ElkhuntingFool

Excuse me again, but I am new to bowhunting so I will ask some obvious questions.

With a rifle, I'm comfortable at 300yds and in. With a bow - obviously much different.

What do you all recommend for yardage that will produce a clean shot as well as humane kill?

Thanks for your patience with me.

I will be hunting elk and mule deer - and then when I draw - black bear.

Edited by - ElkhuntingFool on 02/05/2002 11:23:11

Edited by - ElkhuntingFool on 02/05/2002 11:25:32

Arthur P

Many folks limit themselves to 30 yards with a compound. Traditionalists generally prefer to be within 20. But that doesn't mean a thing, really. The key is how well YOU shoot.

A lot of people say your maximum effective range is where you can keep all your shots on a paper plate. I disagree with that. Shooting at an animal is a lot different than shooting at a paper plate. You don't have your heart thumping in your throat and all that kind of thing going on like you do when that buck steps out.

I think you should limit your shots to where you can keep them all in a group no bigger than a saucer. That gives you a little margin of error for dealing with the heat of the moment.

BobCo19-65

Sorry Arthur, but I have to disagree that it all has to do with how well you shoot.

I can keep everything in a group at 50 yards no problem, but will I shoot at a deer more than 25 yards??? No.

I limit my shots to 25 yards. A deer is a living creature, not a stationary target. It can be very unpredictable, and many things may happen between the time that you release the arrow and the time the arrow gets to the deer.



ElkhuntingFool, you didn't specify what you are hunting, I assume it is whitetail deer.

6ptsika

Yes, EHF, it depends on many factors. I like to limit myself to 35yds on a relaxed whitetail, if he's standing in the open looking the other way. I can group in about 5" there in a hunting situation. I work backward from there, depending on the situation. For example, a walking deer, no farther than 15yds, on an alert deer, about 20yds. After a year or two, you'll be well aware of your limitations, the trick is to not try and stretch your limits in the meantime, and know you wounded and lost an animal because of this.

akbowhunter

i agree with arthur, to an extent. remember this is my opinion every thing has FACTORS. you should beable to shoot 1/3 longer than your effective range. if you practice out to 50 yds and can put your shots in a 6 inch circle you should beable to shoot at 35yds on an animal. personaly i practice at 50 more than i do at 20, and do a lot of practicing at 75 yds. it takes practice lots of practice but i probably shoot 5000 shots every month on an average. best thing is to wait for the best shot and get as cloce as you can. where you hit the animal is the most important part. i dont use regular targets cause animals dont have an x ring on them so i pick a spot and thats where i shoot.
Ron
remember

Arthur P

I don't have any problem with that BobCo, but I would like to point out one thing about a deer's reaction time that keeps me from setting a hard number across the board for maximum range.

Say a guy shooting a selfbow at 160 fps and is more than comfortable at 20 yards on deer. An arrow from that bow would travel 20 yards in something like .38 second. From a compound shooting 280 fps, an arrow would go 35 yards in the same amount of time. If reaction time of a deer is constant, and shooting accuracy is equal, it would exactly the same shooting the compound at 35 yards on a deer as using the selfbow at 20.

There are simply too many variables in bows, arrows, broadheads and shooting skills, not to mention weather, lighting and the attitude of the animal (relaxed or alert), even the hunters confidence level at the time of the shot, for anyone to lay out a definitive maximum effective range across the board for all situations.

Each and every hunting shot is entirely unique and has to be judged on it's own.

I do think that very few people have the skill to even attempt a hunting shot, even with the most high tech bow, past 30 yards under hunting conditions.

akbowhunter

arthur, yes variable after variable. be well prepared and lots of practice.

i shot my caribou at 35 and my moose at 60yds but i did under estimate the moose yardage i thought it was at 50 but he was quartering away and folowing some cows he dident even know i was there.
Ron

BobCo19-65

I understand what you are saying Arthur. But, I needed to make the clarification of a living target vs. a stationary target, and using not using this comparision exclusively.

I am speaking from my experiences on deer. I understand the whole reaction time thing really. But, let me give you an experience that I had a few years back. I shot a buck at 35 yards. I was using my Parker Feather Mag whick was shooting carbon arrows with 75 grain Muzzies at 290 FPS (I have a 33" draw). Anyway, just as I shot (in the instant) the deer took a step. He didn't react to the arrow in anyway, he just took a step, no flinching, nothing. Anyway, the arrow hit just behind the lungs. It really made me upset - really upset. So anyway, I knew where the arrow hit and decided to let it go overnight. To make a long story short, I did find the deer, about 200 yards away.

I know the shot was accurate - because it went exactly where I put it. I got the good shot feeling when I released - I'm sure you know the feeling. But, because of other factors, the arrow did not hit the deer where I wanted it to. After that incidence I swore never to take another long shot like this again, and I won't.

My piece of mind is so much important then taking a hopeful shot even though I can put arrows in a five inch group at 50 yards.

Biteme/Paul Mohr

I agree with the others, 30 yards seems to be the average. That's about all the farther I will shoot at live game. When I first started in archery not that long a go, I thought killing a deer at 40 or 45 yards would be easy. I had no problem grouping arrows at that distance. And as long as I new the distance my bow would hit right were I aimed it. But when I actually started setting my bow up to hunt with I noticed there are some major differences between hunting situations and target practice. Then When I actually started hunting I decided 30 yards would actually be pushing it for me.

Like the others said, there are so many variables that enter into it that it is different for every person. If you have a slower bow with heavier arrows you have to take that into consideration vrs a bow with much better speed. Longer distance shots with a slower bow would be much riskier. Not that it couldn't be done, but it would be at a risk. Your down range energy would drop off quickly and you would have little room for error in yardarge estemation. I use a laser ranger, but realistically you don't have time to range every shot and the deer move around on you making you have to change you point of aim before actually shooting. I like to range objects around my stand as a reference point when I am shooting. This works well up close. Get much beyond 40 yards though and things start to change. With my bow beyond 40 yards a mistake of 3 or 4 yards in estimation could cause some bad results. Having a faster bow would help a little, but not that much, especially if it was louder and harder to shoot or hold at full draw.

You will find that most like to shoot at 30 yards and in on white tails in the north and midwest and east. I think when you get out west things are a bit more open and it might be harder to get them that close, I don't know I live in Michigan. You will also notice that while most limit themselves to around 30 yards, most of the game taken is at 20 yards or closer. Especially with more experienced hunters. I think half the fun is seeing how close you can get the deer before you shoot it. That's what makes bowhunting so much fun and rewarding. It takes a great amount of skill to get deer that close and still be calm enough to take it with an arrow.

I don't know about elk, don't have any here so I never worried much about it.

Paul

Tazman

Well I do not have the experience the others have with a bow, but I will throw in my 2 cents worth anyhow from a newbies standpoint. First of all the longest shot I will probably ever take on a deer unless I got a new bow that shoots faster than anything made today would be 30 yards. That being said, I made a decision before this past bow season that I would not take any shot over 20 yards,the reason was I only had a high confidence level shooting targets at 30 and figured subtracting 10 yards from that would make up for any nerves I may rattle releasing the trigger at a deer. I have already started practicing for next year and if I get to a level I am comfortable with at 40 yards I will extend my max range to 30 yards.

The Tazman