How Far is Too Far to Bow Shoot a Deer

[hunteditor]

Hey guys,

Great post/discussion going on about how far is too far to shoot at a live animal while hunting. Guy on the post shot a 150-inch class buck at 88 yards. You should check it out and weigh in with your thoughts.

http://mikehanback.blogs.com/bigbuckzone/2007/11/buck-by-a-long.html

[Tuco]

I seen a guy hit a beer can at about 80 yards one time, but 40-50 would be the max for me. And where I hunt there are only a couple of lanes in that range, most are 30 or less. I say your max is what ever you practice your max to be, meaning if you have never practiced at 60 yards you should never take a shot that far.

[sky_guy_61]

ditto what honcho said. The kill zone on a deer is about 5" or so. If you can hit a 5" target consistently at a given range then you can hunt at that range.

[Remnard]

I saw Ted Nugent attempt a shot at a deer on tv the other day at 75 yards! That's irresponsible. Even if you can hit a target at that range, there is typically not enough energy to drive the arrow deep enough in to the vitals Reliably. Set your pins up and shoot at all different ranges until you can reliably hit what you are aiming at. a 4" group is acceptable. You need to leave a little room for mistakes. When in doubt always add 2 yards. Practice at a given range until you start breaking arrows. Then move back. Repeat!