Rule of Thumb for Shooting Down Hill

[greenejc]

Awesome attitude! I once missed a really good deer at 250ish on a steep uphill shot. I did recognize my 200 yd zero was about where I should be. Even though the math is right, the steep shots aren't the shots we practice often (or at least not me). Sucks to do when you know it was a makeable shot, but it happens.

Things happen in the field differently than the bench. Sucks to miss a shot, but it happens to most of us from time to time.

My lesson learned from missed game, is usually rushed the shot. I still get an element of buck fever and excitement when the time comes and know I need to calm my breathing down. As friends of mine begin hunting, I advise them mistakes are made. Learn and remember what what went wrong so it doesn't happen again. I have messed up…. Not just shots, but wind, noise, and other things over the years. Poo happens.

Oh, especially when it is a really good buck or bull. I don't care who you are, it can happen simply because you're excited. Add difficulty and distance into the equation and its a wonder we don't miss more.

 

[yobuck]

Hi everyone. Got back earlier this week from hunting CO 2nd rifle elk season in GMU 681. Took a cow early on but the bulls were scarce especially given the high winds. At dusk on Weds I had a 5 pt bull appear at 503 yards quartering to and since he was close (30 yds from) a fence (private ranch on the other side), I aimed high on the shoulder (after dialing my Gunwerks 7mm RM shooting 168 gr VLDs to 500 yds) & gently squeezed. My spotter called the shot right over his back. The bull promptly moved off into the timber (not presenting another shot), jumped the fence and minutes later was shot on that private ranch. One more data point, the bull was 10 degrees downhill from me and I had a solid but not perfect rest.

My question is, did I just muff the shot high or should I have dialed a shorter distance on the Viper PST? Do you have a rule of thumb for shooting at high or low angles, like "for 10 degrees, reduce the distance by 10%"?
Thanks for your time & advice!

 

[yobuck]

I would simply chalk it up as a missed shot.
At 500 yards especially.
Id be working on getting a better setup for shooting and not be blaming things like cousine, especially at that distance.

 

[MNbogboy]

Withban arrow in archery hunting or rifle hunting , my rule is treat the downhill shot like the horizontal distance from your vantagevpoint.
Holding low in both cases. Example; if you are 30 feet up in a treestands and the deer is 30 feet from the tree the geometry says the deer is 42 feet from your point of view and the range finder will corroborate this. Hold for 30 feet actual(horizontal distance)
Same on a mountain; you are 500 feet up the elk is on the canyon floor 500 feet from the base of the mountain, the range finder reads700 feet. Hold forb500 feet (actual horizontal distance). My rule treat it as how far on the horizontal level is it. My range finder compensates forthe angle.

 

[Critter Picker]

LOL....funny as my bow is a 94 LX, and I still shoot it because it is still super smooth and will blow threw a deer at 65 yards easily. 64# at 29" with a 410gr arrow. I keep buying guns instead of a new bow because according to the youtube I might gain 10% today, and it still delivers what I need to the yardage I want.

Regardless of bow design, anchor point, etc. is not the sight point (eye or pin) higher than the arrow launch location unless the sight was directly behind the arrow perfectly in line with it? Would the arrow not have to rise to meet that sight line? I'm asking to help understand more as I only have what I have and have seen for other set ups.

Yes, regardless the bow, the arrow has to rise to the sight,then travel above line of sight and drop back to line of sight.

I don't buy bows like I used to. They don't appreciate like guns do. A $1200.00 bow today is a $250.00 bow in a couple years. Like you stated the technology doesn't change that much. That FX is a great bow.

 

[mnoland30]

I missed a steep uphill shot with my muzzleloader by shooting over his back. That's when I bought myself a modern rangefinder that measures the angle and calculates and displays the horizontal distance. Most will do that if your set it right.

You know the approximate elevation you're hunting, so use shooterscalculator.com and correct for atmosphere. With that and a good rangefinder, you'll know the miss was your fault, and not the aim point.

There is a lot that can go wrong on a 500 yard shot. You got most of the excitement without any of the work of hauling meat. Not the worst outcome.

 

[Dooner]

Or,..You could just use an angle compensating rangefinder.

 

[Allen Kitts]

Buy a Gunwerks BR-2 or BR-4 rangefinder program it for your ballistics and never worry about it again.

 

[Joefrazell]

Most rangefinders will take angle into the equation and give you a range that's gunna get you where you need to be not just a line of sight range

 

[Joefrazell]

That's horrible and I'm sorry you missed your bull

 

[BrentM]

Take this percentage, below, off the shot solution, not the distance. For example 10 is .98 so .98 off the moa solution. It the solution is 10 moa is 2%. 9.75 would be your dial to.


Angle/slope compensation
05 - .99
10 - .98
15 - .96
20 - .94
25 - .90
30 - .87

 

[richhymas]

I haven't read all the replies, just the first page, but I agree that with only a 10 degree slope, this wasn't the cause of the miss. I bet the combination of the angle, aiming high on the animal to start with, and most importantly the altitude at which you were hunting really contributed. If your gun is zeroed at say 3000 feet elevation (not sure where Home is for you or what gun works used for the altitude) but let's say your turret was etched for say 3000 ft elevation and you were hunting at say 8000 feet, you would shoot roughly 3 additional inches high. So 1-2 inches for angle, 3 inches for elevation, and maybe 1-2 inches for temperatures and barametric pressure differences. I can't get more than 4-6 inches maximum error if it really was 10 degrees and not 20 degrees. They all add up. I recommend first going to a range at 500 yards or more, and shoot a 3 shot group at paper from a flat bench with a rock solid rest and make sure the turret is etched correctly for that given elevation and temperature etc conditions. Then print a dope sheet for those conditions and another dope sheet for the most extreme cold temperature and elevation you may be hunting in. And do that for a 0,10,20,and 30 degree shot. It will help you understand what kind of realistic error you may have in calculating your true dope in the field. That is why true long range hunters (greater than 600 yards) are less likely to etch their turrets and more likely to use a kestrel or other method for accounting for current conditions. Nothing wrong with etching your turrets, just have a good understanding of your limits. Using a rangefinder that can account for barometric pressure and shot angle will decrease your margin of error significantly for the etched turret setup, it you really should know what info is going into that little black box and how the output is determined. Again, mostly so you can know your limits.

 

[LRNut]

The geometry is right triangle geometry. Your actual shot distance is the hypotenuse but the distance you need to use for the shot is the horizontal leg distance. A few different ways to calculate the horizontal from the hypotenuse. This is why range finders that do this for you call it the horizontal compensated distance or something similar.

The reason it's a horizontal distance for bullet drop is a physics problem which I won't bore anyone with.

All that fancy college math and I use nothing more than geometry now in my day to day work.

This is actually not true - time of flight is longer over the hypotenuse than than the horizontal leg, so the bullet will drop more than it would over the horizontal leg, but not as much as if the horizontal leg was as long as the hypotenuse.

To be as accurate and as fast as possible, get a rangefinder that does it all.

 

[LRNut]

Hi everyone. Got back earlier this week from hunting CO 2nd rifle elk season in GMU 681. Took a cow early on but the bulls were scarce especially given the high winds. At dusk on Weds I had a 5 pt bull appear at 503 yards quartering to and since he was close (30 yds from) a fence (private ranch on the other side), I aimed high on the shoulder (after dialing my Gunwerks 7mm RM shooting 168 gr VLDs to 500 yds) & gently squeezed. My spotter called the shot right over his back. The bull promptly moved off into the timber (not presenting another shot), jumped the fence and minutes later was shot on that private ranch. One more data point, the bull was 10 degrees downhill from me and I had a solid but not perfect rest.

My question is, did I just muff the shot high or should I have dialed a shorter distance on the Viper PST? Do you have a rule of thumb for shooting at high or low angles, like "for 10 degrees, reduce the distance by 10%"?
Thanks for your time & advice!

Where is 681 were you if you don't mind? My CO place sits inside 681.