Why such short distances?

[Roy from Pa]

Thanks Pat, I am glad you shoot good groups like that also..  

[newhouse114]

Whenever I see a pic of a fantastic group, I just look at all of the other holes in the target and it is easy to see that all of the groups are not always that tight! When punching paper I'm about a 240 shooter with my longbow and wooden arrows. The three ring is just about 9" in diameter, every arrow would be a kill shot on an elk, on a 100 lb blacktail it is still unacceptable. I do not make a 4 ring shot on each and every shot I take but I still hunt and do well.

[dirtguy]

I whole heartedly agree with practicing at greater distance than you hunt.  I know it makes me a better shooter.  Its also cool to an arrow fly that far and be on target.  I a have spot where I can shoot out to 70 yards and it is a blast.  

Each hunting situation is unique. The alertness of the animal, the angle, the distance, the vegetation.  I think we all have to go by feel.

I will also day that the old time greats operated a bit differently.  Howard Hill recounts taking an extremely long shot at an elk (180 yards IIRC?) that he missed and then taking another shot!  I doubt that same shot would be tolerated today, even from an alltime great.

[jonsimoneau]

Depends on the size of the animal. A 30 yard shot at a Kudu isn't that hard. But for whitetails I want them under 20.

[RC]

Not trying to be a smart  tail and not bragging. I have killed over 200 pigs, maybe 150 deer ,turkeys and a whole bunch of small critters. If you totaled them all together my average shot is maybe 12 yards.
  I have worked on "systems" to make me a better shot at longer range but shooting instinctive works for me. I tried gap shooting and on the range I was decent in the swamp poor.I found I can shoot instinctive better than I can judge distance with a bow that shoots 160 fps. If a fella is worrying about how far with a longbow in his hand he is hunting with the wrong weapon.
  I have killed some 40 yarders and last summer killed a 31 yard pig. I did`nt think how far I thought "broadside.
  I think that true instinctive shooting takes years to become good at.A lot of folks these days try it a while and say it is no good.Kinda like shooting a Hill bow,you gotta commit..lol The 3 years or so I shot 3 under set my shooting back a ways. I am now back on track and shooting near as good as my prime. Shoot the way you are most confident at and if it works good at longer ranges it will work surely at the close shots we should all strive for.
  One more thing...You don`t have to hit the 10 ring on a deer to make a clean kill. The lungs on a deer are bigger than a milk jug and a lot of those low scoring 5~s would be short blood trails. If a fella practices their woodsman skills half as much as their shooting they would need long shots less. Most new tradbowman will have all the books and vids for shooting but will seldom ask a hunting how too question.Cheers,RC.

[Terry Green]

Nice Post Robert!

[Bud B.]

All you need to do is know your own limits. Game size also plays a part.

[Jabar]

Most of the guys I know that kill on a regular basis aren't systematic one trick ponies.  They can hunt AND shoot.  No reason you can't be both.

Give me the guy that can shoot AND hunt.  

Thought I would throw in my two cents in since this seemed to get off track of being a shooting thread into some sort of hunter thread.  Lots of folks that claim this or that don't kill near what others that don't do this or that.  Like RC for instance, bet he's killed more that some folks here claiming all sorts of things.

Get off your but, learn the proper way to shoot, being a good shooter IS part of being a successful hunter.  Its called *well rounded* and not limiting yourself to a few yards cause you can't shoot well enough.

[monterey]

Originally posted by Roy from Pa:
I don't worry about how well other guys shoot. I just worry about how well I shoot..          

   

   

Gee, Roy that looks like a bunch of mismatch arrows from the trash barrel.  Would have been easier to jam them in if ya woulda put points on em.          

[Jabar]

I have to admit, that does look a little staged, or shot from 3 yards.  Sorry, but that is the way it looks.

Like the guy the other day that never answered on a thread about how many hogs he had killed. Then showed up on the big hogs thread with a picture of a mount. No bow, no field shot, no story, no history, just a mount.  Plenty of mount pictures on the internet and they sell mounts everyday on the internet as well.

[Jakeemt]

RC-I have not killed near as many big critters as you but I also agree on the importance of woodsman ship. Before I switch over to archery (never took up compounds) I was an avid small game hunter. The last season I was serious about hunting with my little single shot 20 I killed 87 squirrels that season along with 2 coons, 12 rabbits, and few crows. Lol my archery success rate is waaaaay down by comparison. I know I for one tried to shoot instinctive for about 2 years and frankly I gave the ghost up because I simply suck at it! Lots of great instinctive shots out there but, I'll never be one. Lots of great hunters too that keep it under 15 yards mostly. That's where most of my shots are too though I am still honing my bigger game skills. I want to repeat that I would never tell people to shoot game at long or short distances. That's up to you and what you know you can do. I was just trying to point out that you can make serious repeatable hits at long distances because stick bows really are not inaccurate. There just seems to be a perception that they are. I shoot at long ranges because it tightens me up when I am closer and I enjoy the challenge.

[Skates]

I'll take the shooter/hunter as well.  

What about the angora goat running away at a quarter and intercepting an arrow at 30 yards dead perfect?  I've heard about that story as well.  There was a witness to that one as well.

How about the story on that one?

[Crittergetter]

Originally posted by RC:
Not trying to be a smart  tail and not bragging. I have killed over 200 pigs, maybe 150 deer ,turkeys and a whole bunch of small critters. If you totaled them all together my average shot is maybe 12 yards.
  I have worked on "systems" to make me a better shot at longer range but shooting instinctive works for me. I tried gap shooting and on the range I was decent in the swamp poor.I found I can shoot instinctive better than I can judge distance with a bow that shoots 160 fps. If a fella is worrying about how far with a longbow in his hand he is hunting with the wrong weapon.
  I have killed some 40 yarders and last summer killed a 31 yard pig. I did`nt think how far I thought "broadside.
  I think that true instinctive shooting takes years to become good at.A lot of folks these days try it a while and say it is no good.Kinda like shooting a Hill bow,you gotta commit..lol The 3 years or so I shot 3 under set my shooting back a ways. I am now back on track and shooting near as good as my prime. Shoot the way you are most confident at and if it works good at longer ranges it will work surely at the close shots we should all strive for.
  One more thing...You don`t have to hit the 10 ring on a deer to make a clean kill. The lungs on a deer are bigger than a milk jug and a lot of those low scoring 5~s would be short blood trails. If a fella practices their woodsman skills half as much as their shooting they would need long shots less. Most new tradbowman will have all the books and vids for shooting but will seldom ask a hunting how too question.Cheers,RC.

       
Well said!!!

[Roy from Pa]

I used to shoot 2 arrows while practicing, but now I only shoot one.. It got expensive..  

 

[Orion]

Jake:  Stickbows are only as accurate as the folks shooting them, and most shooters aren't very accurate. I agree that shooting at longer ranges helps improve accuracy on shorter shots as well.

I limit my long range shots for a couple of other reasons.  First, if the animal moves just a little from the time the arrow leaves the bow until it hits the animal, it can turn what was an accurate shot into a gut shot, or other low percentage shot.  Second, at 40 yards, in any kind of cover, I can't see small brush, sticks, etc., near the critter that might deflect an arrow making it a bad shot.  Third, I feel a whole lot better about positioning myself at 10-15 yards from the critter, particularly a mature critter of the species, than I do about a 30-40-yard kill shot.

[BWallace10327]

I wish I could agree, but distance isn't always the only factor to consider. The only animal I've ever wounded and lost, out of nearly 50 different seasons, was a nice 5x bull elk.  The shot was about 70 yards and he went to run as I pulled the trigger.  With reaction times like that, a case can be made that a 12 yard shot with a traditional bow is too far because the animal could move from heart/lung to stomach/liver.

For me to shoot over 25 yards at a deer a number of things need to fall in place.  One is if the deer begins to browse on something and if I can time my release to the browsing.   A steady speed of a walking deer is quite often more predictable than a nervous deer standing still, but those walking speed shots need to have the shooting style and much practice to make them predictable.  It is not something that a lot of guys that practice only static target style form should try out of desperation.  I never shoot at a deer that is looking at me, I don't care how close it is, not do I ever shoot at a bounding deer.   The last one ran a ways stopped, looked away and started walking still looking away.  The Hill head went through a rib, slashed across the back of the heart and out, deflecting and breaking on an oak shrub sized tree.  It was more than 20 yards away.

[newhouse114]

Well, I will shoot at a deer looking at me depending on the circumstance. The buck in my avatar came out of a poplar thicket with another buck that was a tad bigger than the one I shot. The bigger buck was a full frontal opportunity, the other buck was a slight quarter towards me. The shot was about 25 yards and I actually remember very little about it. My body went into auto pilot mode. From the time I first saw the buck to when it disappeared with my arrow in it was about 3 seconds.

[Michael Arnette]

Jake you bring up a good point. I think it's a matter of simple statistical probability. I am willing to take a 1 to 10 chance that I will wound (ie animal that doesn't die within 2-3 minutes in a heart/lung scenario) the animal and possibly not recover. I'm not willing to take a 1 to 5 chance if that makes sense. In the past I have done some arrow slinging but I've had some close calls as well as animals that suffered too long.
For this reason I limit myself to approximately 25 yards or the yardage then I can consistently put 9 out of 10 arrows into the kill zone but that distance is different for everyone.

[Michael Arnette]

...I might also mention that my 25ish yard guideline is for whitetail. on Elk I'm very confident at 35 yards due to the bigger target. Of course I have no experience actually shooting at an elk lol maybe September!