***ARCHERY TIP OF THE WEEK***

SHOOTING UPWARDS AND DOWNWARDS - Where to aim when shooting upwards or downwards on a target is a question that always seems to rear its ugly head. To make this very simple, regardless of whether you are shooting up or down, you need to aim low. I’m not going to bore you with why this is…all I’ll say is that is has to do with the pull of gravity at a linear distance and the PythagoriumTheorem (yuck!).

What I will tell you is how to adjust for this phenomenon when you’re sitting 7 yards (21 feet) up in a treestand and wondering what your aiming distance should be when that buck walks by a tree at 15 yards (45 feet) from the base of your tree.

Here’s what most hunters do that explains why so many archers shoot over the top of an animal (not accounting for string jumping…another topic later on). They get in their stands, get settled, pull out their range finder, and start shooting distances to trees, bushes, rubs, scrapes, or other markers ON THE GROUND. If you ranged that tree in the example above (see photo) from your stand to the base of the tree, believe it or not, your range finder would show almost 51.5 feet. That’s a 6.5 foot difference than the actual linear distance. Your arrow would have to travel 51.5 feet while the actual distance of the animal is only 45 feet. That also means that gravity is only working for 45 feet while your arrow is actually traveling for 51.5 feet. Remember, we’ve sighted in our bows and adjusted our sights for gravity on a flat surface meaning gravity was working on the arrow for about the same distance the arrow traveled in relation to the actual distance to the target. Since all of our shots in archery are at a relatively close range (linear distance) and we’re not all that far up in our stands, our sight adjustments need not be that great UNLESS the animal is very close to tree we are in. While we want to avoid these types of shots (nearly straightdown) due to the reduced area of vitals at that angle, it’s still something we should be prepared for.

If you are 21 feet up in your stand and a deerwalks under you six feet away from the tree you are in, the linear distance is only six feet but your arrow will actually travel a distance of about 21.8 feet. Guess what? Unless you aim low to compensate for this upward/downward phenomenon, you will shoot right over the top of your deer.

So what do you do?

I submit to you four options and highly recommend numbers three AND four.

1. If you’re really good (and fast) at math, you could range the deer and calculate your aiming distance using the Pythagorium Theorem (yuck!). An inefficient choice.

2. You could go out and purchase a pendulum sight that pivots with your bow to give you a true aiming point from a near vertical aim out to about 30yards. An expensive choice.

3. Once you are in your stand and you’ve located the tree or trees that you think your deer will pass by, range that tree horizontally from the height you are at. In other words, range that tree at the same height you are sitting.

4. Practice. This is something we all should do. Get in your stand and set a 3D animal at varying distances from your tree and start getting the feel of where your aiming point should be. And remember that we always want the arrow to pass through the vitals (see ***Archery Tip of the Week*** –posted 4/8/09).

Remember, most archers do about 90% of their practicing at ground level. Figure out a safe way to get up high in your practice sessions and start practicing.