what's your average shot distance when hunting?

kevin · Post by **kevin** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:40 pm

This evening the little 6 point was sniffing around straight down from my stand. I've gave him 3 free passes now. Gave a small racked 8 a pass opening weekend. I hope these young fella's wise up before gun season, those guy's are'nt as nice as I am.

1 Buck only here in Ohio, 4 anterless in the urban zone

I swear I have a hard time finding plump nanny's for my urban permits, small Buck's and yearling's. Only one mature Doe for me so far

crazyfarmer · Post by **crazyfarmer** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 9:32 pm

kevin wrote:This evening the little 6 point was sniffing around straight down from my stand. I've gave him 3 free passes now. Gave a small racked 8 a pass opening weekend. I hope these young fella's wise up before gun season, those guy's are'nt as nice as I am.

1 Buck only here in Ohio, 4 anterless in the urban zone

I swear I have a hard time finding plump nanny's for my urban permits, small Buck's and yearling's. Only one mature Doe for me so far

LOL.. same out here.. if a little 6pt runs by its a all out war for the others in the woods LOL

kevin · Post by **kevin** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 10:06 pm

I keep waiting on a very big 10. I glassed him a few times while Chuck and Coyote hunting back in july and he rank's with about the top 2-3 Bucks I've seen in my life (I'm 49, in the field alot varmint hunting) and I've seen a few good ones around here

I'd hoped to put my uncle on him the first week of bow season for a retirement present, could be some young head hunters popped him as I have'nt seen him since late August

I ordered a trail camera to see if he's still around, theres also a nice 14 point around I had a look at, nothing like that big 10 though

.

If I get some trail cam pic's I'll have someone post'em.

navaman · Post by **navaman** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 9:45 am

kevin wrote:
bstout wrote:Twelve yards is typical for me. Some much closer.
I was starting to think I set up to close on Deer until your post.

twelve yards and closer takes some doing. i'm not the hunter bstout is, but i keep working on it. i took mine last year at 30 yards and it was good killing heart shot.

Moniteaumule · Post by **Moniteaumule** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:51 am

My closest has been 10 yards and farthest......Well Heres the story.

I was settin watching a travel corridor, I had already shot a buck earlier in the year and had a couple doe tags to fill.

While I was settin there, I looked thru the woods, thru a great shooting lane and saw a black oak tree. I asked myself, how far is that? Took out my lazer rangefinder and lazed it at 40 yards. I knew I could make that shot. At 40 yards I can hit a dime with my ExoMaX.

I put my rangefinder down, and right then a doe stood up right in front of the tree! I put my 40 yard reticle behind her shoulder and touched it loose. The arrow flew perfect and hit her EXACTLY where I aimed.

She ran 20 yards and piled up.

And there it is.

Moniteaumule

sumner4991 · Post by **sumner4991** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 12:15 pm

Average range willl depend a lot on the type of hunting you do. If you are sitting 15 feet up in a tree, it's easier to get deer right under you. If you are in a ground blind, it's not as easy to get deer within 5 yards, but, it can happen. If you are stalking/still hunting, which is what I normally do, then it's hard to get one within 15 yards. My closest has been 10 yards and longest(with my compound) was 40 yards. My average is 25 yards.

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 1:12 pm

I like it up close and personal. I have killed many a buck with a spine shot almost straight down from my stand. I can’t count the number of deer I have shot in this manner when you throw in the does. You actually do not have too bad a kill zone when looking straight down over the animals back. I can’t remember the exact percentages (and they have been published in many articles) of width of a whitetails back versus the size of the kill zone on a standing broadside deer, but 80% seems to be what I remember. So I am only losing 20% of my entire target size when shooting in this manner.

I went back over my journal and looked at the distances I shot my last ten bucks. The rankings are from one to ten with the largest racked buck being number one and number ten being the smallest of the “top ten”.

1. 2 yards.
2. 5 yards
3. 20 yards
4. 7 yards
5. 9 yards
6. 27 yards
7. 1 yard
8. 23 yards
9. 1 yard
10. 6 yards

So that makes my average over my last ten bucks 10.1 yards.

ecoaster · Post by **ecoaster** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 1:21 pm

Mike,

At 1 and 2 yards, why didn't you just free fall with your knife

? That would be one for the record books for sure.

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 4:13 pm

ecoaster wrote:Mike,

At 1 and 2 yards, why didn't you just free fall with your knife ? That would be one for the record books for sure.

Ecoaster, I already tried the free fall routine back in 1997. It didnt work out very well.