how high??

[Pooh]

just curious what you guys have to say about how high an arrow will hit an animal at any given distance, if you are zeroed on ground level. i have been told its not enough to worry about, and then ive heard i should practice and rezero my sights from the stand. I shoot an aluminum arrow if it makes any difference.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Ok...this is kind of hard to explain.. but here goes. Its going to depend on your shooting form also.. Make sure you get your anchor at level and then bend at the waist down to the animal, not point the bow and the animal and ancher that way... Then its quite simple. Measure the distance from the base of your tree to all the trails...And then you are good to go.. where people get a little messed up is when they use a range finder from stand, if you do this you will hit a tad high...This is the hard part to explain...Anotherwords, lets say that you are sitting 16 feet up, and the animal is about 20 yards away from the base of your tree, if you were to range find that deer your body will actually be more like 23 yards... its that whole (a2)(b2)=c2 deal we learned in middle school which I still dont toally get...anyway, because you are shooting down your bow will shoot a little flatter than if you were shooting on a level serface...So your back to shooting the animal at 20 yards....not the actual 23yards...

After all this is said.. there is no substitute for practice from elevation! DO IT!!! you owe it to the animal!

[smoked perch]

pooh:
hey. exudedude has a good point about the distance. gravity also has an effect on high shots.
i'll try and explain best i can...
imagine a baseball sized magnet (arrow) in a room with a steel floor (gravity!). it would take x amount of force to throw it 20 yds and hit a target, and you'd have to lob it way up in the air to fight the magnetic pull.
ok.. now imagine standing on a ladder 15 ft up. if you used the same amt of force, and lobbed it at the same angle, it would go over the target, due to the height, and angle from you to the target.
now this is a very exaggerated point, but this is going on with your arrows. and aluminum arrows being heavier than carbon, will have more of a "rise" as your pins are set higher.
well, i'm not the best at explaining, but hope this helps. i'll echo exudedude, and just say we owe it to the deer to practice our stand shots.
-perch

[treeclimber]

The main reason you shoot high from a stand has more to do with form than gravity. Always remeber that you need to bend at the waste when shooting from an elevated position. Keep in mind when you draw your bow from a stand. Do it as if you were going to shoot something at the same level. Get your anchor point and then bend at the waste at your target on the ground. If you just draw your bow back without bending at the waste you will always shoot high. As far as gravity goes. Gravity pulls from the center of the earth so the actual amount reduced drop from being elevated is so small that it doesn't make a difference as far as where to aim. Also remember that if you use a range finder from your stand. The actual distance you should be ranging is from the base of your tree to the intended target not from the elevation. Remember that if you are 30 Feet in a stand and range at a deer that is standing 5 yrds from the base of your tree it will range right around 13 yards. If you shoot at that deer using that range you will no doubtly shoot over it. Just FYI.

[bmc]

As the other poster's have said, it has alot to do with form. Bend at the waist, after coming to full draw. Also, throw a stand up in your yard or even climb up on the roof of the house or garage and practice. At least then you'll get a "feel" for your form when shooting from an elevated stand.

Brian

[Iceman77]

Many archers believe gravity does not have much affect on the arrow especially from short distances. Shooting competetively I carry an inclinometer around with me to verify target angles and adjust my shots accordingly based upon a "cutshot table" that most pro archers have in their quiver. As a couple of examples say you are in a tree and use a rangefinder to judge the deer at 25 yards. Now the angle to the deer is 35 degrees. To shoot in exactly the same spot you would need to set your sight to 20.5 yards. A distance of 4.5 yards does not sound like much but can easily make a difference of a kill or wound shot by clipping the top of the lungs or going just over the top of the lungs.

For tourneys I shoot a lot of long distance shots and now I know the target is 80 yards, the angle I determine to be 20 degrees, that means I need to set my sight for 75.2. If I didn't do this I would lose the tournament therefore gravity is a must consideration at angled shots. For bowhunting I know the distance and I know how much that will affect the impact of my arrow therefore I compensate accordingly. Form is always important and if you are having form problems by shooting at an angle from a tree that means you already have the form problem flat footed on the ground and you made it worse by shooting at an angle.