc. that I feel it places an uneccessary thought in your head that you have to filter through. The last thought you want in your head while your about to take a shot at your max range is " I'm at my max range I hope this works..."
 
Now I’ll be the first to admit. I’ve missed allot. At animals. When it comes to foam. Watch out im
Ruthless. Animals a whole different story. I’ve adjusted my thinking in my hunting bow. I want to be able lock my sight at 25 and put four arrows 15.20,25 and 30 in a 3 inch circle. I have horrible buck fever. Just horrible. So I need to be able to put the pin behind the shoulder from30 under and let it happen.
 
Oldish (2010) quote from an article by ya'boy Chuck Adams:

"For whitetail deer entered into the P&Y record book, average shot distance is about 19 yards. Less than five percent of record book whitetails are shot beyond 40 yards."

I dont know the ratio of book bucks seen at 40+ yards vs 20, but common sense tells me the former would be a bigger number. I'd also assume most people that saw a 125" or better buck would fling an arrow if they thought they had a prayer. That adds up to a lot of misses.

P&Y book guys are a weird breed. In most states if a guy has 1 entry he has several. Alabama's most prolific P&Y guy is George Mann, who has something like 10 of the 185 book bucks to his name. 2 are Top 10. That's not unusual. Dan Infalt and John Eberhart have multiple entries whereas most hunters have 0. 80/20 rule definitely applies to these hunters. They generally are above average people. George Mann hunting with Fred Bear and Mr. Jennings and traveled the world hunting exotic game. He had plenty of free time to practice and was by all accounts an extraordinary shot. And he had the money to afford cutting edge equipment.

How many people want to raise their hands in public and profess to be above average with a bow? Now how many want to claim to be above average in a group of people who are already well above average?

Personally, I accept my mediocrity as a mathematical certainty. I'm not saying don't shoot at 40,50,60, 200 yards. I'm just encouraging people to challenge their illusory superiority bias and ask if they don't think that most archers (particular P&Y record entrees) have thought to practice REALLY hard so they can hit that deer if they need to. Statistically, you're probably not special, and you're probably not hitting that deer.
 
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I have no moral or ethical qualms about shooting deer at any distance.

That said, I rarely shoot past 30 yards at whitetail for all the reasons already given.

That that said, as I’ve gotten to be a better hunter, and given the fact I was introduced to hunting through bowhunting 25 years ago, I rarely get a shot past 30 yards. My skills at finding a spot to shoot them from have been honed well enough that I usually don’t have a deer offer a shot before being inside 30 yards.

That that that said, I don’t hunt places where I can see deer clearly from more than 30 yards. Too easy to hunt them in the thick stuff.
 
kyler1945 said:
I have no moral or ethical qualms about shooting deer at any distance.

That said, I rarely shoot past 30 yards at whitetail for all the reasons already given.

That that said, as I’ve gotten to be a better hunter, and given the fact I was introduced to hunting through bowhunting 25 years ago, I rarely get a shot past 30 yards. My skills at finding a spot to shoot them from have been honed well enough that I usually don’t have a deer offer a shot before being inside 30 yards.

That that that said, I don’t hunt places where I can see deer clearly from more than 30 yards. Too easy to hunt them in the thick stuff.
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you only avoid the suffering of humans when it comes to sentient beings?
 
TNbowhunter said:
My dad used to tell me you need to hit 9 out of 10 in a pie plate (10-ish inches) from a given range during practice to consider yourself effective at that range in the field. I think that's a pretty good standard for basic proficiency at shorter ranges, but I feel like that should shrink down to 5-6" past 35 yards since your margin of error is smaller the longer the arrow is in flight.
And to be clear, these standards assume you're shooting broadheads during practice, not field points. Lots of fellas out there who can shoot a softball group at 40 yards with field points, but when they screw on their big fixed blade heads, that opens up to a 12"+ group because their bow (or arrow) isn't tuned to perfection.
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Pie plate ,not paper plate ,pie plates are to me considered saucers which are roughly 6"
 
Waylon mark said:
Pie plate ,not paper plate ,pie plates are to me considered saucers which are roughly 6"
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That's a good point, I think of a pie plate as more like a pie pan, which would be the whole pie and probably closer to 10 than even 8 inches. Could be just me being an odd ball though. I have heard 8" a lot and I'd like to be in 6 inch groups
 
Curious question, any of yall actually ever lay a paper plate on a deer you shot? Do you know how paper plate accuracy correlates to the avg deer for your area? Where I do about half my hunting the avg mature doe will go 100-1115 pounds live weight. A paper plate will cover the kill zone vertically with just a smidge of play laterally. The other area I hunt the avg mature doe will run more in the 115-125 range and up to 140 isnt uncommon. They have a little more play laterally outside the paper plate. But them little 55-70 pound eatin models, well you better dial into tea cup saucer for them. I pretty much quit worrying about the the outer diameter of my groups and instead focus on my margin of miss. Probably my favorite practice is to put a quarter sized dot on a piece of cardboard and put that on the target face. I want my misses to be within 2-2.5" any direction from that dot because my point of aim on a deer is nearly always the lower third of the chest unless the deer is really close forcing a higher aim point. When I get my shooting to the point I am consistent with that level of accuracy, my "misses" are still easily on a paper plate.
 
BTaylor said:
Curious question, any of yall actually ever lay a paper plate on a deer you shot? Do you know how paper plate accuracy correlates to the avg deer for your area? Where I do about half my hunting the avg mature doe will go 100-1115 pounds live weight. A paper plate will cover the kill zone vertically with just a smidge of play laterally. The other area I hunt the avg mature doe will run more in the 115-125 range and up to 140 isnt uncommon. They have a little more play laterally outside the paper plate. But them little 55-70 pound eatin models, well you better dial into tea cup saucer for them. I pretty much quit worrying about the the outer diameter of my groups and instead focus on my margin of miss. Probably my favorite practice is to put a quarter sized dot on a piece of cardboard and put that on the target face. I want my misses to be within 2-2.5" any direction from that dot because my point of aim on a deer is nearly always the lower third of the chest unless the deer is really close forcing a higher aim point. When I get my shooting to the point I am consistent with that level of accuracy, my "misses" are still easily on a paper plate.
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1115lb :D that’s a fat nanny
 
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