High Or Low?
 

When bow hunting from 15 to 20 feet high,shooting from 20 to 30 yards out,do you tend to shoot high or over the top of the deer or low and under the deer when you miss? What is the most common error to make when shooting from a deer stand at this hight?

In general over the past 4+ decades of archery hunting from a tree stand of one sort of another, usually 15' - 25' off the ground, I have missed high. This is primarily due to the deer dropping, loading its legs to haul tail as soon as it hears the bow fire. I have long ago "trained' myself to intentionally aim "small", and somewhat low ... but not ever out of the "kill zone". The newer bow designs that create arrow launch velocities around 300 fps +/- have mitigateed to some degree the issue of deer "jumping" the string. I have no clue what velocity that my first hunting bow did. It was a realitively inexpensive fiberglasss Ben Pearson stick. My second was a fine recurve that cost me a whopping $45 in 1966. It was a vastly faster bow than my old Pearson. The most recent bow that I was using, before the shoulder injury, was a Matthews SQ-2. I found it so fast, that I was easily able to shoot from right under my stand to about 30 yards with one pin .... adjusting elevation only very little from 15-25 yards. I did add a second pin for 40+ yards.

The most common error is not bending at the waist for most people. this will change where you are aiming and cause you to miss. they will tend to drop if they are looking right at you when you shoot. so when alerted and nervous about what is happening around them aim lower

Yep, poor form from shooting off a small platform from above makes you shoot high it's like looking over a vent rib shotgun when turkey hunting...

Just remember... Aim for the bottom 1/3

I do appreciate it when you guys with years of skill and knowledge share it with us who must constantly review our technique based upon the proven experience of seasoned hunters. I'm getting ready to start my regime of practice and sharpen my skills to make sure I'm up to the task come September. Thanks

Aim low and you heard all the reasons why.


Best recommendation.....................

Practice shooting from a deer stand at this hight & distance.

This is something of a pet peeve of mine but if the deer is 30 yards from the trunk of your tree, and you are 5 yards up in the air, the straight line distance is 30.41 yards from you directly to the deer. It's a trivial difference but its also FURTHER than if you shot from the ground.

"you range a deer at 500 yards (up or downhill) with an angle cozine of .87, you multiply 500x.87 to get your adjusted distance"
RR



I love it when it's simple....................THANK YOU !!!

RR, I would love to spend a week learning 1/10 of what you know about shooting. It would help me to grasp the basics which would surely make me a better hunter. I do much better learning hands on than reading or seeing illustrations of how it's done.