Effective distance.

[fummins]

Great forum here,im sure you guys can teach me a bunch about crossbows.Im a long time deer/hog hunter and got the Crossbow itch about a month ago.Im sorry to say i bought a recon Horton Steelforce a week ago and am waiting on it to arrive,at $100.00 it seemed like a bargain,dont be too hard on me... My plan was to use it on Blacktail in the 30-35 yd range,but after searching thru the posts here sounds like 30 is the max.Im curious what you shoot and what your maximum ethical kill range is? Is there a bow that can consistently kill at 40 yds with accuracy that wont break the bank? Thanks.

[Hotburn76]

That is going to be a little on the slow side and not have as much KE. If you stick with that then I think you should keep your shots to the 20 to 25 yard range max IMO. I myself know that if I could get a deer that could not hear and was a little blind I know I could kill it out to fifty yards. But when you get out to 35 yards the game changes on you and the deer can load up and jump on ya. I would say if you had a deer head down eating with a perfect quartering away shot, nice and calmyou should have no problem out to 40 yards max with a good CB. But I dislike taking chances and try to keep mine in the 30 yard max range. All my deer have been less than 20 yards though. Plenty of guys have success in the 35 yard range. Over forty is a no no with most of us. Alot of guys on here like the Excal Phoenix as a good able to do CB that will keep your wallet happy. A mid level Horton will also do the job, but others say the Excal holds it's resale value.

[Hotburn76]

Also forgot, Welcome to the forum and I shoot Two Horton's and my primary CB is my Excal Vortex.

[fummins]

Thanks for the info and the welcome.I put a sneak on a blacktail buck this morning,got to about 40 yds,that seems to be about the closest I can get with the terrain here.Mind you today is opening day gun season for my area,that little forkie was lucky Im holding out for his big brother (which i got to within 20 yds of two weeks ago with my compound bow),vegetation was just too dog-gone thick to work an arrow in.

[deerslayer223]

As long as you are using a fixed blade head id see no problems maybe stretching out to 35yd or so. I'm not afraid to shoot out to 40 myself but i shoot a 175lb bow over 300fps.

[VTX4]

This will be my firstyear to deer hunt with a crossbow. I have hunted with a vertical bow for over 20 years and my shot range was limited to 25 yards. I have a Horton 175 pound pull crossbow and have taken many shots at targets at various ranges out to 40 yards. Accuracy is still very impressive at 40 yards but believe I will limit my range to 30 yards when hunting. We owe it to the game we hunt to make a sure, humane kill. The most important factor is to know the limitations of your equipment and your skill and to stay within those limitations,