Crossbow shot distance

I just bought a new Tenpoint Turbo M1 Crossbow that shoots 380 fps (the salesman told me it shoots 425). It's been almost 20 years since I bow hunted and I am getting different answers to just how far is a reasonable shot. Apologies if this has been beat to death on here previously, but assuming I can shoot very accurately and consistent, what distance should you keep a crossbow shot at 380 fps, 30, 40, 50, 60? Thanks in advance!

For deer I keep shots inside 30 yards. They are not quiet and deer do tend to get into action quickly.

I have killed pigs at 70+ but they are not as apt to "jump the string" as deer are.

We have a couple Ghost 425’s but they were pretty loud so I bought a Raven 500E last week and it’s pretty dang quiet, I shot a doe at 59 yards this morning and she never flinched before the shaft hit her. IMO it all depends on the deer and if they know somethings not right and are acting sketchy. If thr acting nervous I wouldn’t shoot more than 30-40 yards but If thr calm I’d send it to 60 yards without hesitation.

Agree, found that even with speed of xbow, the deer will jump the string and anything past 30 yards is chancy. 40 for turkeys. Hogs, who cares, I will shoot at longer yardage if given the shot.

Anything past 30 yards there is no guarantee that the deer will still be standing where you shot.

I agree with most of the above. Im new to bow and xbow hunting and I limit my shots to 30 yards. With more experience I may change but thats where Im at now. No doubt they can be accurate at long distance but as others have said, the animal is not necessarily a stationary target like paper is.

With a bow, I limit myself to 40 yards. That said, the longest shot I have taken at a deer is 35 yards. My advice would fall somewhere between Kmon1 and old thumper. I wouldn't take a shot at a deer at 60 yards regardless of how calm, but yes, they are more likely to jump the string at 30-40 if they are already twitchy. I know, I am shooting a bow, and you are shooting a crossbow, but they are similar enough IMO.

At one time PSE made a large crossbow that actually shot 28 inch arrows @400fps and did it quite well but wasn't quiet. I know a guy that shot lots of deer with his at the same feeder he hunted at with the rifle and shots were about 100 yards. He said there gets to be a distance where they do not react to the shot by running but more likely to lift their head looking for what is that over there that made that noise. Calm deer at 100 yards he said was easy. I told him I would still be worried about that step they might take while the arrow was on the way turning a kill shot into a gut shot. He said he worried about that but had not had it happen.

The year I got my crossbow I tried a shot on a 4.5 year old 10pt that got out of the way easily at 40 yards form a bolt that started out at 330fps.

Ethical shot is the question. I just bought a PSE Fang HD and I have already decided that 30 yards for deer will be my max. Not much difference from 20 to 30, but quite a bit of difference from 30-40 for deer to jump the string due to hearing the bow when it is shot. Let your conscience be your guide and happy hunting.

Even at 30 yards you should aim a bit low, often a deer will start to spring and you don't see it. Set your crossbow up with both string silencers and the limbsaver limb silencers. Makes a lot of difference.

Wow, not quite what I expected, but aligned with my original feelings. I was expecting most to say up to 60 yards. I was sitting in the tree yesterday looking at my 30 yard marker (pine log), and then looking at my 40 yard mark (where I've been dumping corn before I knew I was going to be using a crossbow) and thinking that 40 yards was too far, for me anyways. Thanks for the responses. Wasn't going to buy a crossbow, but two beasts showed up on the corn pile, so I went and bought one!

I much prefer a 20 yard shot. A lot less things go wrong.

depends on the level of crossbow you have and how much you practice with it. i still hunt with a vertical bow(kick myself for not switching, when its so quite you cant even move no way to draw)but i witnessed a doe get killed at 112 yards with a raven cross bow and guy had 100 percent confindence in his shot. i was mind blown.

I wpupd shoot at 35ish yards, but not much further. If i am
Hunting and deer are suspicious then i am wrong. My goal is for them not to know what hit them.

Having said that, too many variables with bow hunting, and the noise hits the deer before the bolt (reverse for a rifle) so i want as perfect a shot as possible, esp on a good buck. My crossbow is a good one, and hasn’t failed me yet, but i don’t push my limits. I am willing to let a good buck walk away uninjured rather than hurt one and make it suffer.

Set your limits, understand your xbow (you have a good one in ten point) and the environmental factors, and you will do well. Just move your corn pile closer. I would move the pile to 20-25 yards, line it out so the deer will likely eat standing broadside (straight line going away from your stand), and you’ll be golden. Also, wait for that front leg to step forward, dont make the shot harder by trying to go through the shoulder blade.

It not that a crossbow can't shoot a deer at 40, 50 or more yards it is going to be on the deer. Some deer are jumpy and spookier than other deer so you have to read the individual deer. I was hunting one particular buck and I knew he was going to jump the string so I limited my shot to 25 yds or under. I had him several times for 28 days at 28 yards to 40 yards. I would not take the shot, when he finally got to 25 yards after a month of hunting him, I took the shot. He still ducked but it hit him 3" higher than were I aimed. I was shooting an Excalibur that was shooting around 325 fps. That xbow would shoot tight groups at 40 yards but I would never take shot on a deer at that range...it was to loud.

One other thing on deer position, wait until the deer has it head up. The leg covers less of the vitals and the reaction time is a little slower with the head up or at least that is what a lot of videos show.

Well, I'm watching a corn pile right now at 25 yards, unfortunately that's all I'm watching. That and the limb hanging between me and the pile since I dumped it before daylight!
I think I'll head back to the bowshop and get silencers installed too. The guy claimed to be a big bow hunter, so I told him to just figure he had my wallet and rig me up where I don't have to come back....he said the bow could be de-cocked, it can't, he was wrong on the speed, he said you couldn't switch the trigger to the lefthand side, wrong again. Oh, and no case. Guess he didn't understand rig me up! Maybe they know how to put silencers on....thanks to all for the advice.

Anything you put on the string to silence is going to slow it down. I’d leave it alone.

Im really inexperienced with this but "I was told" that the newer and higher end xbows dont need silencing, or cant be silenced much. Not that they are quiet, but as quiet as they are gonna get. ???
I shoot a Mission Sub 1 XR and its supposed to shoot a little over 400 fps and it groups not much over an inch. I limit shots to 30 yards with a very solid rest at a calm deer and Im hoping/thinking he wont duck the shot. I still shoot a little low but if he doesnt move it should still be a kill.

I have not shot a Darton crossbow in a while but they were by far the quietest crossbows I ever shot. First one we had out on the range guy that had worked there a while thought it was a vertical compound based on noise.

Heck with it. I'll shoot as is. Not like a deer at 30 yards isn't going to hear a crossbow that is just a "little" quieter.

Go back and watch some of the old Truth videos showing a deer reacting to a shot in slow motion. It's incredible how much one can drop without you even being able to see it as it happens.

^^^Agree with this big time. You just have to watch videos of a deer being shot at with a bow to believe how quick and how far they can move. It will(should) completely change folks mind about how serious to take everything about your shot when bow hunting.