Should bowhunting be a close-range sport?

[TSP]

I've always believed that attempting to take game animals with a bow and arrow is a close-range proposition.  Even if the animal is unsuspecting, and even if the shooter is an experienced 'good shot' and can get decent groups on the target range all day long.  I've no statistics to prove it but I think most who choose to hunt with stickbows agree with this approach.  Their respect for the animals and for uncontrolled variables that affect shots more as distance increases (wind, animal movement, unseen obstacles, equipment flaws, malfunctions, etc.) weighs more than the killing urge.  

So when I read the following statement from a celebrity of sorts (one of the featured shooters ina recent 'barebow' shooting DVD promoted here and at other sites) I was both amazed and disappointed.  Here's the statement:

'If you can't hit the spot/kill zone out to 30 yards how can you expect to make a killing shot?  I think a lot of this 'Its about getting close and mystical BS' came from the hippes in the 70's.'

What's your take?  Is bowhunting simply a matter of what the individual decides (skilled or not), irrespective of what effects other variables not related to the shooter's skill can have?  I don't know how to do a poll here, but the results of such a mini-survey would be very interesting.

[larry]

bowhunting is a close range sport....although I suppose "close range" is subjective. even if a guy regularly takes game at 40 yards, it's still close in relationship to other forms of hunting. For me, in bowhunting, "close" would be anything ten yards and under, an average hunting shot would be anything from 15-25 yards and a long shot would be 35 yards and over.

larry

[JBiorn]

If you are comfortable at 30 yards then by all means take a shot. However I think most of us would much rather be around 15 yds.

[Deadsmple]

For me target archery is seeing how far away from the target I can shoot from and still hit the bull, bowhunting is seeing how close I can get without missing.

[Bjorn]

It should be what you want it to be..........for me it is all about the stalk, and getting to within 10 or 15 yards is the challenge and the fun. Whatever happens after that doesn't really matter as much as the rest of the experience; but to each his own-Right?

[Dirty Bill]

Being able to group consistantly at 40 yards is good. Then when you stalk a deer up to 15 yards,your confidence will be there.

Long shots are for targets. Bowhunting is a close range sport. I believe we owe it to the animals to do our best to get close for a clean kill.

Even then we make mistakes.There are a lot more variables at 40 yards than there are at 15.Just my 2 cents.    

P.S. I've never "lost" a mortally hit animal.Neither are there any cripples by my arrows.

[LV2HUNT]

As mentioned above there are a lot more factors involved than accuracy. It is up to each hunter to determine their effective range based upon the conditions at hand. I like them close and have a personal preference for 17.3 yards!

[Dirty Bill]

Originally posted by LV2HUNT:
As mentioned above there are a lot more factors involved than accuracy. It is up to each hunter to determine their effective range based upon the conditions at hand. I like them close and have a personal preference for 17.3 yards!

What is that in meters?    

[ChuckC]

Hunting is what it is. What I feel is different from what you feel. We shouldn't put a name to it or boundaries upon it, that is exactly what that "person" is trying to do.  We are, once again, telling somone else what to do.

I guess I will get a bit snappy here.  I am / was a hippie....so what.....

ChuckC   :mad:

[Labs4me]

I'm sure I'll catch heck for the following statement, but IMHO (and the opinion of my former math teachers and professors): A bowhunter who can consistently take game at 15 yards is twice as good at HUNTING as a bowhunter who is only able to get within 30 yards of his quarry.

Go easy on me...            

[tradtusker]

Bjorn
"It should be what you want it to be"

i completely agree! everyone is defferent, and hunting situations are all circumstantial, so like said above "It is up to each hunter to determine their effective range based upon the conditions at hand."

[Sharpster]

Originally posted by Deadsmple:
For me target archery is seeing how far away from the target I can shoot from and still hit the bull, bowhunting is seeing how close I can get without missing.

Need anyone explain it better than this???!!!  

-Ron

[rg176bnc]

Bowhunting has always been about how close you can get, not how far you can shoot. I would say his shooting skills outshine his woodsman ship.  Hopefully he can get close enough to a big game animal to hear its innerds working.  Hopefully then it will click for him.

[Chris Wilson]

Bowhunting is a close range form of hunting, in comparison to other forms but, what is close range depends on opinion.  Getting within 30 yards of a mature whitetail is a feat in itself, especially out West in some of the more open terrain.  Getting closer is even more so.  I always hear folks talk about the variables when shooting longer, but anytime you drop the string it's never a sure thing, even at close range.  I really get amused at folks that talk about how bow hunting has always been about getting close and target shooting is about how far.  You guys need to read up on the hunting excursions of many of trad archerys heralded legends and you'll see getting close wasn't always the case.

[Leland]

I believe we owe it to the animals we hunt,to make a clean kill.The skill of the archer should dictate his/her distance to take the shot.Mr. Wilson-Those were different times,even the old timers learned from their mistakes. Leland

[Orion]

The problem with the idea that folks should limit their shots to their effective range is that for most folks their effective range is a lot less than they think it is.  It's one thing to shoot at targets at 30-40 yards.  It's quite another to shoot at an animal at that distance.  In my 40 plus years of hunting and an awful lot of state and regional tournaments, I haven't seen but a handful of folks who could shoot good groups (six arrows in a six inch circle, no fliers) at 30 yards.  And, additional factors come into play when the animal is that far or farther away.  Brush that the shooter didn't see, or the animal simply moving a half step while the arrow is in the air are two big ones.

Sure, people kill animals at 30-40 yards and further with trad gear, but very very few are skilled enough to do it and it always involves an element of luck in that there likely was no unseen brush in the way and the animal didn't move while the arrow was in flite.  We tend not to hear about the animals that were missed or wounded at those distances.  Missing and wounding occurs at closer ranges, too, of course, but the farther one is from the target, the greater that chance and errors are magnified.

[LV2HUNT]

Originally posted by Dirty Bill:
 

Originally posted by LV2HUNT:
As mentioned above there are a lot more factors involved than accuracy. It is up to each hunter to determine their effective range based upon the conditions at hand. I like them close and have a personal preference for 17.3 yards!

What is that in meters?      [/b]

Dirty Bill,
Good news on that front. The whole world has come to its senses and is switching over to yards, inches, and feet  :D .

[Rico]

20 and under thats the challange

[vermonster13]

I'd like to be close enough to kill them with a knife every time, then I might never miss. Might being the big word in that statement. I've killed whitetails from two arrows length away to much further but prefer close always.

[sidebuster]

My slogan on my bows is GET CLOSE.  If you are not mano a mano with the game you are hunting then IMO that is wrong.  Hence the challenge.  If the animal you are hunting does not the have the opportunity to hear you, see you or smell you than you are not close enough.  You just out smart him to make sure he doesn't but you must do it while being close.    I kind like to think I am like a cougar who has to be very smart in order to pounce on his game to make the kill and he can't do that unless he is close.  I know a friend that can hit a deer at 50 yds with his compound.  As great as that may sound I told my friend that IMO tha is not what the archery sport is all about.  It about getting close and given the game the opportunity to detect you however, you just got to be smarter. That what it is all about.