Hi guys, new to archery and bow hunting. I'm shooting a mathews switchback XT, 70lbs, 28" beman ICS 340'swith 100gr tips. Shooting with 3 pins, 25/35/45, holding about 8" groups at 50yds. Even if I get my groups down outside this range should I still shoot a deer that far out? What should I expect in terms of accuracy? Love shooting it though, having a blast. Thanks.

Welcome to archery and welcome to the site....As far as your effective range goes, that would be entirely up to you. I personally don't shoot over 30-40yds and prefer aclosershoton whitetail, even though I practice out to 60yds. That is just because the deer tend to be very quick and I don't want to risk a marginal shot....Now I have shot pigs out to 60yds when everything was right (he was not too big, he was broad side, etc.etc.)....You basically have to learn your limits with the animals that you hunt....

Effective range is more a personal limitation then it is a carved-in-stone rule. If you wanted a ball park number i would imagine most people would say between 30-40 yards though. There are many people who can, and do, shoot deer farther then that but personally i think you start pushing your luck when you are shooting past 40 yards.

If you've watched many hunting shows or talked to many bow hunters i'm sure you've heard about deer "ducking" arrows. Well when you are shooting from 50 yards, no matter how fast your bow is, it takes a while to get to the target. This is more then enough time for a whitetail to move or duck causing a bad hit. Some of the other species (elk, moose, mule deer etc) do not seem to jump the string as much as whitetail and they are generally larger targets so i would feel more comfortable shooting from farther away. But on those shifty little whitetail i think you would be better off trying to limit any long shots.

Although I have never killed anything past 40 yards, I go afield prepared to shoot out to twice that far. One thing you will find with arrows is that the propensity for an animal to jump the string goes down quite a bit beyond 40 or 50 yards. I'm sure they hear it, but it doesn't seem to trigger the alarm response like a sound inside their "red" zone.

They can, however, sometimes see the arrow flying towards them. I had an antelope buck jump an entire body length as my arrow was streaking towards him, at 75 yards, last year. I also had a turkey dodge an arrow at 25 yards once. He didn't seem to even see it coming until it was about 1/2 way there, and still managed to just barely get out of the way. Moral of story: wait until they look away before letting the arrow fly.

Archery is the art of seeing how far away you can get from a target and still hit it. Bowhunting is the art of getting close enough that you can't miss.

Even though I can shoot accurately at much greater distances, I refuse to take a bowhunting shot beyond 30 yards. To me, anything further than that and I might as well be using a rifle.

Like most of these guys, I've been around the block a few times over the last 35 years of shooting. Tell ya what. For the well being of the deer, the sport and your own piece of mind you only need one pin for bowhunting most whitetails. That's the first one on your sight set for 25 yards.

Seriously, it's supposed to be a close range sport. I think that is something we learn as we do this longer. We're more apt to push the limits the younger we are. With more experience we leearn to tone things down. And this applies to a lot of things in life.

30 yrds is a good number for me...outside of 30-40 you might want to consider another weapon...Of course this is just me, I know there are bowhunters that can take that 50yrd shot with consistence.

I normally dont take shots that are beyond 35 yards i had a bad experience with a deer shot at 45 yards and i will never make that mistake again but i can shoot accurately at that range so that is as far as i go out.
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Exactly! It doesn't matter if you shoot 1" groups at 50yds or how fast your bow is.That animal takes ONE STEP--and it's in the guts

I do most of my shooting out to 35 yards. I do shoot further but itis just for fun. I never haveshot a deer past 30 yards. Most of my shots are less than 20 yards. There is so much that can happen when you release an arrow at 20 yards, would not even want to think about 50 yards. I shoot one pin an have it set at 17 yards. Good luck, you have got into something that you will enjoy for along time.