Practicing shooting at greater yardage than what a person is comfortable and consistently accurate at is not for everyone. Factors that come into play shooting past 40 yards can throw some shooters accuracy off, befuddle him or her, and cause the person to start readjusting their form and gear until they end up with a mess, and now do not know what went wrong or how to get back to where they were at.

Once some shooters start stepping back beyond their comfort zone, they have a problem with an unconscious trait of getting too deep into the string and canting their bows. Usually indicated by low and right or left hits, depending on whether the shooter is right or left-handed. One indicator of this habit is staggered pins…if they use multiple pins. No matter how hard they try, some shooters cannot permanently rid themselves of this phenomenon.

It is one thing to shoot fieldpoint mounted shafts at greater distances than what is considered an average hunting shot, it is a whole different story when shooting broadheads. As a shaft begins to lose its velocity, the broadhead has the tendency to take over control of the flight. Some people barely know the basics of setting up their gear. Flight problems can be a migraine headache for them. Additionally, some setups will perform well within a particular yardage, and not as well beyond a particular yardage.

As for practicing long shots making close shots a snap or a walk in the park, I do not agree. Having an ability to be accurate at greater distances might provide more shooting confidence, but when it comes to shooting a live animal with a bow, there is no such thing as a closer shot being "ho-hum" easy no matter how far away you can hit the spot on a target. In fact, close shots can often be harder to make depending on angle, and that fact that your slightest movement can be detected and the sound of your bow and the arrow in flight can send the deer to its belly as it prepares to speed away. I have made kills where I considered the shot to have been an easy shot, but never before the deer is down.

I can shoot accurately out to 65 yards, but I never shoot past 40 when preparing for hunting. 40 yards would be the maximum I would shoot at a deer. Therefore; my gear and my form is precisely set for 0-40 yards. My confidence is at its max when a deer is in my set fire-zone. However, I approach each shot the same even though the deer might be only 10 yards away.

In my opinion, the "comfort zone" is the maximum distance a shooter can consistently shoot accurately with the same adjustments, other than corresponding pin height.