TerryM

I think you owe it to the animal you hunt to actually shoot from your treestand to sight in and understand what the arrow does with the angle you are at. All the theory is great but take a shot and see for yourself at different ranges from the tree. You can also attach some flagging tape to mark out the distances when in the stand.

Arthur P

Well, if you want to do things the EASY way, that's what you'd do. But where's the fun in that?[8D]

Actually, in my last post I was just explaining why .308hunter's method works, which was dohcrxl's followup question.

ButchA

Exactly right... Let's simplify Arthur P's thread and break out a calculator for a second:

Deer = 25 yards away.
You = 22' up in a tree stand (7.33333 yards to be exact).

25 yards squared is 625 (a^2)
7.33 yards squared is 53.77 (b^2)
-------------------------
-------Total:-----> 678.77 (c^2)

Now do a simple square root of 678.77 -----> 26.05 total yards

dohcrxl

Mr.D, I was thinking sdrawkcab when I thought to use my 40 yd pin at a 5yd deer. It's the other way around, I should actually be using my 20 pin butaiming 4-6 inches low from the intended mark. Correct?

Arthur P, your mention of the Pythagorean Theorum leads me to believe that it doesn't matter how high you are in the tree, you must always shoot at the deer depending on how far it is from the base of the tree. As of right now, it makes perfect sense to me because in your example, even though the arrow is flying a total of 14 yards, when measured in the total amount of HORIZONTAL distance traveled, it's only 10 yds. This 10 yds represents the amount of time ordistance gravity has to work on pulling the arrow down.

MarineStud

Ok, i read this post earlier and went out and did a little experiment. I got on my roof and shot from there at a target 20 yards away. As long as i bent at the waist like stated and i hit dead on everytime and i sighted my bowin on the ground. This was the first time shooting from an elevated platform since i switched to fixed pins, i use to use a pendulum. so i have to agree with the guys that said bending at the waist is important causeit made a difference with me

dohcrxl

I believe this advice from these seasoned hunters about bending at the waist also. I just don't see how bending makes for better form. In my inexperienced eyes I see standing straight up as better posture andthus better form. Anyone care to straighten or rather in this case bend me the right way?

MR.D

If you dont bend at the waistyou will not have the same anchor point and believeme, I know from experience. Last year I missed a 9 pointer at 3 yds and 22 ft up. That is why this year I installed a kisser button. When the kisser is in the corner of my mouth the only way I could make a severe downward shot is to bend at the waist. The kisser forces the bend if you know what I mean.

ButchA

Oops..... I just re-edited my previous post. I had a major error in the 22' calculation thinking it was 22 yards. Good God, back to school for me... [:-][&o]

If you're 22 feet up in a tree and shoot at a deer 25 yards away, you still use the 25 yard pin and bend from the waist a little.

Arthur P

The idea is to maintain the good "T" position with your shoulders while keeping the shoulders in alignment with the target. That's always true, whether you're shooting on level ground, uphill or downhill.

If you just elevate or depress the bow arm for shooting uphill or downhill, your shoulders are no longer aligned with the target. That means you won't hold as steady, your draw length will be shorter (which will move your anchor back an inch or more!) and you won't ever be able to keep proper back tension.

Instead of using your arms to point the bow at the target, you point your shoulders at the target and then aim the bow.

If you're not very high in the tree and the shot angle is fairly shallow, you might not have to bend at the waist at all. You can bend the front knee instead. That way you just lean the entire "T" toward the target.

danowak

This is actually very simple. The distance from the base of the tree to the deer is the only distance you need to worry about. Gravity will act on an arrow traveling parallel to the ground exactly the same over the same horizontal distance as it does travelling at a downward angle. The angle does not matter as far as the effect of gravity is concerned. Trust me on this. What does matter is how you release the arrow from the bow.

If you bend from the waist to account for the downward angle, your arms will be in the same position relative to the bow as if you were shooting level (ie.If you picture a line drawn through the middle of your bodyfrom your waist to the top of your head, your arrow will be perpendicular to that line, and your front arm will be too). If you don't bend from the waist, in order to accomodate the downward angle, you will have to drop your front arm downward to make a downward shot. This will change the position of your arms relative to the bow (ie. picturing that same line through your body, now the arrow will be at a downward angle relative to that line and your front arm will betoo). There will also be changes in the position of your back arm in the two differnt scenarios, changing your release. All of these changes in position will change your anchor point and effect your aim.

Having said all that, it would seem that if you sight your bow in to a yardage on the ground, and you have good form in the tree (ie. bending at the waist), the arrow should hit the same spot on your target at the same ground distance regardless of whether you are standing on the ground or are up in a tree (no matter how far up). While this is theoretically correct, I have found that in practice it is not exactly true, especially with broadheads. Therefore, I practice from a height equivalent to my treestand height with broadheads using the same arrows I will use for hunting.

Under these circumstances I have found that, for me, my broadheads hit a little lower than my field points from a stand than from the ground at distances 30 yards and over, and the same arrows with the same broadheads hit a little lower from a stand than from the ground at distances 30 yards and over. Point being that everyone releases their arrows a little differently under different circumstances, and if you don't practice shooting under those diffferent circumstances you don't really know what will happen when you do. After practice shooting all of my hunting arrows with my hunting broadheads under hunting conditions (including wearing the same clothes), I have a lot of confidence that when I am actually shooting at an animal I know exactly will happen at every yardage I will be shooting from, at every angle I will be shooting from. Physics matters a lot less to me than experience because the less I have to think, the better off I am when it comes time to squeeze the trigger.