Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game What are your thoughts on a 95 yard shot with a bow?

Is that a lucky or unlucky miss?

His explanation of why he shot it in the eye due to being an instinctive shooter was pretty funny.

Geez

I shoot at 60 all year so I'm good at 30. I killed a deer in Alabama last year at 47 and 50 is my absolute max for deer. I've shot 55+ on elk, but that is just shy of my elk threshold

Dang, I've seen stuff on a 30 yard shot that makes killing something with a bow seem like voodoo. 100yards? No way.

rangefinders take one heck of a lot of selfcontrol only you or I have it.

Iirc, in the book "Hunting with the Bow and Arrow" by Saxton Pope, he and Arthur Young took many game animals at 80 yards or more with rather crude weapons compared to the much faster equipment used today.

The fact others have done it doesn't make it a good idea

I feel certain they didn't write much about the ones they wounded and lost

I recall reading an account of a long shot like this by Howard Hill. IIRC, at least the first arrow and possibly the first two, missed clean.

This. There's a big difference between shooting something that can take a few steps before the arrow gets there or shooting a piece of foam.

Nobody has mentioned that it was also a down hill shot? so what pin would one use?

There is a pro shooter in our area. I hear stories every year about his killing stuff at long range. I believe he killed a moose at 100yds or so. That being said, the guy has been shooting all his life, shoots everyday, shoots pro, and has a bow setup for those shots. The problem is, every redneck in town follows him around like a whipped pup and they think they can make those shots too, but they can't.

One of his followers took an 80yd shot on a mulie a couple years ago. Shot it right in the ass. He got lucky and they found it later, but if you talk to him it was a spot and stalk hunt worthy of being recognized in Pope and Young.

BUT define long range...... the abilities are out there, but gun and bow and everything in between.

A LOT of it will depend on conditions and alertness of game.....

Walk a mile in my shoes applies to much of this.

And bottom line if you are worried about wounding... more game is wounded at distances under 200 yards with rifles, than anything else, by simply incompetent weekend warrriors.....

Not that the above evens anything out or makes anything right.

Me.... I shoot 15 steps and less with my bows. Accuracy wise when I was shooting bows enough, hitting an orange or softball size target at 100 yards, was only about gettting the distance correct. And dealing with wind.... the shot process or ability only takes dedication.

My limit is about half that, although I do shoot at 60 and 70 all summer. However, if Tim Wells was shooting at me from 100 yards, I wouldn't expect to walk away. I don't know how he does it, shooting fingers and all, but he makes some incredible shots.

My opinion on long range archery shots (60to100yards) is that it is a mix of the shooter, the bow setup, and the conditions(wind), but mostly the shooter.

Hear is some background on my opinion. I have been shooting competition archery for over ten years(I'm 21) I have owned about ten different bows both hunting and competition. I am by no means a expert I have only taken one deer with a bow every thing else was with a rifle, but I shoot a lot of arrows a year not just at 20 or 30 yards but out to 100 yards. If you practice at longer range have good gear and the condition are in your favor, as long as you are a good shot it up to you and only you from that point on. I know fellow archers who are capable of making shots out to 90yards and have sucsessfuly taking game ethically, but at same time I know others who should never shoot at game as big as a moose past 30yards. Most of it is the shooter, I'm not going to tell a archer that I don't know what they should or shouldn't shoot at I don't know what their abilitys are. But I am confident in what my abilitys are in what conditions I'm in and if the shot is not right I won't shoot no matter the range.

For fun this is my set up

Hoyt Spyder turbo 70lb. 29in draw
Easton axis 340 with fusion vanes
Spott hog Hog-It 7pin
Limb driver pro V arrow rest
Fuse 7in. Blade stabe
Shuttle T-Lock broadheads 100gr.
Tight spot quiver
Stan shootoff! Release
Just got it sighted in last weekend out to 80yd and are ready for spring bear season. The 375 H&H is ready as well:)

Well said AK.

A guide friend of mine shot a mule deer at 100 but the arrow bounced off a rock and then struck the deer.

It would take even more luck than that for me to hit anything much beyond 40 or 50. I can't slam dunk a basketball either but I sure won't tell anyone else they can't.

Good choice on the 375 H&H, you won't need it though.

I've seen lots of people miss dunks, and yet the basket never moves while they are on the way up

The idiot did not deserve such a gorgeous ram!

Practice to 80...max is 40.

Couldn't tell you the percentage of hunting that goes wrong from what is intentionally planned, but I can say that bowhunting magnifies this. Too much yardage on a bowhunting shot is asking fo mo trouble!

40 yards is a long shot at live game with a bow, I don't care what kind of bow you use or how much you practice. I limit myself to 30 yards with my compound and 20 with longbow or recurve. A lot can happen while an arrow is on the way to the intended target over which the hunter has no control. 95 yards is unethical, period.

I want to rephrase that. 95 yards is a very low-percentage shot. The question of ethics is another matter. If I am in a survival situation, I'm going to take the 95-yard shot.