I think a lot of people have to realize that there are a TON of clueless people in this world. Whether they hunt, kayak, or crochet, they have no clue and depend on the persons selling them the equipment to point them in the right direction and tell them what they can and cannot do. While you and I may take a sales persons comment and think he’s a dork, another person will view it as gospel. You can’t expect everyone heading afield to research and thoroughly pour over every detail of what they are getting into. Which brings us to the mandatory education. Which I am on the fence of. I do feel it is a great idea, but I struggle with the logistics of widespread implementation and subject matter to cover. But that is a different topic.

So you take a person who only hears the ads, the shows, the sales person and according to that, they have a tool that can take animals at great distances. But what they don’t know is that there is a VERY limited set of conditions for that to be true. So it is no wonder that many arrows are launched that never should be.

A lot on here have the right direction that numerous factors go into determining shot selection and distance. I lean to the short side when it comes to deer, but heading out west for an elk, I extend that quite a bit and feel completely comfortable doing so. What is tough to get across to people are all those factors hat should be considered, and even still, sometimes it cannot be completely defined because experience weighs in. Ability to read deer and just “know” the situation takes time to learn and varies from person to person.