# Treestand Height "Shooting Angle"



## Viper1 (Aug 21, 2003)

quicky -

Three basic principles: 

1. The distance to your target is measured along a flat of the earth (from the base of the tree to the animal if the ground is fairly level) and NOT by line of sight form you to the target.

2. When shooting downward, the only elevation adjustment is from the waist, not NOT simply lowering your bow arm. Yeah, make sure you're strapped in. (Compounds have stops, stickbows don't - prolly why you got a way with it with the CB.)

3. Practice from the stand. Set up markers at various distances from your stand, put on your hunting gear, climb your stand and try hitting them.

#3 supersedes #1 and #2.

As far as how high - don't ask me, this puppy doesn't climb trees 

Viper1 out.


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## rattus58 (Jul 9, 2007)

Well considering that people have been shooting game at eye level for a million years and that all my game has been shot from eyelevel and that here in Hawaii treestands are rare, I don't think altitude has anything to do with it.

As for shot angle, steeper shoots higher, whether guns or bows. In my opinion, the less the angle, the more "visibility" you have to give your game when in a tree stand, and that then the angle from which they can spot movement becomes less acute as well... and becomes an issue of greater visibility to the animal.

Aloha.. :beer:


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## Jamesw (Sep 14, 2007)

Nothing wrong with the stand height just let them get a little farther from the tree to get a better angle.I hate those under the tree shots so set up to keep the deer 20-25yds instead of 10.No problems that way.


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## quick kill (May 18, 2009)

Yeah, I don't think my thread is trying to ignore science but is shining a light on the challenges of shooting a bow, and in this case, a traditional bow from a treestand. I find it interesting that two out of three responses are from people who hunt on the ground. My point, like Viper stated, is the importance of practicing from an elevated position. I see threads on this site and other sites which are exclusive to traditonal equiptment that stress "grouping" of arrows yet they are shooting from the ground. However, most of these guys probably hunt whitetails from treestands. I have found it much more challenging shooting a longbow or recurve from a treestand. Thus, this topic has immense relevance. Maybe we should be stressing blank bale training from a treestand?............


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## J. Wesbrock (Dec 17, 2003)

Quick Kill,

Actually, only two of those responders hunt – James and Rattus. I hunt both on the ground and from trees and haven’t had any issues with shooting a stickbow from a treestand. It is important to practice from an elevated position, but the fundamentals are the same from compound to stickbow; form is form. 

Most of my stands are in around fifteen feet high, although some of the terrain I hunt dictates stands upwards of twenty feet. Just for the sake of discussion, my shot distance average for whitetail out of a treestand is around 14 yards.


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## WindWalker (Jan 23, 2005)

Although I am not an advocate of high-placed stands because it reduces the size (area) of the kill zone, and extreme angles can cause the arrow to bypass or just clip certain vital organs, I doubt that the stand height had a major negative affect upon your accuracy.

The deer most likely moved as they usually did when you were shooting your compound, but this time the advantage was more in the deer's favor due to half the arrow speed.

Also, if now shooting without sights, the perspective of point-of-aim will be different, something you can adjust by practice.

Lastly; as you obviously know, the anchor point and draw-length tends to change (draw-length is shorter) when bending, more so with a recurve because you are holding the full draw-weight.

All of these factors (influences) can and will be overcome with practice, and your recurve form applicable to certain hunting conditions will eventually become second nature. 

One method of shooting a recurve bow under hunting conditions is to not prematurely draw and hold as you did with the c-bow. 

Watch this shooter partially preload and set his point-of-aim, and then the smooth and rapid shot he makes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CaF...F44C74015&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=5


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## Jack NZ (Apr 7, 2006)

My approach to shooting from a tree for the first time,was to decide what hight I was going to shoot from.
I chose 12 feet an practiced at that hight in all the stances I could get togeather, behind me an an under me ect,,,from the top of my ladder in the back yard.
I have no idea how to work out angles an things,,,but I do hit what I'm shooting at from that hight because I practiced it for weeks.
The first time sitting in a tree in the rain wasn't fun.
The first White tail deer I saw in my life.
I'd just got out of the tree because it was getting dark,,I dropped my bow out of the tree an jumped after it,as I straighten up after hiting the ground,I saw this girl watching me,,,I looked at my bow but decided to see if I could get my camera out,,,I was amazed that she let me,,,think she saw the bow on the ground an knew she was safe. 
Solid Gold.

Click on pic' to enlarge.


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## Jamesw (Sep 14, 2007)

Well when shooting compounds and pins I always had to practice from my stands.I had to be close on distances.

To be truthfull I never practice from treestand with stickbows.Shooting from my 16 -20ft stands is no different than shooting on the ground to me.The only difference I see at all is I tend to shoot a little farther from the tree than I usually do if hunting from the ground.I pass on close shots however partly because of the lighter weight bows I tend to use but mostly so I can get a better angle on near broadside shots.


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## marc weier (May 26, 2009)

The higher angle makes it harder to get both lungs. I usually set up at 10 to 12 ft. One one doe this year I was about 16 and she was only 13 yards away at the shot. I hit her in what looked like a perfect shot that only hit one lung. 250 yards later I found her.


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## Runningbuck (Mar 11, 2009)

Quickkill,
I spend about 60 days a year in a tree stand. I average five deer a year with the bow. Like viper said, practice from a tree stand is the only way to view your mistakes. Bending at the waist is one of the biggest, I blew a shot at a big doe years ago not once but four times! Every shot went just over her back and coulden't figure out why. The next day put my deer target the same distance from a tree in the yard and climbed up to twenty feet and shot over the back of the target. It was then it dawned on me what I was doing. Bingo, the next six arrows were in the lung/heart area. I have a twenty foot cord on my climber and go till I see the bow starting to come off the ground. It is rare that I get busted at that height and I keep my shots at or inside the twenty yard mark and don't have a problem getting both lungs.


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## Floatsum (Jan 14, 2010)

More than one way to skin a cat. 

I generally hunt just off main intersecting trails. I look for spots that funnel around obsticles (heavy brush, rocks, fallen trees, etc.
I'll set the stand 5-10 yds ussually back from the trail, preferably behind some brush or something. The heigth is set so I barely see over top of the brush when sitting in a high seat. Most of the time I'm 6-10 ft. to the bottom of the stand, just enough to see over it sitting.
But, I generally hunt swamps or on the fringes of one. Not so much open standing timber.
I'm sure location makes a differance.


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