Bow shooting

[Shaggy2]

New bow hunter.

I bought a used bow this year from a family friend. I have spent many hours shooting and feel fairly confident in my ability to shoot acurratly from 30 yards. I was set up in a ground blind in a revine on the other side of the revine approximately 25 yards is a major deer corridor. I had a buck step into the shooting lane. I was very confident on this shot, appeared very easy and a shot I am very confident in.

Any ways I shot and missed low, shot under the buck, shot placement was good but I was way low. This really surprised me because I am so acurate in practice. Any suggestions on what happened. The deer was level with me as I was hunting on the ground.

[Jeepnut]

Could be any number of things I guess; dropping your bow arm in the excitement of the shot, arrow deflected by something, hunting clothes could have interfered if you're not used to practicing in them, your sight pins got bumped on the way to your stand(have you checked them since?), etc.
But my first guess would be that the shot was further than the 25 yards you estimated it to be.
Just a guess. Maybe others will be more helpful.

[CLOUD 9, MN]

First, if your comfortable shooting to 30 yards on the range, then you probably want to set your hunting limit at 20 or maybe 25 yard max.

Second, begginer bowhunters biggest mistake is judging distance. Some bow set-ups are more forgiving. Really fast bows shoot flatter(mine has 3 1/2" drop at 30 yards) and if you have a slower bow shooting a heavy arrow, judging distance is crucial, you have to be exact!

Third, you said this was on the ground. If your going to stand hunt, make sure you practice from your treestand height. Some "set-ups" are very differant elevated.

Good Luck!! You'll get'em next time!!


PRACTICE....PRACTICE....PRACTICE......SUCCESS!

[Nic Barca]

Could be possible that you didn't pick a spot. Often when you are used to aiming at a target with a bullzeye and you don't pick a spot at an animal, the arrow flies way off.

But that might not be the problem because you only shot low. Usually not picking a spot will result in a way off to the side, high or low shot. Simply shooting under the animal could be caused by many things.

To add to Jeepnut's ideas, your peep sight could have slid down, you could have flat plain missed, or you could have hit a blade of grass or an obstacle in the field.

Did you test your broadheads? I hope your broadhead isn't heavier than your field points. Maybe your rest is slightly low or your nock is too high resulting in broadheads flying low.

You probably just flat plain missed. It happenes to the best.

Nic

[BGfisher]

I'll suggest that you forgot to follow through properly. Dropped your bowarm and watched the arrow instead of concentrating on where you were aiming.

[Bees]

Shaggy: When you say your accurate in pratice, I take it that means with field tipped arrows. Now what kind of broadhead were you using? If it was a fixed broad head they sometimes will impact low if your setup is not tuned for them. So to try an answear your question we need to know if you tuned your bow for the type of broadhead you were using. If you didn't you need too. If you did, then its more a question of form or yardage estimate.