Wow what a great point. See learn something valuable everyday here. I've never shot outside 40 yards. I guess I thought I would never in the woods where I hunt so why waste the time practicing. I never saw the flipside to doing it. It makes perfect sense if you're shooting arrows from 60 yards trying to pinpoint them, my gosh 20 - 30 will seem like a chip shot!! Wow what a revelation. Thanks for that tip. Just like in golf. You sit there and practice 230 yard 3 irons to a green then go to 70 yard wedges it seems like you can't miss. See another golf coorelation. God I love the 2 sports how they coincide!!

Anything past 40yds is very humbling for me

Jsasker, I've spent some time behind targets that's for sure.

NYBH, After shooting at 70 that kill zone looks pretty big at 20. You see the long drive world championships on ESPN last night. Longerst drive in the competition was 408, 384 won it in the fianals. They said a guy in his regional hit adrive of 510 wind aided of course.

.You never seen me hit a golf ball.lol.

Another golf coorelation don't lift your head when shooting at 70 yards.

I used to only practice 20 yard shots. This past year I have been shooting up to 50 yards. My grouping at 50 is not as tight as I would like it, but I now feel confident in shooting out to 40 yards on a deer.

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.

Yeah I caught a little of it. It defies the laws of physics what they do to the golf ball. I can't even fathom how.

good place to start!! I found in my vast studies of golf and the golf swing that your chances of succesful contact with the ball increase dramatically when you are looking at it. lol

When I practice I routinely shoot out to 50 yards. I don't shoot these distances in anticipation of ever shooting a deer from that far away. I find that it breaks up my shooting if I take a few long shots and then move back to normal shooting range.

An archer sees how far he can get from a target and still hit it. A bowhunter gets close enough that he can't miss.

Now arthur while that is a clever statement and I can certainly appreciate it. You know as well as I do that even the best bowhunters are perfectly capable of missing the Gulf of Mexico when they're standing knee deep in it, given the right circumstances

SA - That's why it's called 'hunting' and not 'killing.'