hifinblu

OK guys I'm not new to bow hunting although I am new to the compound bow. I just got my first one and that letoff is a wonderful thing. I've always heard bowhunters say that shooting down from a stand is much different. I've been setting a target out from 15 to 25 yards and my feet are about 15 feet above it. I'm shooting at about the same accuracy from that height as I am on ground level, and surprisingly not bad. Do you experience shooting high or low from a stand? Maybe I'm not high enough for it to make a difference.

8mm/06

Physically it is measurable. But if you are shooting a modern, fast bow......and your distance is as close as you say -- 15-20 yards-- I would guess you'll notice less than a 1/2 in. to 1 inch difference in your POI. Perhaps you'll notice no difference at all.

doughboysigep

in general, whether shooting up or down the tendancy is to shoot a bit high.
can't give you the physics, but that is what I've noticed and seem to have read, been told, etc.
and the distance you should be measuring is the horizontal distance from the base of the tree to the target (unless you are really high up the horizontal and angular distances are close enough to not bother much)

tbonecpa

Let's think about the physics of a downward shot and a deer's chest. Depending on the height of your stand and horizontal distance from the deer you actually need to hit high. If you try to hit the same exact spot that you would if you were shooting at the deer from the ground you probably won't get the offside lung. The deer is three dimensional so you need to aim considering the exit hole as much as the entrance. Thats a lot of words that mean hitting high on a steep angle shot is a good thing. To get the visual on this hold an arrow on the front of a 3-D deer target. Visualize where the arrow has to enter to exit after going through both lungs. I shot a buck last year about four inches from the spine and the exit was just above the white hair on the offside. That deer was 32 yds from my tree but about 30 ft below me. Entering that deer only half way up the body would have exited at the sternum and would have only resulted in a single lung hit. Not good. This same theory applies to quartering to and quartering away shots. Keep the exit in mind.

Bob H in NH

Its really a multi-part answer, the "science" of it is that you are closer to the target than the range finder will say, so you will hit higher. Gravity only effects on the horizontal plane and the range finder works on line of sight. Use the pythagoream theorem to figure out the "real" distance.

So if you are 20 feet up, the range finder says 20 yds to the target (line of sight), to figure out the horizontal difference its: 20 feet squared + horiz dist squared = 60 feet squared (30 yds converted to feet).

this comes out to a horizontal distance of: 56.57 feet or 19.5 yards.

Be honest, can you tell the difference in impact of 1/2 yard.

So for "normal" heights, at "normal" distances the real distance is a wash, hold dead on and shoot. As the line of sight gets longer, the horizontal gets closer to it. Only really becomes a factor on CLOSE shots from up HIGH, then you have to deal with paralax.

Now that's the "theory". reality is that theory only works if your form is dead on. Most don't maintain solid form when shooting down, they lower the bow arm to point down rather than bend at the waist, I know I do when hunting. So this changes the anchor point slightly, which makes you "miss" high or low, usually high, but you really have to go out and try it and see what happens to you.

--Bob

CC in WestV

Either shooting at an upward angle or a downward angle, the point of impact will be higher than if on a horizontal plane. The physics behind this is that when shooting at an angle, either downward or upward, with increasing angle of the shot, the force of gravity has less effect on the drop of the arrow and more effect on the 'speed' of the arrow.
Think of it this way, if you were to shoot an arrow straight down, it would have no 'drop' at all, no matter how far down the arrow traveled. Consequently if you shot an arrow straight up, it would have no 'drop' at all either, however gravity would eventually force the arrow back to earth.
At a distance of 15ft in the tree, shooting out to 20 yds, this effect would probably be negligable.
But suppose you were 30 ft in a tree and a deer was 10 yds out. The actual distance the arrow travels in a straight line is 42 ft, but the horizontal distance is only 10 yds, or 30 ft. In this case, your arrow would drop the same amount as if shooting 10 yds on a horizontal plane, so some compensation may have to be taken into account in a scenario such as this and hold the pin slightly low.
Clear as mud right ?
Best thing is to just practice it!!

chris

oneshot/one kill

shooting down does put shots higher but really only noticable at higher heights in a tree and closer shots. Also need to consider the angle at which the arrow is going.