downhill woodswalk

[Kansas Jake]

Smart son you raise there.

 

[necchi]

it would perhaps be understandable if they actually posted a legible figure when they reference it.

:idunno: The same information, graphs and charts can be found elsewhere. I know it's hard looking at that science stuff. The reality thing always does mess up a good story.
But information does help when you want to improve your shooting skills. It pay's off at practice time if you look at that stuff.

 

[George]

Well this might be why it is impossible to kill. You simply state that it's wrong and your only reference is "Lyman". Lyman who? Lyman what?

This topic has been discussed several times on this forum, and I've been involved in several discussions of the same on other boards. Here are a couple of links to discussions here and one to a short one by me almost 20 years ago on my web page, scroll down to Incline Angle.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/296046/tp/1/
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/297068/fromsearch/1/tp/1/
http://home.insightbb.com/~bspen/OddShots.html

Spence

 

[Skychief]

Pondering this thread's subject has jogged my memory and led to a couple of observations and thoughts.

Moderators, please bear with me as I will be mentioning scoped rifles and sighted bows...

I've been known to hunt early season gray squirrels with an old lever rimfire with a scope. Mostly years ago before my black powder affliction became full blown.

The last few years, I've been using my fowler a lot as my eyes aren't what they used to be.

It's dawned on me tonight that it was, in part, this practice of using a rifle with a sighting system riding high above the bore, that led to my successful use of shooting for horizontal distance.

In my mind, this may make some sense as the projectile is farther from the bore than most of our muzzleloading rifles wearing low sights mostly.

If sighted in at say 50 yards, the bullet may strike as low as 2" below line of sight at say 15 yards.

So, for a shot at a squirrel 30 actual yards away, yet 15 yards away horizontally, I had luck aiming an inch and a half, or so, above the top of its head. The bullet had not reached zero yet.

Similarly, I've shot a lot of 3d archery. Only traditional bows the last ~20 years, but I used sighted compound bows previous to that.

When one anchors those bows, the arrow shaft (similar to the bore of a rifle for this discussion), is inches below the pins (front sight) and your eyeball or string peep (rear sight).

Again, when faced with an uphill or downhill target, I would figure for horizontal distance. While a target may be down a steep hill and actually 30 yards from the shooting stake, I would focus on a tree very near the target, follow the trunk up until I was looking at it "on the level" and use that distance, say 20 yards to choose which pin to use. Sighting on that downhill target, 30 yards away with my bow's 20 yard pin, proved a winning concept.

I know many other archers that sight like this to good effect.

Probably a poor job on my part to convey my thoughts. In more of a nutshell, I'm thinking that the greater the gap between sights and bore...The better aiming for horizontal distance, at angled targets, works.

I do know one thing for sure. Taking squirrels, regardless of different angles, with the Skychief shotload, does away with a lot of this comp-u-tating! :haha:

Best regards, Skychief

 

[Grimord]

Clyde:

Our woods walks are quite challenging. We have to shoot eggs at about 50 yards, lolipops at 30 yards, necco wafers at 20 yards, and charcoal briquets at 35 yards. These make for interesting targets interspersed with the usual gongs at ranges from 50 to 110 yards. The smaller targets help to eliminate the need for tie breakers. A hit on these small targets really boosts your ego, and helps with your score.

 

[George]

There is one very important factor which all those who report successfully using the horizontal distance to figure aiming point on short range targets need to keep in mind. The error at those ranges is measured in small fractions of an inch. For instance, from the Lyman manual, a conical bullet fired at 1400 fps up or down slope at 50 yards will only hit .08-inch high at 15 degrees, .32-inch high at 30 degrees, and .70-inch high at 45 degrees. You may not be solving the problem you think you are, because there was no problem in the first place.

The 'uphill-downhill' error is not something we need to be concerned about in shooting with our traditional gear. It's very real, but for us it's only an interesting ballistics fact that's fun to think about. For some of us. :grin:

In anything like normal hunting situations there is no need to even consider slant range error in figuring where to aim. If you understand the trajectory of your gun, just shoot it as you would on level ground and you will make meat.

Spence

 

[coloradoclyde]

The 'uphill-downhill' error is not something we need to be concerned about in shooting with our traditional gear. It's very real, but for us it's only an interesting ballistics fact that's fun to think about. For some of us. :grin:



Spence

:thumbsup:

 

[Skychief]

Darn it Spence.

Another perfectly good myth busted all to Smithereenies! :shake: :shake: :shake:

Best regards, Skychief :hatsoff: