Working Comfort Zone for Deer Hunting

Over on Turkey and Turkey Hunting, I was trying this past season to come up with a rational way to discuss the range at which we shoot turkeys. A lot of guys go out turkey hunting with guns rigged for 70 yards, but never get a shot at turkeys closer than 20-40. I try and ask a similar question here every year. Usually the poll is something like “How close do you shoot your deer?” This year, I’d like to try and adapt the “Working Comfort Zone” that I proposed at T&TH to deer hunting.

First off, think about all the deer you have shot and the distance they were shot. This is not just about kills, but about shots– times in which you were confident enough to turn off the safety and let fly. There may be a couple that went a bit too far or that you thought were risky going in. We’ll throw those out– we’re not discussing maximum range here. I know there are those of you who have rigs that are lethal out to 300 yards , and you feel confident with them. That’s a different question. This is something different. Take a look at the closest 80% of your shots. What was the distance? We’ll call that “Working Comfort Zone.”

I will give you a neat example. Let’s just say you have 20 lifetime shots on whitetails. Some were misses. You throw in the doe you lost in muzzleloader season 15 years ago. You leave out the buck you thought was at 200 yards, but was really 400 yards– whatever. This isn’t meant to be an agonizing reappraisal of your life. You take 5 minutes and jot down 20 yardages on the back of an envelope like this:

5
15
36
120 *
15
3
22
40
65
70 !
180 *
45
24
65
35
22
40
90 *
170 *
21

Don’t take an average. That takes too much brain power. Instead, look at differently. You have 20 shots here. 20% of 20 is 4. I marked the top 4 yardages with a “*”. The next highest is 70 yards (!) That is your “Working Comfort Zone.” In essense, what that says is that due to your choice of weapons, your level of practice, and the shots the deer present to you, you are comfortable shooting in about a 70 yard radius. Me? I’ve got a WCZ of 80 yards– just did the figgering myself. That’s about what I expected.

Now this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go cap a buck at 200 yards this year, or that shooting deer at 300 yards is bad. It doesn’t mean I’m a better shooter for having a WCZ of 80. It just means you generally take deer at about 70 yards or less.

Where I think this is important is to give you a better idea of what is a real expectation of your deer hunting. 80% of your shots are probably going to be inside that WCZ.

It may help shape your decisions on weapons choice , i.e. “Do I need a 200 yard muzzleloader?”
It may help shape your practice “Do I need to practice at 50 yards with my crossbow?”
It may help shape you choice of future shots.
It may help with your stand position: “Why worry about extending my shooting lane to 100 yards?”

So here comes the annual shamanic deer poll question: “What’s your WCZ?”

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