I know of 3 nice mule deer 4x4 bucks that came out of southern Idaho archery hunts, all with 80+ yard shots.
One guy I don’t know well shot one at over 100 yards (supposedly) and I suspect he just put his 80 yard pin 5 feet over the bucks’s back and let ‘er rip. I have a pic of that buck alive somewhere when I jumped him pheasant hunting near Rupert earlier in the year.
The other two bucks came out of the Owyhees from a hunter I have known for years. I would trust that guy to take a responsible 80 yard shot with a bow way before I’d trust the vast majority of rifle hunters to take a 100 yard shot.
I guess that is my way of saying, I see long range bow hunting just like long range rifle hunting. Some can responsibly do it, and some shouldn’t even have a tag. It is what it is. I am not the one who should decide who is who.
