MuleyMadness Hunting Forums

Im planning on hunting some fairly steep terreain this year, and need some help from you more experienced hunters! I know you have to compensate for the shot angle, and i know they make a "tool" to tell you what angle you will be shooting, so my question is, what is this "tool called" and where can I get one! thanks again

9er

I treestand hunt 90% of the time for whitetails, and I can tell you that the important thing while bowhunting is not necessarily the actual distance of the shot between you and the animal. If you think about it like a triangle it makes more sense. If you are elevated and the animal is below you, the important distance for the shot is the HORIZONTAL distance. If you draw an imaginary vertical line straight down from your feet, and an imaginary line HORIZONTALLY from the animal to where it intersects the vertical line, the distance from that intersection point to the animal is the shot distance you need to shoot for. The actual distance in a straight line from you to the animal will be longer, but the angle takes away the length of your shot. There are several rangefinders that automatically calculate the distance on angled shots, and they are NOT cheap!

Here is a link to one from Bushnell:

http://www.bushnell.com/arc/1500warc_1.html

9er,

I think Gerald has something of the sort at his shop(Utah Archery Center)

I have never been to worried about it, if the shot is too far and your not sure about it dont shoot.I usually set my treestand no farther than 25 yards. And practice off me deck at a pretty good elevation on a target(the Block actually has a treestand side to shoot)to determine how and where to place the shot on the critter. Thats really the important thing is determining entry/exit.

Good luck this year,C.B.

thanks guys for your help, i did make some calls today and found what i was after, but im thinking ill just take the chart and forget about the angle tool, like cvrn, if im to worried about it, guess ill just have to get closer! thanks again

9er

Archers advantage makes a program that has a 'cut chart'. Gerald got me a degree wheel for my range finder. Slopes over 30% can change the yardage sometimes more than of 20 yards. After you shoot over the back of a couple buck maybe you will look into it.

Hey 9er what is this chart and tool that you speak of?

I think it is hard to replace just good ol' shooting and practicing-if you can set targets at different ranges and angles and experiment with your arrow flight.
As mentioned there are rangefinders now that can calculate angles and trajectory, and despite some critics-in all of my exprience with them they have proved to work quite well.
There is nothing perfect, even the rangefinders; that is why I always have felt like being able to practice shooting angles is best way to see what your arrow is doing-take notes on the estimation of the angle and yardage. I often use a string on the end of my stabilizer to help with angle and windage estimation.

http://www.getoat.com/

This is the device and cutchart that I have. Pretty simple to use if you get the time before a shot. Using it before you get in the field can give you the feel of how different slopes can affect a shot, since you don't always get the time to use your range finder/cutchart when you are presented with a shot.