Hey all. I used to shoot fish back in high school with my compound, now 10 years later I am going to attempt to get a deer for the first time with a bow.

I've read on here that keeping your arrows within 1 inch at 10 yards, 2 inches at 20 yards, etc. is "good" or "what you should be able to do."

Well, I've been practicing at about 10 or 12 yards, and I am grouping about 1.7 inches on average. I am not sure if it is because of old equipment or if I just need more practice, but it doesn't seem to be improving much.

Anyway, so here is my question. I've read that for whitetail, your maximum range is the range at which you can keep all your arrows in a 9'' paper plate. Simple multiplication tells me this puts my range at 53 yards ((9/1.7)*10). For me this isn't adding up because I know some people say they'd never shoot beyond 40 or 45 yards. My groups appear to be subpar, yet multiplication tells me that a 40 yard maximum range would be conservative. What is the deal? What maximum range would you assign to someone who shoots 1.7 inch groups at 10 yards?

I know momentum of the arrow and wind play a roll. Am I missing anything here?