Distance comfort zone

[Blizzard Ridge]

25 yards or under. Woods are too thick and green almost the entire season for anything but breathing distance. Too much pruning defeats my purposes, too. It's a fine line.

Dang I wish a couple of guys I know from Florida would read this post about too much pruning. These guys were trespassing on some of my ground and I kid you not cut a 30 yard circle around the stands they set. They then took that a step further and cut 50 yard lanes through the woods in 3 different spots around their stands. They would have been seen by any deer that came within 50 yards of their stands. Needless to say I was a little upset. They didn't prune the trees they literally cut them off at about 4' high. The best part of it was seeing where they cut the trees across the trails that the deer would be using to walk past their stands. So this woods is now missing about 30 young oaks thanks to these intruders. Some people just don't have a clue.

 

[W33kender]

Dang I wish a couple of guys I know from Florida would read this post about too much pruning. These guys were trespassing on some of my ground and I kid you not cut a 30 yard circle around the stands they set. They then took that a step further and cut 50 yard lanes through the woods in 3 different spots around their stands. They would have been seen by any deer that came within 50 yards of their stands. Needless to say I was a little upset. They didn't prune the trees they literally cut them off at about 4' high. The best part of it was seeing where they cut the trees across the trails that the deer would be using to walk past their stands. So this woods is now missing about 30 young oaks thanks to these intruders. Some people just don't have a clue.

Yeah, that stinks. You had all that good oak regeneration coming along and they set that part of the woods back five to ten years probably. And then they blocked the paths instead of using those saplings to manipulate deer favorable deer travel? ROFL. I understand they were probably worried about access for themselves, but gracious did they over think it and over work it.

And trespass to boot. What tools.

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

That is what is the most irritating. This section of timber was clear cut about 15 years ago and was finally getting some nice growth back in it. One of my hunting buddies was with me and he was flabbergasted at how ignorant these jokers were. We were laughing pretty hard at the stand placements as we were taking the stands and cameras down and out of my woods. We will see if they have the guts to come and ask for their stands and cameras back. If not it is a bonus for my farms. We can always use a few extra stands.

 

[aecrowell]

Practice out to 50 hunting shots at game out to 40 yards.

 

[Mike Bolin]

I try to keep shots at 20 yards and under. I have killed animals further than that, but conditions have to be perfect...no wind to speak of, relaxed animal... and I have to "feel it". Shooting my longbow, there are days when I know that I can't miss, kind of like playing basketball 45 years ago. There were days I just knew I couldn't miss. Shooting the style I do, I have passed up shots that 99% of time I would take, just because they didn't feel right. Really can't explain it any better than that.

 

[Mike Bolin]

Oh, as far as the animal moving at the sound of the shot, I agree that a lot of the time it is the arrow in flight making the noise. I used to shoot 4- 5.5" banana cut feathers for better arrow stabilization. Once I settled into one bow and quit jumping back and forth between styles of bows, I have learned more about tuning, f.o.c. and such I have worked my way down to 3-4" parabolic cut feathers. Much quieter in flight and more stable in a crosswind.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Sorry for being late to the party and not reading the entire thread. I know this was brought up at least once, but here's another vote for practicing looooooooonnnnnnnnggggggg distances. A rule of thumb I use is practicing more out to at least twice as far as I'd ever be willing to shoot than at realistic shooting distances.

I hesitate to write this, but my max shot yardage at an uninjured deer is 50 yards. The catch is that everything has to line up absolutely perfectly for me to take that shot (ranged for exact yardage, perfectly broadside, completely at ease, low winds, head down and eating). Outside of 50 yards being my max, I use a sliding scale, depending on the factors involved. With a very stiff wind, the deer being on edge or a host of other factors will make 30 yards my max. Regardless of how far I'm willing to shoot under those conditions, practicing out to 100 makes the 5-50 yard shots on deer seem easy, as well as magnifying any forum or equipment issues.

Another couple practice techniques I use that help me a ton is practicing out of stands & blinds, as well as practicing in any condition I'm willing to hunt it: low light, high winds, light rain and so on. The only way to know how those various conditions will impact the shot is to practice in those conditions.

P.S. Also, on < 30 yard shots, I go for a double lung...on > 30 yards or any alert deer, I aim for the heart, with the idea that if they drop, I still stand a good chance of a higher double lung hit.

 

[OkieKubota]

Sorry for being late to the party and not reading the entire thread. I know this was brought up at least once, but here's another vote for practicing looooooooonnnnnnnnggggggg distances. A rule of thumb I use is practicing more out to at least twice as far as I'd ever be willing to shoot than at realistic shooting distances.

I hesitate to write this, but my max shot yardage at an uninjured deer is 50 yards. The catch is that everything has to line up absolutely perfectly for me to take that shot (ranged for exact yardage, perfectly broadside, completely at ease, low winds, head down and eating). Outside of 50 yards being my max, I use a sliding scale, depending on the factors involved. With a very stiff wind, the deer being on edge or a host of other factors will make 30 yards my max. Regardless of how far I'm willing to shoot under those conditions, practicing out to 100 makes the 5-50 yard shots on deer seem easy, as well as magnifying any forum or equipment issues.

Another couple practice techniques I use that help me a ton is practicing out of stands & blinds, as well as practicing in any condition I'm willing to hunt it: low light, high winds, light rain and so on. The only way to know how those various conditions will impact the shot is to practice in those conditions.

P.S. Also, on < 30 yard shots, I go for a double lung...on > 30 yards or any alert deer, I aim for the heart, with the idea that if they drop, I still stand a good chance of a higher double lung hit.

100 yard practice makes a 30 yard deer seem like a chip shot! I would have to travel to our other property to get a 100 yard practice in but I could probably get 60 yards in Ok at home in the cleared areas. Too many trees...