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30 yards for me.

I'm out there for the challenge of getting in close. No reason to push the limit for me on game. Most of the time anymore I take my recurve anyway and bump it down to 20 yard limit.

-Jake

Too many variables to give an answer....animal position, alertness, what it it's doing etc. Also the terrain and surrounding cover for observing impact and subsequent followup on the shot? Wind? Time of day? Lighting conditions? I will say I practice out as far as 100 yards on the level and downhill shots on the mountain in the back yard. But I hunt within the the 5 fixed pins on my slider sight (0 - 60 yds). Would take a followup way out there if a wounded critter gave me a shot. I really like 20 to 40 yard shots. Under 20 and things can often fall apart. Over 40 becomes much more critical on a variety of fronts but still very doable.

Good luck to the original poster!

I'm with Kurt52 - its more about the conditions, animal position, etc. I regularly shoot way farther in practice than I would at game. A couple of things that can help in practice is to borrow from cold-bore rifle practice and make your first shots of a session the hardest. Also, good 3D shoots can help give you an idea of comfort range. I shot in one recently where the max distance on a 25-target course was 112 and the closest was 47. The hardest shots on the course were some of the closer targets that were in difficult settings and at steep angles. Another thing that helps it to introduce some stress into your practice, like getting a quick shot off at odd ranges, or shooting against buddies, especially the type that like to sh*t talk while you are shooting.... I like to pick odd ranges to shoot from too. Instead of shooting at 60-80-100, I might do 63, 74, etc. Its more realistic. All that said, my comfort range in real hunting situations where I'm cold, tired, etc. is probably around half my comfortable target ranges.

I shoot only traditional and have for over 50 years. For me, an elk is too far away at more than 40 yards and a deer too far at more than 30 yards. And I'm talking standing, broadside or slightly quartering away. I've never shot an animal at more than about 27 yards. For me, it's all about getting as close as I can, NOT seeing how far away I can hit an animal. If I can't get close enough, I'll pass up the shot rather than taking a chance at wounding it.