Shooting down from stand

[smoke1953]

Bend the front knee the rest will follow in proper form.

[Alsea]

Originally posted by smoke1953:
Bend the front knee the rest will follow in proper form.

Nope...that's wrong.

The "T" is the key. Here's how you do it.

Slight downhill shots:

With level foot position (treestand platform). Move your hips backwards  before the draw . Keep the upper body part of your body and shoulders in a "'T'" position.


Steep downhill shot:

Level ground (treestand platform). Open your foot position, move your hips backwards and straighten your upper body  before the draw .
 
The steeper the shot the more you will have to open your stance.

Once you get it down, you can get into position from any posture that you find yourself in the field, but it's best to practice it from your normal stance beforehand. The key to it is  moving the hips back before the draw . Hips back for downhill and hips forward for uphill, that's the rule. You can even do it while kneeling

I'm trying to figure out how to convert PDF images into jpegs so I can post some pics. This is just basic FITA Field Archery stuff.

Soooooooo much, for the hunting archer to learn from the target guys...lol!  

[Terry Green]

And SOOOOOooooo much for the one stance, one cant, one postion, one shot target guys to learn from the bowhunters that dictate and control the bow at their demand and actually kill stuff doing so with amaizing accuracy.....like most of the guys I hunt with.

Two way street.

[hera]

Like this?

[Traditional-Archer]

If you hunt from the ground practice from the ground.If you hunt from the tree then practice accordingly.I hunt from the tree and the last 6- 8 weeks before season thats all I practice. Find what works for you to hit the spot but I think you will see bending will be your choice as well.

[jrchambers]

what ever form it takes to get the shot off and kill the critter.  there is no one form for hunting.  every situation requires diferent form.  if you can draw to anchor and see your target you can shoot it cant no cant, kneeling sitting laying down.  the ability to contort your T i belive is a desired skill.  if you are scaling a cliff and that bear shows up straight above you there is no room to turn shoulder straight would you pass up the shot.  not if you practice your laying down shots.  It is instinctive shooting if your instincts say to kill the critter do it,  if you miss practice untill you are killing every thing in range.  the deadliest predator is the versitale one.

[Snakeeater]

I agree with bending at the waist and using a consistent "T" to keep your sign picture and draw length the same regardless of the shot angle.

But, there is another factor that hasn't been mentioned, and that is that the amount of drop you get in your arrow is based on the horizontal distance from you to the target, not the straight line distance. If you are say 15' above your target and the target is 20 yards away, then you need to aim based on the 17+/- yards that it is from the base of your tree. The same thing goes for shooting uphill. This is why the range finder manufacturers are now selling "intelligent" rangefinders that give you the true balistic distance for those uphill or downhill shots. Here is an example of one:

 http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&partNumber=95300&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults

BTW, I teach both of these concepts, the T and the true distance, in my IBEP course and it really helps the students.

[Terry Green]

JR,

I believe you can take your form to those shots you mentioned....they are just variations of positions.  You can still execute proper form and aligment in many positions, stances, and bow cant angles if you are properly aligned.

[GroundHunter]

Here is my take after Thanksgiving weekend where I missed 4 shots high and finally drilled a buck dead center kill-zone heartshot. and it walked calmly 20 yards and fell over dead. Lucky me, the place is crawling with deer to get so many shots!

All of the shots were 18-20 yards - easy.

All shots were from a 7 1/2 foot high tripod -sitting. After three misses high, I got a target and set it up and shot it from the tripod. No problem - dead on. My next shot at a deer was a miss high. What was wrong with my form?

Nothing. When I drilled the deer on the fifth shot the problem was crystal clear from the picture in my mind. That shot, I saw the arrow zip right into the spot I was focused on. In fact, I didn't see the whole deer, just the arrow hitting that spot. There was nothing else in the world in my attention besides that spot, and it's like I watched a ball of feathers just go there. The image in my mind lacks any peripheral details. Tunnel vision. total focus. Same as when I drilled the target dead on.

But, on all the high misses - I was looking at the whole deer. My mental picture memory of the shot is a very different picture of a whole deer, lanscape and all, as the arrow sails over its back. Lots of periphery details in those inmages. One was an attempted neck shot at 15 yards. I thought that would put me onto a tighter target. Shot at the whole neck - high again by 6 inches. I remember the deer standing behind the one I missed. More periphery, less focus - no spot - missed high.

Focus on the spot - until the arrow hits. Then watch the deer.

In the heat of the moment I tend to gaze at the deer and put him in my shot picture as I draw. But, picking the spot - the deer seems to almost dissappear from my attention. There is just that center of the kill zone, and my arrow ends up there.


Maurice Thompson and Saxton Pope and Howard Hill all wrote about this the same way.

I keep having to learn it every time I hunt.