PA Hunter..,
You left us hanging in the stand with ya.How did you shoot? High ,low or dead center on the target? And when you missed ..did you miss low or high. This imformation would be very helpful with the post question.
Thanks,
Chuck

it doesn't matter if you are 100 feet up a tree. if a deer has a horizontal distance of 20 yards, you use your 20 pin. if the deer is 1 yard away from the bottom of your tree, you use whatever pin equates with you hitting a bulls-eye from 1 yard away - which for me would be my 70 yard pin.

the pythagorean theorem is of absloutely no significance - unless you're 30 ft up a tree and you use your range finder to see how far a trail is. say the deer trail is 60 ft from your position in the tree. that ='s the hypotenuse of the triangle. you would then use that (c squared) and your known height up the tree (b squared) to determine your horizontal distance from the trail (a squared). you would then compute (a squared) = ( c squared) - (b squared). then you would take the square root of (a squared) and use that distance for your pin. this gets into physics, but the only important thing is the horizontal distance from your objective. neither vertical nor diagonal distance has anything to do with it unless you use them to help you determine horizontal distance.

Hey,
Some of us only have a 5th grade math equivalence like me.Is there any way you could bring that down to a 4th grade level.
Chuck

you got it chuck. if you're on level ground standing next to the tree you're going to climb, and a deer walks and sits down 20 yards away from you, you'd use your 20 pin to take it. now, if you climbed 100 feet up that tree and that deer just sat there the whole time, to take that deer you would use your 20 yard pin. so, when in the tree stand, and you're wondering what pin to use if the deer walks out here or there, how far is that deer from the base of your tree - that's what pin to use. a good way is to figure out how far trees are from you at your height in the tree. if you are 20 ft up a tree, get the distance to other trees at 20 ft up. figure out which tree is 20 yards from you horizontally. if a deer walks by that tree you use your 20 pin. the only thing that is important is the horizontal distance. the vertical distance is meaningless.

Thanks Gibblet,
Actually I'm a third grade school teacher ..I wasn't kidding about the math. My wife had do ,I mean help me with my math work in college. That's why I teach third. Thanks for your patience.
Chuck

Chuck,

Actually, I posted my response on the previous page. I aimed directly at the top of the shoulder with my 20 yard pin and my shot went beneath the deer's body. I do not remember the specifics but must guess that I was not bending at the waist. I have no other explanation as the shot felt good upon release.

Sorry I miss read your reply. So you did everything these fellows said and still missed. I notice that my broadheads seem to shoot lower than my field points and they both weigh 100 grains. Because of that I wish I had a place to practice shooting from a tree. So if you would of aimed at the top of the deer's back you might of hit the deer. I'm very uncomfortable with heights, and about 13 feet is high enough for me. I do remember shooting off the top of my house with field points and hit right on the target with no adjustments. Our roof is only about 10 foot on the edge. Very interesting . Thanks for replying again.
Chuck

At 20 yards the arrow will strike approx. 1.5" high, this coupled with a deer lowering itself during the shot can sometime make a difference. You surely do not want to over compensate and aim at the bottom of the deer but aiming at the lower lung area is a good idea. If you look at a lot of treestand shot deer you will notice that due to the factors listed above most are hit higher than the archer intended.
Good luck
BD

Quite true. It is also true that you should hit higher when shooting from a treestand, than when shooting from level ground. When at a steep angle, you have to make sure the arrow takes out both lungs. It won't make much difference when the deer is out at least 20 yards and you're not high in the tree, but when the deer is in close or you are real high, the angle could cause the arrow to miss the far lung if you hit low on the chest.