At the risk of encurring the wrath of advocates of light, fast arrows...

I hear and read this stuff over and over and over again dealing with speed and misjudged yardage and I really hate it. It's the number one reason most people say they shoot the light arrows... Extra speed will make up for misjudged yardage. Every time I hear that, I cringe. I smell the pungent stench of poor hunting ethics. What the uninformed think they are basically saying is they can't judge yardage worth beans and they know it, so they HOPE the flatter trajectory will make up for their lack of skill.

Well, nobody's pefect. Mistakes are definitely made and the speed (along with a generous helping of pure dumb luck) MIGHT turn a bad situation around. But using that reasoning as THE primary reason for pushing the idea of shooting fast arrows is bad. Real bad.

Accidents are one thing, but it's gotten to the point that it sounds like nobody's talking about accidents any more. Speed to make up for misjudged yardage has been repeated so often on the forums, in advertising, at archery ranges and in pro shops, that it really has started to sound like bowhunters believe speed relieves them of the responsibility to make accurate yardage judgement. Nothing is further from the truth.

Not knowing what the yardage is, within a small window of error that would come as close as humanly possible to guaranteeing a clean kill, makes it a no-shoot situation. If you can't judge yardage close enough to be within that window, then you have two options. Get a good lazer rangefinder and use it OR, just don't shoot. Trying to rely on speed to bail your butt out of what you KNOW is a no-shoot situation is very, very poor ethics.

Please, speed advocates, when you talk about speed and misjudged yardage, PLEASE make it absolutely clear that you're talking about ACCIDENTAL misjudgments and that you're not telling people they can fling at any animal, regardless of whether the distance is known or not.