View Single Post
Old April 15, 2012, 11:12 PM   #65
azwizard
Member
 
Join Date: February 25, 2008
Location: Formerly AZ, but now Northern Michigan
Posts: 62
I grew up in NW Michigan and I used to only take 15-20 yards for Bow, 25 yards max for Pistol (.357), 75 yards for BP (Hawken) and 100 yards for Rifles.

Moved to Arizona for 17 years and changed my mind. Mind you I've practiced and made these shots. In Phoenix the Archery butts go all the way out to 100 yards! The pistol has long range silhouettes to 200 and the rifle range runs out to 300.

So I've since made shots on Mulies out to 84 yards with my bow. Avg is 40 yards. Same pistol, practiced on the 200 yards silhouettes and longest shot ever taked out west was 135 yards. Got a new Muzzeloader (Disc Extreme in .52 cal) and killed a Whitetail in Michigan at 225 yards. Mule Deer with my 7 mag at 330 yards. And while the OP only asked about Deer, I did make one shot on a Colorado Elk at 411 yards with the same 7 mag. I only took that shot because I had a boulder for a rest and I lasered the Elk to know the exact range and my 7 mag shoots right on my ballistics table to 350 yards. so I aimed at the top of the shoulder blade and touched' er off.

But in all of these I'd have prefered to be closer. In Colorado and Arizona there isn't usually much to hide behind for a slow stalk so you move fast and take the shots that are offered when you can.

In 35 years of hunting I've only lost one Deer, a whitetail in Michigan with my Hawken at about 60 yards. Blood trail ran out after 200 yards and it died crossing the river. I tracked it to the river but didn't find it then. I did find it in the spring though.
__________________
Was that 5 or 6? So do ya feel lucky punk? Well do ya....
azwizard is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.03645 seconds with 8 queries