SHOOTING FROM A TREE STAND
 

Hello Everyone, I have a question for ya!!!! I am new into hunting and have a question about shooting from a tree stand using a compound bow!!
How do you aim from a tree stand if you have to aim any different at all? Would greatly appreciate it if someone would help me with this - Thank You

Rich

RE: SHOOTING FROM A TREE STANDING
 

Welcome to the forums!!

No, you don't need to aim any differently. Some say that you need to aim lower because of the difference in trajectory and yada yada yada.....Form is the most critical component, especially from an elevated position. The tendancy is for people to lower their bow arm to get on target instead of keeping their uppy body square and bending at the waist. By lowering your bow arm you will hit high. Bend at the waist and you'll be spot on!

RE: SHOOTING FROM A TREE STANDING
 

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP

RE: SHOOTING FROM A TREE STANDING
 

DITTO what mobowhuntrsaid

RE: SHOOTING FROM A TREE STANDING
 

Aim for the heart, that way you have room for error. You might hit high sometimes but you will still get the lungs. Good luck.

RE: SHOOTING FROM A TREE STANDING
 

OK, I guess I'll be the guy to say it is different, but it's really just a matter of perception and anunderstanding of one simple physics rule...

Gravity only acts on an object over the horizontal portion of its travel.
:eek:Let me come back to that in a minute. It's not as bad as it sounds.

OK, lets first asume that you are bending at the waist and usinggood form as suggested above by Mobow, and that you are interested in knowing exactly where you are going to hit when you aim at your deer instead of simply aiming low and hoping to hit high, which I'll assume is the reason you asked the question in the first place. :eek:
I'm very tired, so bear with me here. Notice the time. I should be in bed, but the wife is aleady asleep, so there isn't any hurry. ;)

It's really this simple: If your target (venison filled or not)is 20 yards from the base of your tree, then use your 20 yard pin dead-on regardless of whether you are on the ground or in the tree at any elevation. Period.

Here's the twist: When you are in the tree, the target will appear, and read with a rangefinder, slightly further than 20 yards because of the additionalangle distance. Your view, the rangefinder's reading, and your arrow's path occur along the hypoteneuse of a right triangle formed by the trunk of your tree and the ground. The proper ground distance you need to use is the cosine of the shooting angle (a number between 0 and 1)multiplied by the hypoteneuse (the ranged distance).
If you use the rangefinder's reading or your visually percieved distance estimate, you will hit slightly high because youplaced your pin high due to thinking it was further away than 20 yards.

Stick with me here.

Bottom line: You can only use the horizontal distance of the arrow's flight to calculate drop due to gravity.Shooters hit higher because they aim higher because the shot looks longer than physics says it actually is. The effect is worse at very close ranges than it is at longer ranges. Good reason to keep from getting too high in your tree, as this would make all of your shots look longer than what they are and increase the amount you must compensate.

How to get around it?:
1-Pace off distances to landmarks while you're on the ground and use them for your distance estimates.
2-Use your rangefinder horizontally while in your tree to ping tree trunks at your level and use those distances.
3-Buy a very expensive rangefinder that has 'ballistic distance' or something similar that does the cosine calculation for you based on the angle at which you are holding the rangefinder when you take the reading. One example is the Leupold RX-III. (No, I don't own one.)
4-Deal with it and just aim a bit lower like everybody else, but understand why, when, and how muchto do it. :D

By the way, the effect is the same when when shooting uphill at a severe angle too. You'll hit high shooting up or down unless you only use the horizontal distance. Go figure. :eek:

Try an experiment in the off-season and see the difference.
It just might save you a poorly hit deer.

Good luck.
-Bulz

RE: SHOOTING FROM A TREE STANDING
 

Bulzeye
A little deep for us simple foke, But what a great read, And dam i think i have really learned something? Iam not being a smart ass either Great post------>

RE: SHOOTING FROM A TREE STANDING
 

Bulzeye,

What you say is correct. It's not that the distance is different, but it appears to be. Good read.

Now, while up in that tree how do you know you are judging the hypotenuse of a right triangle? What if the tree isn't perpendicular to the ground? LOL.

RE: SHOOTING FROM A TREE STANDING
 

When your leg starts shaking from buck fever and your at draw for 20 minutes cause you saw the deer working its way in and your breathing like a linebacker after a 100 yard run.......

Just relax and remember how you held the bow and released on the range. My opinion is that at first, people are so worked up they grip the bow tight and jerk their shots (uhh...sound like I had this experience, huh!!! :) )

My advice is simply this....relax, aim true and think about taking a good shot versus a marginal one. You'll do fine.

Welcome and good luck to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RE: SHOOTING FROM A TREE STANDING
 

Bulzeye is TECHNICALLY correct.....BUT at that distance it just really doesn't matter. We're only talking about less than 2 yards difference, and that just isn't enough to matter.

Bend at the waist and let it eat.