Average shot distance ?

[Jeremy Holden]

I was wondering what the average shot distance is for those hunting with "primtive" bows?  I went to a 3D shoot the other weekend and was no good out past 15 yds.  It got me discouraged and wondered if mabye I'm being unrealistic in my expectations.  Am I needing that much practice or am I expecting too much?  I'm shooting an osage selfbow for what it's worth...

-Jeremy

[Fred Arnold]

Jeremy, I read somewhere a few years back that a survey was done with people using traditional equipment and it concluded that the average shot was 12 yards. Of course those conclusions were determined from a limited number of respondents but IMO it sounds logical. Most stick and string hunters are particular and careful when it comes to shot placement on game. There are many that with practice and experience have perfected there shooting techniques and take longer shots when the circumstances are in there favor. Myself I wouldn't attempt much over 20 yards and conditions would have to be ideal.

[Pat B]

What Fred said.  My favorite shots are between 12 and 15 yards. My closest kill was 8'. I would feel comfortable with a 20yd shot under the right circumstances.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I set myself up for 15 yards or less.

[Cyrille]

twenty yards for me anything closer would be if not a chip shot than very close to it.
Anything beyond twenty would be guess work

[Scallorn]

I wouldn't take a shot past 20. Most of my hunting situations are less than 15. I would like to think that I could hit a target at 20, but it's scary what the stress will do to you. lol

[JW_Halverson]

If you are like Pappy down in Tennessee, you get lazy and only shoot deer at arms length.  Saves on tracking. 

[Jeremy Holden]

Alright, so I was being unrealistic in my shooting/bow ability.  Now if I can master the woodsmanship to get that close I'll be doing pretty good.  Thanks for replies fellas!

-Jeremy

[adb]

My personal distance limit is 20 yards. A couple years back, I let a full 5X5 walk, cuz he was just past my limit. I felt that was much better than wounding him.

[vyadha]

At  recent 3d shoot I was in the 8 ring at 35yards.
Hunting I keep it under 20. One of the hunting skills i hold the highest is stalking. Get close and then get a little closer

[Pappy]

20 is about my limit but since I don't calculate yardage it hard to say, if it feel right I shoot,most under 10 yards and a lot way less than that. I usually hunt from a tree and most deer taken and 3 or 4 yards. I have killed a few over the years at 25/28 and 34 yards but if I had know they were that far I wouldn't have shot,it just felt right at the time.
Pappy

[crooketarrow]

  First let me say I very seldom shoot across the yards unless I'm shooting in a bow I just made. I almost totally stump shoot the fields and woods. If you think your good take a walk with a judio. You might come back home  with a different thought.
   I practice 20,25 even 30 some times. I never think yardages and if you shoot instintive you sould'nt either. You want your hand-eye-brain to do it for you. I may prictice that far but set up buck and gobbler hunting to where my shoots are all 10 to15 depending on cover,time direction of sun. The sun kills the best set ups. Even a good place to set flat off the ground or off milk creates when I have the cover. But I never make them over 18 .20 at the edge of my zone. My favoret is around 12. Not many people get inside of 20 yards of mature bucks even out of a tree. I've tota;lly ground hunted since 06 after 2 strokes. Could'nt hunt angain untill 08.
  Remember your not at a shoot competeing with compounder's just the buck, deer in most of you alls thought. BUCKS in my thoughts. I set up all my sites for buck and gobblers the same. Where they've went passed me. Like this their focus is to their front already gone past alowing for you to draw and shoot. With out them seeing you.
  Forget those broad side shots likely you'll be see as you draw at the lease they know somethings up. Broadside shots are totally imposable with gobblers off the ground. You don't have a compound to where you can DRAW AND HOLD when the animal go's behind a tree. Instinve shooting all done in one motion (MAYBE HOLD A SECOND AT BEST) if you wait for the buck,gobbler to come out from behind the tree it's hard to pick a spot draw hold while it's still behind the tree.
  I'm sure you've all did this. When the buck,gobbler came from behind the tree you shot high or over him. Thats because when he came out you had to hurryed. Your eye went to the most prononced thing the line of his back. The spot you picked and shot high or over him.

[Newindian]

Glad I saw this I was thinking I was a poor shot

[JW_Halverson]

I have killed a few over the years at 25/28 and 34 yards but if I had know they were that far I wouldn't have shot,it just felt right at the time.
Pappy

Pappy makes a point that could use a little rolling around in your mind before you head out with your tag.  I have found this for myself and have heard it from one archer after another....you just know when the shot is right.  Many times I have been shooting at pine cones (not you Bryce!), stumps, targets, or hay bales and I just KNOW even as the string is rolling off my three finger draw whether I will hit the mark or not.  If you shoot enough, you will start to feel this "rightness" on some opportunities and not on others. 

I have never KNOWN the shot was good only to find I had missed my mark.  Not once.  I think it only comes with practicepracticepractice until you wear out your bowstring, blunt your field points, and rub holes in your finger tabs. 

[bluejay]

in Mississippi the average deer is taken at 9 yards at 10.00 a m.
I practice at 20-30 yards and test  for penetration at 50 yards.
I agree with the others, you will know when the shot is right, on a shoat [small wild female pig] then there was the dewberry vine that jumped out and diverted my perfectly placed shot....... nature is amazing. ninja dewberry vines...