After reading the posts on the thread "What is your closest miss?", I'm trying to understand something.
What is the correct pin placement in this case? To me, logic would tend to dictate that I would just use my top pin (10-20 yards) and put it on target. The shot is 10 level yards, and gravity is a constant. Am I wrong? (A genuine question. Please educate me if I am.)
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Original: Lady Forge
8 yards for me.... right over the Doe's Back.... Forgot to hold low[:@]/quote]
Again I'm lost. At less than 10 yards, I have to hold the top pin high.At 5 yards, my 30 yard pin is closer to correct. Gravity is still a constant. Can someone help me understand this?

Shooting at steep angles like that do funny things to your form. By the laws of physics you are right, hold for the horizontal distance. However when you bend that much your form typically goes out the window and this can and will do weird things to your point of impact.

What it comes down to is you have to try it to find out what your arrow will do.

I'd been wondering about this. I've only had time to practicefrom my climber once. I climbed to 25 feet and shotdifferent distances, from 8 to 30 yards. Everything seemed to hit the same as it did from the ground. I

Bending at the waist will ensure proper form and anchor and yes you are correct about what to shoot the shot for.

However,sight paralax will slightly adjust the actuall yardage but it will be so slight at 10 yards that trying to compensate for it is a little silly.


I would use my 20 yard pin and shoot dead center as if I were on level ground,this will put the point of entry about 2" high and that would be perfect for that angle and should puncture BOTH lungs.

exactly what tfox said bend at the waist






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From treestand heights it shouldn't ever make that much of a difference but where it really kicks into play is in mountainous or hilly terrain where the target may be as much or more below you as it is away from you (greater than 45* angle). You want to shoot for the straight line distance (perpendicular to gravity) from you and not the actual yardage to the target. That's the problem the new ballistically compensating rangefinders are working to resolve for us. TFOX and Bob H bring up a good point about form as well; if you don't bend at the waist you tend to shorten your draw length when shooting down/up at severe angles. Draw the bow and anchor it as if shooting straight out and then bend at the waist keeping the same upper body form as you had when shooting straight out. Learning to shoot up and down at severe angles is probably the most overlooked problem for bowhunters new to mountain goat hunting.

I've been wondering the same thing as LittleChief,

I have a 20 yard pin, which will just about nail 3" between 10 and 28 yards.
Hearing a lot about how important it is to shoot out of your treestand, I recently shot off of a high deck, which was very comparable to treestand height (20 feet), and at 10 yards I shot just a tad high (1-2") and at 25 yards it was fine. Either would produce a kill shot (if I did everything else right).

I understand all the fuss about proper form, and I understand that if a deer walks right under you that could cause some issues with aiming, arrow falling off rest, etc., but I don't understand all the talk about the sight adjustments for deer from a stand, i.e. pendulum sights, compensating rangefinders, etc. Other than for mountain goats and that sort of hunting, am I missing something? I'm wondering because some of our best spots are along a dredged canal, which can create some elevation issues (bottom of canal adds about 10 - 20 feet of depth).

Should have read TFox prior to posting. But if anyone else wants to throw in two cents I am curious. If you read some hunting magazine articles they make it sound like without all these compensations you are virtually guaranteed a miss and I just don't get it.