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Shots on caribou, mule deer and other open ground animals are commonly at 50 yards or greater. Probably that far on average.

I was originally hoping to take my bow on my bou trip this September, but my recovery from shoulder surgery just hasn't been as quick as I would like and my accuracy beyond 40 just isn't good enough. It'll be the 300 ultra mag for me! But I'll still try and get to 50 yards! (any closer and the bullets won't expand! )

In the woods, I'd never take a shot greater than 30 yards on a whitetail though. Not greater than 40 in the open (field, etc..) Size of vitals, behavior of the animal, shooting conditions, amount of available light all can adversely affect those numbers though!

sorry to say it dude, but that seems what it's getting to around here. To answer your question I shot my buck at 62 yds this year, I try to keep it on the DL though cause I catch so much **** for it even though he only ran about 50 yds. Shoot out to as far as your comfortable to!

For those who don't know what pin stacking is, it is where you take your 50 for instance and use it for a 60 yard shot. You do that by placing your 50 where you want to hit, and look at where your 40 is. You then move your 50 to that location, and you then have your 60 yard mark. I like to use the spot-hogg for this as the wire keeps reference to left and right. Also,If a guy wants to experiment, you really have 3 different yardages with each pin depending on wether you center the pin in the peep, or align it with the top or bottom of the peep. A guy would be very surprised at how effective one can become with pins and still be able to aim at the point of impact and not gap the pins.

I would not recommend experimenting with any of the above in the woods while hunting. It has taken years of practice to master these methods. When attending a shoot such as Redding, you can only have 5 pins but shoot up to 100, stacking is the only way one can shoot up to 100 yards with only 5 pins. If too many pins obscures your vision, then stacking may be the way to go. it sure helped put more meat in the freezer this year.

Ive killed around 30 deer with a bow, and all but 2 of them have beenunder 20 yards. I practice out to 40 yards, but my comfort zone on a live deer is 30 yards, and conditions would have to be perfect for me to take a 30 yard shot, for me there is not a worse feelin than making a bad shot on a deer and not finding it

Here is why not

1. Wind is blowing 15mph from right to left across your shooting lane. 20yds...no big deal. 60yds...that is a WHOLE 'nother story.
2. Even if your bow shoots "hard and fast", especially if a buck is at attention @ 60yds, you have a good chance on him jumping the string. The more time for arrow flight before contact, the more time the deer has to drop, duck, turn, jump, flinch...you name it, he has more time to do it. No amount of speed will ever overcome a bucks reaction to sounds at long ranges.
3. Judging by your vocabulary, you havn't shot this far at a deer before. Probably a reason for that. You arent going to pick up a new bow and all of a sudden become a tournament level archer. True, with practice you might be there eventually, but 60 yd shots take years to master, and even then people still mess them up!
4. At 60 yds, it is awful hard to see that lil twig that might deflect your arrow into the ground, or worse, into the wrong area of that deer. Only perfectly clear shooting lanes cut it at that yardage.

I havent even gotten started yet, and you have 4 of my (decent) reasons to not shoot out to 60 yds AT PRESENT. Like I said, it is possible, but I will never do it.

I agree and disagree. I would say that they are often presented, but I rarely (as in RARELY) take shots of that length. Both of my caribou last year were within 30 yards, and my muley was 42. Honestly, I THINK that the longest consistent shot with a bow is 45-50 yards regardless of shooter ability. That is just my opinion. I practice at 60 more than any other distance and can hit a paper plate nearly every time, but so many things can and do happen between the release and the impact. If you want to see what happens on shots at 60 yards, watch THE CHOICE when Ralph is bowhunting barren grond caribou and he hits one in the butt. This is a guy who bowhunts for a living and he misses at that distance by 3 feet due to wind and the animal moving. Under IDEAL conditions, i.e. no wind, animal perfectly relaxed, etc, a 60 yard shot can work, but if the animal hears the bow go off and moves at all, which they normally do, at that distance you are screwed. I've tried it and I have learned. Shooting at a live animal and shooting at a target are two completely different and nearly unrelated subjects regardlesswho tells you differently.

Go for high % shots
the further away the harder to hit
and some time harder to find
I have 3 pins
10 20 and 30 yard
thats all i need
i probably wont even use a 30 yard one
its just there

If you look at Elk Crazy's Avatar you can see why some people are able to shoot longer distances.

Not everyone is hunting thickets.

Wabash, Let me ask a question what is the KE of your bow at 50 yards?

What garin arrows are you shooting,etc.


Actually if anyone that shoots long distances could answer this I'd really be interested in the info.

Practice, Practice, Practice!! Then set the limits you are comfortable with. Before taking up bow hunting I was strictly a handgun hunter. I had started hunting with a handgun because I wanted a challenge. I was on the military marksmanship team and had gotten very proficient with a pistol and realized to challenge was in the hunt not just the shooting.

I eventually turned to bowhunting for an even greater challenge. When stationed in Okinawa we had an archery club with one of the shooting lanes capable of shooting over a hundred yards. It is very possilbe to get every arrow in the kill zone at that range but I still limited myself to a 50 yard max. The hard part is being able to stop yourself from taking that long shot on that once in a lifetime trophy. Once while hunting Moose in Canada I had a 48 inch bull moose 60 yards and it was all I could do to not shot. I had told myself before I went on the trip that 50 yards would be my max. I stuck by that decision......went home empty handed but was happy with myself for not busting my own decision.

So, what I am saying is....set the maximum that YOU are comfortable with and stick with it.