Ive heard a couple different opinions when it comes to this but if a deer is out in front of you do you have to compensate for being 20 feet up in a tree or is the true distance the distance from the base of your tree to the deer?

There is a small difference. I aim a little low. Well i haven't shot at a deer with a bow yet but I have a 15 ft stand set up in my yard and i have been practicing on it.They make a new range finder thatjudges all that for you, only problem is I can't afford to buy anything right now!

It's the horizontal distance from the base of the tree to your target spot on the deer. That reading from 20 ft up a tree will be off from thehorizontal distance. Forinstance, a 20 yard reading up a tree will be more like 16 or 18 yards when on the ground.

Why do you use the distance from the base of the tree instead of where you are 15 ft up?
I would think you'd use the actual distance that your arrow would travel to hit it's target.

Gravity works in a line perpendicualr to the surface of the Earth. You want to know the distance that gravity is going to be working on your arrow, not necessarily the straight line shot distance. It's really pretty miniscule for treestand heights. Where it starts making things difficult is in steep mountainous terrain.

bend at the waist and get your same true solid anchor and then judge the distance. from normal hunting height upto 25foot or so youll only be a yard or so off i believe. run the Pythagorean(SP) Therom(sp again lol) A^2+B^2=C^2 its been a while since i had a math class...dont ask me what A B and C are lol...but its been worked out before...you wont be off far enough to make a diffrence..exspecially with today bows. but yes the way to measure is indeed from the base of your tree...how to figure that out 25 foot high is beyond me unless you range areas from the ground before you climb. sure fire way.....get em between 5-15yds or 20yds depending on how flat you bow shoots and put you top pin on him and smoke him!

At 20' and a 20 yard distance it is only 1 yard difference.

Line of sight distance is not "actual" distance....It's a triangle.....Base of the tree to target is "actual" yardage....But the biggest reason people shoot high out of a tree is because the drop their bow arm to compensate for the downward angle instead of bending at the waist.

For the overwhelming amount of hunting with a gun or bow, that most people do, there is no need to spend money for an angle compensating range finder. As Kodiak said, that would be helpful in mountainous terrain, shooting ridge to ridge, and the such. But the typical elevation changes most people find themselves hunting in, it will not change the range much at all. Usually just aiming a little low on the deer will suffice. In fact it is usually good to aim a bit low anyway. I think people sometimes forget about the way deer duck down or squat, at the sound of the bow being shot. I think thats why a lot of deer are hit high, and people have problems with recovery of their deer. I always aim a couple of inches low, and if the deer doesn't squat, or not much, I am still in the boiler room. If it does squat, I am still in good shape for a double lung.

I don't like it when misinformation is posted and I know it wasn't intentional, and don't take this the wrong way but that is a major difference. 20' up and laser ranging a deer reading 20 yards, that animal will be 19 yards away, the difference is rarely ever over 2 yards, not 4 yards, that's huge when it comes to bow trajectory.

There is rarely ever more than 2 yards difference in bow ranges. Bend at the waist an aim for the exit hole.