Yardage question???
 

Is there a difference in the yardage from the ground and the yardage from your stand??? The reason I ask is earlier in the season I missed a deer (shot low) at any rate this was due to misjudgement on yardage. I bought a small laser range finder and that has just added to my confusion. There is about a 6-8 yard difference when I am in my stand as opposed to the same target standing from the base of the tree that my stand is in. Typically I take my stand up to about 30' or so. This morning I had a decent buck infront of me, he was broadside and the rangefinder said 30 yards. I use a crossbow and sighted in the bow with this particular range finder. I shot, heard the arrow hit the deer and he sprinted directly forward. I was hunting in fairly close proximity to a friend and stayed in the tree for about 4 hours so I wouldn' t mess him up, I was confident the deer was dead on his feet. We both get down and find my arrow with minimal blood on the vanes and some what appeared to be meat on the shaft along with some white hair. Nevertheless we trailed the blood trail (bright red) for about 150 yards and it just stopped so I am thinking maybe for whatever reason I may have hit just one lung (any suggestions). Is 30 yards is 30 yards is 30 yards???? What factors do you have to take into effect from your tree???? Also are treestand yards (from treestand to target on the ground) different from standing on the ground and shooting??

Sorry for the long post just frustrated, I cannot stand not being able to find hit deer!!!!

Thanks
Jason Collins

RE: Yardage question???
 

The answer to your question is to shoot the shot as if you were on the ground(as far as yardage goes).When using a rangefinder from a tree,try to find a tree beside the animal,if possible,and range it at eye level instead of the animal.This will get you much closer to the actuall yardage that the animal should be shot for.Optilogic sell a rangefinder that will automatically adjust for this if this isn' t something you will be able to do.



Another problem is how high you are.This creates an extreme angle and makes it harder to catch both lungs due to the angle.You may have actually shot over the first lung and only caught the second.That much height allows very little room for error.

RE: Yardage question???
 

Jason, I sure hope you' re able to recover that buck. He' s out there somewhere.

As for your yardage question I know there was alot of discussion on this before. If I remember correctly the distance is measured from the base of the tree and not from the stand.

RE: Yardage question???
 

30 yards is not 30 yards! I use the range finder and checkout trees at " my level" and not directly at the ground. I hunt fairly high (17' to 22' ) and that makes a bigger differance. If you only hunt 10' off the ground it doesn' t make much differance but some.

The real answer is as always: practice from your stand height and you' ll know how to handle it. I do know guys who range to ground objects from their stand, but thats how they practice and have their bows sighted in.

Good Luck!

RE: Yardage question???
 

Tfox hit it You don' t range on the diagnal you range parellel. So what you ranged as 30 yds was 28.28 yds if you were 30 ft up.

RE: Yardage question???
 

If you are shooting uphill or downhill, you have to subtract yardage. I' m not sure how much, so practice at the same elevation when hunting.

RE: Yardage question???
 

Previous responses are all right. The farther your shot the more the arrow will drop. Gravity is the culprit here and it does not care how high you are. The horizontal distance (base of tree to deer) effects how much the arrow will drop. 30 feet is way high. Is there a reason you have to be that high? Your chances at a double lung shot are tiny from that height. Camo and scent controll should allow you to be close to deer without being in the clouds. I know the view from up there is nice but the shots are bad. Put out a few yardage markers on the ground at maybe 10,20,30 yards or whatever you are comfortable shooting at. That way you won' t have to do any math in the tree and just concentrate on the shot.

RE: Yardage question???
 

i have shot from the ground, 10 ft, 20 foot and 30 foot in one session of practice and found no difference in my accuracy. I dont think it makes a difference.

RE: Yardage question???
 

I believe it could be said here that bending at the waist should eliminate a lot of the problems faced with the yardage not being the same. Anyway, I do think 30 feet might be a little too high? I don' t usually go higher than about 18 to 22 feet up in a tree. In the early season 15 or 16 feet should be sufficient with abundant foliage.

TBO

RE: Yardage question???
 

Rememer your geometry. When you measure the distance from up in your tree the distance has just became the hypotenuse of a triangle, therefore making the distance longer then if measured from the ground. A2xB2=C2. The actual distance that you need to aim from is the ditance to the object as measured from the ground. And don' t forget to take into account for gravity. For my set up I aim 1" low for every 5ft up in the tree. 30 ft is about as high as you want to go hunting with a bow. The closer the shot the greater the angle. With proper scent control and wind direction, 20 ft will do in most cases. LOL.

RE: Yardage question???
 

Its called the pythagoreom theorem (sp?)

Man I seen this debate for too long shooting on the 3-D circuit, everybody you talked to had a different opinion.

I think the most important factor is bending at the waste as someone has suggested. If you stay straight and bend with your arms or draw at a goofy angle things will change. I usually hunt 12-20ft up. I sight in on the ground. When I am in the stand I shoot the deer for the exact same yardage as I shoot on the ground. I also shoot for the center of the chest, this will give me the biggest variable for an inch or two up or down. Knowing yardage and your arrow drop is very significant in the later months when the leaves are off and you can add some yards. Does anyone know exactly how much their arrow starts to drop off from 25-30 a 30-35....you would be amazed, even the fastest bows can suprise you. I shot one event with my old bow and I had it maxed out and shooting a light arrow and chrono' ed at 323fps.....that thing would still bleed off energy and drop if I missed the yardage.

RE: Yardage question???
 

I do agree that bending at the waist is a big factor ... for someone shooting a bow. However Jason is shooting a crossbow. Would I be wrong in saying that form is not as big an issue in his situation?

RE: Yardage question???
 

Duh....missed that part.

I would be willing to guess a crossbow wouldnt require as much form. Also cross bows with their short draw lengths and short arrows will dump speed off really quickly and being off by a yard or two will greatly effect a shot.

RE: Yardage question???
 

Use pendulem sights. Then there is no difference! (you believe that don' t you?)

RE: Yardage question???
 

The pythagorean theorum is actually just a right triangle and is the way to figure the distance in a mathematical form BUT due to sight paralax,the shot needs about 1 yard more taken off and that would make it about a 27-28 yard shot,according to how much sight length,peep height and arrow weight along with arrow speed.


But really we are getting way to involved for a hunting setup.Range straight out and shoot.;)



I am glad that you finally realized we were talking about a crossbow.Yeah,that does seem to eliminate the bending at the waist issue somewhat.But not completely.



I would say the 30' high is the real problem.

RE: Yardage question???
 

To see clearly that distance from the base of the tree matters and not yardage from the bow (or rangefinder) take an extreme example, it makes it more obvious. Think about your stand being 90 feet up and a deer is 10 feet from the base of the tree. Your rangefinder will tell you that the deer is more than 30 yards away. The arrow will only be falling over a lateral distance of 10 feet.
As mentioned by many on this post 30 feet up is pretty high. The angle to the deer is too sharp and a double lung shot will be very hard unless the deer is pretty far out. If you plan on a spine shot, straight down is fine, however you better be shooting 1 inch groups to attempt this. As hunters we owe it to the deer and the sport to make quick clean ethical kill shots.
As far as the white hair and the meat and not much blood on the vanes, it does not sound like a lung shot at all. Any lung shot that is a pass through will cover the arrow with blood. You grazed the bottom of the chest or belly and even with some blood only educated that buck. He is fine.