90 yd. shot with bow?

[sirmissalot]

Absolutely not. I had the biggest Rosy of my life 91 yards perfectly broadside and didn't even think about a shot. Hitting it would not have been hard. Hitting it lethally would have been a different story. 

Some people are just completely full of it. And/or stupid.

[Gobble Gobble]

   this dude eerks me and I must break his post down and rant about each part of it.
 
 

"I posted this situation cause I am ashamed it happened.

Really!?! I find that hard to believe. 
 
 

  I really don't care that some of you feel like you need to reassure me that my wide open broadside 90 yard shot was a bad choice. Thanks guys, I am aware.

 
It's obvious he doesn't care what people think.
 

However I had a pass through and I will post pictures of my victory armor piercing arrow if u don't believe me.

Great at least he shot a sharp BH that had enough energy left to pass through. I bet it wouldn't have if he hit bone.
 

I have an adjustable sight and ranged the bear every step. I just hit the bear a touch back and the alder brush hillsides of north Idaho can prove to be impenetrable at times when your trying to track blood.

An adjustable site is better than a fixed pin?
He hit a bit back because he took a shot 30 yrds farther than what he has practiced!
He should have just said "I didn't try looking because I'm lazy and it was hot."
 

I was practicing 60 yard shots at camp that same day so my confidence in my equipment was high.

Confidence in equipment and competence in skill are two different things.
 
 

I would not shoot an elk that far not because of the skill but because I care much more for the hunt of the animal. Yes there all animals but we do not have a hurting bear population and I never actually hunt specifically for bears since i don't care to eat one.

He wont shoot an elk at 90 yrds because he cares about them enough to get 30 yrds closer because he has practiced at 60yrds in camp.
This gives him the    to shoot at ranges beyond what he will shoot an elk at.
He doesn't hunt for them specifically because he "doesn't care to eat them."  Then why take the shot in the first place! So he didn't go look for the bear not because he was lazy and it was hot but because he doesn't like to way they taste.
 

I don't trophy hunt for bear, I have passed up many of bears in many of sizes and given the right day id shoot any of them or walk away from them.

And he didn't walk away this day why?
 

Remember I am not just shooting bears and leaving them.lol.

Yes, he did because he said he doesn't care to eat one and he is "lol" about leaving it.
 

I am very honest and as you can tell from this post I don't care to only share successful stories to make people think that I am perfect or better than I am.

It's obvious he thinks he is better than everyone cuz he hit a bear at 90 yrds broadside.
 

I have shot at more animals and bigger animals than I have hit and the farthest shot before this was 60 yards.

Another example of the difference between confidence in equipment and competence in skill.
 

There's many more important steps before making a shot then how long it is. Knowing exact range, knowing clear shooting lane, waiting for animal to give proper shot angle, and much more...

Knowing exact distance is number one for me because if its beyond my set limit for a shot then the rest doesn't mean crap.
 

I have made many of these mistakes because I felt I could do them at 3d shoots all day long, but over the years I have proven to myself that I am far from perfect and I sometimes jump the gun. It's learning curve that I have choose to learn the hard way."

Only about 10% of setups shoot dead on between field points and broadheads. I'm sure his setup is not in the 10%. Another reason archers wound game they get an over inflated sense of confidence when shooting fieldpoints. There great for practice but its a BH that is going to harvest the animal and I personally spend more time shooting them than fieldpoints.
If saying he is far from perfect helps him sleep at night then to each his own and he jumped the gun BIG time in my opinion.
His learning curve looks more like a circle to me as he said he chooses to learn the hard way and not from others mistakes. Someone tell this person to NOT STEP IN FRONT OF A TRAIN AS IT COULD CAUSE HARM TO THE TRAIN.
 

[Johnb317]

Can't keep quiet on this one.... kinetic energy, accuracy etc. all take a back seat to the issue that at 90 yards it's going to take the arrow... let's say it's blazing 300 ft./second time lag decision to release and release.... so what? 1.5  seconds   that's a lot of time for the animal to take a step and it's a miss... or worse gut shot.
Most of us won't take a shot at a facing animal, but if you're hot enough to take a 90 yard shot... why not?  (retorical question)
As has been said before can you make the shot ... should you make the shot.
That's where that word ethics comes into play.
imho...   btw - 50 is my self imposed max and that would depend too.

[sirmissalot]

The problem is too many people dust off their bow 2 weeks before season ( or wose yet, go out and buy a bow), shoot 10 arrows (maybe) and say... "I am ready ... hit that pie plate 3 times at 40 yards... shoot even hit it a couple of times at 50"... then think they can effectively shoot an animal at those distances.  WHat is the cure?  No clue but its not just "bowhunters", go to any rifle range a week before modern season.... YIKES!

You're exactly right. Its not fair to the animals.

I had a friend who was new to hunting tag along with me last year. I watched him shoot and we practiced a lot. He proved to me he was a good shot, shooting better than me even at several 3d shoots. Opening day of deer I spot a spike buck in a vulnerable spot, tell him where to go and I pushed the deer to him, 16 yards away my buddy stops the buck with a grunt (just like he saw on tv) deer stops perfectly broadside and he shoots it... right through the guts. Needless to say we never found the poor deer. The next weekend we see a nice little 2 point with an eye guard "he's 33 yards take your time hes not going anywhere" TWACK he shoots right over the buck. The little buck runs a little and stops, back to feeding. "42 yards, take your time and kill him" My buddy shoots high and barely clips his back. Not sure what the moral of this story is other than buck fever can suck, and I don't know how to cure it other than with experience. All three shots were well within both of our comfort zones, and the deer cooperated perfectly. As archers and successful hunters we have probably all missed our share of animals, stretching the limits of ourselves and our equipment out to yardages like 70,80,90+ yards increases the chances of not only missing, but wounding an animal. Unfortunately I know the feeling of not finding an animal which you know is mortally wounded, its a sick and horrible feeling I hope to never feel again.

[throttlejocky20]

If you dont have respect for the animals you are hunting as this guy dosent than you need to get the hell ou tof the woods.

[goosegetter79]

This is the part of his post that pi$$ed me off the most.


"I would not shoot an elk that far not because of the skill but because I care much more for the hunt of the animal. Yes there all animals but we do not have a hurting bear population and I never actually hunt specifically for bears since i don't care to eat one."

[Lowedog]

A Candid Interview With Chuck Adams  http://bowsite.com/bowsite/features/interviews/chuckadams/

You have been highly criticized for writing about shots deemed unethical by the NBEF - and other bowhunting writers.  Has your opinion changed about taking long shots?

In a nutshell, I guess my feeling about longer range shooting is this:  Some people earn the right to shoot farther than other people because they work harder at becoming good shots.  If you don’t feel that you need to shoot beyond 20 or 25 yards and never practice beyond 20-25 yards, that’s fine. 

The late great Fred Bear made no bones about shooting an animal with his recurve bow up to 60 yards or more.  Saxton Pope and Art Young collaborated on the fourth biggest grizzly bear in Pope and Young which they killed somewhere around 70 yards with a longbow.  It's ironic that today, where the equipment is more accurate than ever before, there are bow hunters who get genuinely upset when they hear about somebody shooting beyond 30 or 35 yards.  I don’t quite honestly understand that.  When you look at official Pope & Young statistics on animals entered in the record book it's a real eye-opener too.  For example many of the top record book mule deer in Pope & Young where shot beyond 40 or 50 yards.  Many of the rocky mountain goats, dall sheep, bighorn sheep and stone sheep in the book were shot beyond 40 or 50 yards.  Fred Bear shot his former world record stone sheep at 60 yards with his recurve bow and he made no apologizes for that and killed it dead.

[Button Nubbs]

And fred bear also wounded/missed a lot of animals. Not taking anything away from the guy, he's probably the main reason we get to bowhunt today. I'm just sayin....

[lokidog]

A Candid Interview With Chuck Adams  http://bowsite.com/bowsite/features/interviews/chuckadams/

You have been highly criticized for writing about shots deemed unethical by the NBEF - and other bowhunting writers.  Has your opinion changed about taking long shots?

In a nutshell, I guess my feeling about longer range shooting is this:  Some people earn the right to shoot farther than other people because they work harder at becoming good shots.  If you don’t feel that you need to shoot beyond 20 or 25 yards and never practice beyond 20-25 yards, that’s fine. 

The late great Fred Bear made no bones about shooting an animal with his recurve bow up to 60 yards or more.  Saxton Pope and Art Young collaborated on the fourth biggest grizzly bear in Pope and Young which they killed somewhere around 70 yards with a longbow.  It's ironic that today, where the equipment is more accurate than ever before, there are bow hunters who get genuinely upset when they hear about somebody shooting beyond 30 or 35 yards.  I don’t quite honestly understand that.  When you look at official Pope & Young statistics on animals entered in the record book it's a real eye-opener too.  For example many of the top record book mule deer in Pope & Young where shot beyond 40 or 50 yards.  Many of the rocky mountain goats, dall sheep, bighorn sheep and stone sheep in the book were shot beyond 40 or 50 yards.  Fred Bear shot his former world record stone sheep at 60 yards with his recurve bow and he made no apologizes for that and killed it dead.

Just because it CAN be done by some doesn't mean it SHOULD be done by all or even most....  I took a 100 yard shot once at an elk, BUT, it was already wounded with a liver hit.  I shaved it's chest just low.  I had also been shooting to 100 yards that year, accurately.  I would never have shot at a healthy elk past fifty yards, but that was MY ethical limit.  Another year I limited my shots to 30 yards because my bow had been acting up as I could not get decent groups past that distance, later found that it had a crack in one of the forks....     I did end up getting a decent little bull though.   

[Stilly bay]

BOWHUNTING IS ABOUT RESTRAINT. all modern technology does is help us bend the rules and cut the corners on a season that was built around added challenge of hunting with primitive gear. these days it seems its only about shooting deer at a different time of the season with a cumbersome contraption that has more doo dads stuck to it than a twista-ma-whirl to make each shot so easy even the most maladroit of undedicated yuppies can participate - instead of an elegant historically correct piece of handmade equipment that requires you to be within spitting distance of your target, which requires mucho skill BTW.

then again what do I know, if I am not mistaken some of the first bow seasons were instituted by a couple of felons who could no longer legally shoot guns in the US, So they bent the rules to continue hunting.