ORIGINAL: c j
I've been debating whether or not to comment on this thread for awhile now.
First, I'm really happy that you got your turkey, techy. But I have to say I'm disappointed to hear about a shot taken at 57 yards. Honestly, I don't mean to pick a fight and I don't mean to preach, either. You were successful and that's great.
But I just don't agree with taking shots at that distance with a bow. And not just with turkeys. I know there are people out there who can consistently put their group inside of a grapefruit at 60 yards. But, IMO, even those people shouldn't take those shots on live game. Nobody should, IMO. Too many things can go wrong, and at that distance even the slightest thing will end up having a big effect. A guy on another forum put it best: "There's a 1000 things that can happen when you shoot at live game at that distance and only one of them is good."
At 60 yards, whatever animal you're shooting only has to move less than half a step for you to miss the vitals. Then you've got a wounded animal running around, which is the worst possible thing that can happen, IMO. The animal suffers and inevitably someone finds it with an arrow stuck in it and bowhunters get another collective black eye.
Again, sorry to sound preachy or condescending. I really don't mean to rain on anyone's parade at all. I just wanted to put in my two cents to hopefully make people think twice about taking long shots. Enjoy your turkey; they're hard to get no matter what method you use.
You don't sound condecending at all. I think you expressed yourself in a very classy manner. You have an excellent point I would not reccommend that everyone do this; however I thought about it, and just about as much can go wrong at 20 yards (which most find acceptable). Half a step forward at 20 yards and you could miss the vitals also. I know several people that wound birds at distances as short as 15 yards with bow or shotgun. I practice out to 100 yards on a regular basis. Heck yesterday I shot a 4-5" group at 100yards. 60 yards is generally a chip shot for me. Yes I see your point and hopefully you see mine. 1000 things can go wrong at 60 yards; 999 can go wrong at 20 yards.
Excellent input, but in some cases I agree to disagree.
