long shots

I shot an elk at 40 yards.  It was walking away from a water hole when I shot it.  Best shot I ever made in my life--not just because of the distance, but other factors as well.

I shot a doe in it's bed at 65 yards once.  She never got up.  That was quite a while ago when I used to shoot competitive archery at a high level.  Now, 40 yards tops it out and I don't attempt anything beyond that.  This fall I passed +150" in Ohio at a ranged distance of 45 yards, just because I was not comfortable with the shot.  I still kick myself for not getting that deer to come another 10 yards.

Will not take a shot over 40 yards and then it has to be an open shot did this about twice.  Most of my kills are 5-15 yards. I practice up to 40 yards each year but turn down shots over 30 yards ever year as well, I spend a lot of time to get the right shot on the right deer.

Most proud of hunt is a doe I took this past year on the ground, got within 12 yards.  Normally hunt out of a tree but that day there was just too much wind and rain to climb so I took a walk.

I dont usually take shots beyond 20 yards, even tho I practice out to twice that.  Actually, a lot of spots I set up in dont allow for shots much longer than this.

nothing special about 22 yards i believe. if you're gonna shoot far with a bow to me you might as well just wait til gun season. the idea about bow season is to me is to beat the animal and get as close to them as possible. Im not saying i wouldnt take a shot that far, i just dont trust myself past what i have been doing. I hunt with 1 pin adjustable site set at 20 yards (also 30) but i never sited it in for 40 50 yards. i mostly hunt woods too so getting that far shot is difficult trying to find a shooting lane without making one to long range. hence musky's story about gut shooting a deer..luckly it stopped to get a second finisher or you'd be kicking yourself.

How about the closest?
I missed a slammer at 15 yards  this year. My arrow got wrapped up in a drag line that I had hanging in a branch in front of me. Missed it by 6 feet to the right.  I never saw the arrow get hooked up! with the line as I turned!
 What a noise when you release and the arrow goes between the rest and the riser. I'm just happy it was a clean miss- could have been disaster. 
That buck had 6 left, 5 right and was nice and wide. Another nice Erie County buck.  I think I had buck fever.
Boolywugger

alot of room around them deer

hm the closest was a doe i got 4 years back now walking around with my bow scouting for a new area. it was closer to the rut and i just decided to take my bow wiht me, in blue jeans and a green shirt. Deciding to stop for a second i saw this deer running right at me(it was a fawn)...so i started to draw back and as i was it stopped right by me and honestly it was about 4 yards from me. Needless to say i probably wouldnt have shot it in my tree stand but i just sorta couldnt pass doing that..on the ground..in blue jeans and that close. kinda weird is all.

My closest was last year. It was a large doe that was 7 yds from the base of the tree I was in. After seeing how steep the angle where the arrow passed through was, I dont think i'll shoot any closer than that. She expired quickly within sight.

I have shot several deer directly under me with the bow, and never had a problem recovering them.  However, one particular buck that I killed still leaves me quivering after 16 years.  I was still living in NY and had sole permission to hunt a 250 acre woodlot of the best grouse cover you could imagine, with two 10 acre lakes right in the middle of the property (they are another story).  On the backside of the lakes was a wide open stand of oaks and scattered cedars.  This open woods was the main corridor for deer to go from the south sided food sources to their bedding cover on the north side of the lakes.  It was a large tract I was in on the backside of these lakes and patterning exact trails was difficult.  On November 6th, I saw decent buck (by my standards at the time).  I grunted to him and he came in on a string.  I missed him by two feet at 20 yards.  It was getting dark and I decided to go back to the truck.  I got in the truck, and went no more than 20 yards when a big bodied buck with a drop tine jumped into the road, looked at me and then headed back to the area I was hunting.  I went home and inspected my bow, to find that my TM Hunter rest had cracked and was bent, causing me to miss my target earlier in the day.  I  called a buddy who works on cars and he brought some epoxy over since all of the local proshops were closed and I really wanted to be back on stand the next morning.  We repaired the rest and I shot the bow a couple of times to make sure it was hitting correctly, knowing full well that my range was now limited to 20 yards and that would be a stretch if the epoxy did not hold the aluminum together.  The next morning found a fresh layer of snow on the ground and me in my Loc On Platform, climbing treestand.  At 730am I decided to hit the horns with some serious aggression.  After 30 seconds or so, on the far hill several hundred yards away I saw a deer coming toward me in a hurry.  I continued for another 15-20 seconds, watching this buck the whole way.  When he hit 150 yards, I stopped and got ready.  As he came the rest of the way at a quick trot, I could see his ears flopping back, snot coming from his nose, coal black glazed eyes, those raised hackles on his neck and hear him grunting aggressively the whole way.  At 50 yards, I drew and waited for him to arrive.  I truly did not think he was going to stop, but just before I mouth grunted at him, he did just that.  He was less than 4 ft from my tree, 12 feet below me and had pinpointed my location with absolute precision.  My site was already on his chest, never counting points. The Rocket tipped 2413 found it's mark.  Had I not had my seat belt on, I would likely have fallen out of the stand right then.  I knew I had shot a monster and nothing like this had ever happened to me.  I got my composure and sat there for 10, no maybe 7... ok, I didn't wait, I got out of that tree immediately.  I found my arrow and the wind shifted.  I immediately smelled that familiar "buck" scent, so I froze right there.  I started scanning the cedars and saw a patch of brown laying forty yards away.  A few steps closer revealled my buck, a handsome 9 point whose 10th was a 4 inch drop tine. 

great buck mike