Best Long range bow

vcb

WKR
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Feb 24, 2012
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Hey what do you think are the most important characteristics of a great shooting long range bow?
-7" + brace.
-Longer ata.
 

Segan

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Apr 29, 2012
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It depends on what you are trying to do? Are you shooting target or hunting? Shooting long range in my opinion is more of the set up of your bow. FPS on your bow peep height, sight adjustment and housing size arrow weight. Find a bow that shoots good to you and go from there. I have messed around with long range arrow flight. I wanted to shoot 200 yards so I installed another peep in my string it's about 1 5/8" above my other one with my slide sight on 140 yards I'm pretty close at 200 with my top peep. When you do this you loose your anchor point and have to anchor lower. My current setup I'm shooting around 290 fps and roughly a 400 gn arrow. Your kinetic energy goes way down at extended ranges. Not sure what your trying to do or if any of this helps or not.
 

RosinBag

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I think you need to define long range. My slider goes out to 125 on my hunting rig and the target is pretty small looking to me.
 
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yes 7+ BH, longer ata, heavy stabilizer, adjustable sight

but most importantly, you need to tighten the nut behind the string. See threads like this a lot, a bow is not like a rifle, you cannot just buy the nicest, most expensive gear and start hammering away at 100+ yards. You will nood to know how to super tune your own bow, you will need to know how to continually monitor your tune, you will need to match the spine/weight/foc of your arrow to optimally be able to get consistent flight, and you MUST put in tons and tons of practice, all year long, indoor and out, working on form and fundamentals.

Just because you can "dial in" 175 zillion yards on your pre printed hunting sight tape, does NOT mean that you you are ready to shoot that far.

Joe
 

c5mrr270

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Definitely agree with squeekie. Any errors in form will be magnified greatly at 100+ yards, you need to have good, repeatable, solid form or your setup won't matter.
 
Joined
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Don't think there is a magic ATA number, or brace height. But longer is usually better. A few things I believe to be important are to make sure you draw length is set right, your bow is timed correct, and if you are going to shoot "long range" your arrow needs to have some weight and a touch more FOC. A slider would be helpful, sight that is, or spend a lot of time learning how to stack. Draw weight is important to. Make sure you are not pull to much weight.

I also feel that people should learn how to time, or tune there own rig when they start shooting further, especially if you intend to put a BH on and use it. A few twist of the cables here and there make night and day differences.
 
Joined
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yes 7+ BH, longer ata, heavy stabilizer, adjustable sight

but most importantly, you need to tighten the nut behind the string. See threads like this a lot, a bow is not like a rifle, you cannot just buy the nicest, most expensive gear and start hammering away at 100+ yards. You will nood to know how to super tune your own bow, you will need to know how to continually monitor your tune, you will need to match the spine/weight/foc of your arrow to optimally be able to get consistent flight, and you MUST put in tons and tons of practice, all year long, indoor and out, working on form and fundamentals.

Just because you can "dial in" 175 zillion yards on your pre printed hunting sight tape, does NOT mean that you you are ready to shoot that far.

Joe

I am glade some else wrote something like this. Had my cyber azz handed to me once for saying I didn't think to highly of a certain guy off a TV hunting show shooting a sheep at 90 yards. We can't take a bow to a "bow smith" and have him square the face of our riser and set our rests to .0002 of the centerline of the cams. Shooting long range with a rifle has a the ability to be more consistent, and have a repeatable shot than a bow. There is a lot that can happen to your arrow when trying to get your pin to settle on your target at 100 yards, and trying squeeze off a good shot. Don't get me wrong, practice at longer distances to improve form, this helps make the closer shots somewhat easier. Be very mindful of letting that BH loose at a animal at "long range".
 

Matt W.

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Rebecca should chime in here.. She made a great shot on a Ram at I think 70 yards. ?? Would be interesting to hear her take...
 
Joined
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Before I get slammed again for someone shooting an animal at X yard, everyone is free to shoot what they want at what ever distance they want. I just want to point out there needs to be a lot of practice, tuning, and good conditions. Respect your effective shooting distance, and the animal.
 
OP
vcb

vcb

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Let me define a few items. Yes, just a hunting setup. Don't worry Not a dumb axx. Have been bowhunting for 31yrs. Long range to me is 80yds or less. Any more than that you can probably still army crawl closer:) Just making sure I am not overlooking any pieces of the puzzle. Will probably invest in my first slider on my new rig this next year.
 

J-Daddy

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For me I like a little longer AtoA length...It makes for a more stable bow with less torque in it. I do a lot of long range practice in the summer and I've always shot longer bows better than short ones. I used to stay with stuff in the 37"-38" range, I have dropped down to stuff in the 34"-35" range now.
I've owned numerous bows in the 33" and shorter range and still shot them fine but just not as well as I do the longer stuff at long range.
 

J-Daddy

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It's just a matter of getting past the "I gotta have a short bow" mentality...Perfect example. Buddy of mine in Iowa, he always buys bows in the 32"-33" range...He's a pretty big guy and he does shoot them well but I let him shoot a 37" bow I had a couple years ago and even though the draw length was to short for him, the anchor point "peep height" was off for him and the sights didn't match his setting within a few shots he had it figured out where he needed to aim and he was stacking arrows at 70yds with it. I told him he shot my bow better than any bow I've ever seen him shoot of his own..He laughed and agreed but then said "Yeah but this thing is to long, no way I'd own one". These days everybody is brainwashed into thinking they have to have a 30" bow to hunt with for some reason.
 

SDHNTR

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The best long range bow is the one in the hands of the most practiced long range shooter.
 

Jared Bloomgren

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How is that said....the best hunter knows his limitations. Practice is what increases accuracy and you can never practice enough. What I am comfortable shooting may not be what the next guy is but I have practiced extensively at longer yardage. This makes those 60 yard shots that much more viable. I shoot at a target at much greater distances than I would at an animal. I know I would take some heat for some shots I have taken at longer yardages but I also know my limitations and my equipment very well. Another thing to think about is the animals behavior. That is a huge variable to consider. A calm animal offer more to be desired than one on edge. One other thing....I will never loosen an arrow that I know won't make a clean kill.

My bow is just short of 35" ata, 5 1/2" brace height and shooting 330 fps. My most accurate bow to date.
 
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