Muzzleloading & treestands

[Bob J]

How much higher is the point of impact shooting out of a treestand, say 20 - 25 ft high, when shooting at a deer 15 - 30 yards away?

 

[roundball]

How much higher is the point of impact shooting out of a treestand, say 20 - 25 ft high, when shooting at a deer 15 - 30 yards away?

I wouldn't think there could be a single answer for such a thing...way too many variables between shooters size, weight and style...rifle size and weight, powder charges, velocity, projectiles, etc, etc...

 

[Bob J]

How much higher is the point of impact shooting out of a treestand, say 20 - 25 ft high, when shooting at a deer 15 - 30 yards away?

I wouldn't think there could be a single answer for such a thing...way too many variables between shooters size, weight and style...rifle size and weight, powder charges, velocity, projectiles, etc, etc...

Say we're talking about a 100 grain 3f load behind a .535 roundball in a 9lb. GPR (or a TC Hawken :winking: ), ballpark figure only, are we talking maybe 2 or 3 inches?

 

[roundball]

How much higher is the point of impact shooting out of a treestand, say 20 - 25 ft high, when shooting at a deer 15 - 30 yards away?

I wouldn't think there could be a single answer for such a thing...way too many variables between shooters size, weight and style...rifle size and weight, powder charges, velocity, projectiles, etc, etc...

Say we're talking about a 100 grain 3f load behind a .535 roundball in a 9lb. GPR (or a TC Hawken :winking: ), ballpark figure only, are we talking maybe 2 or 3 inches?

I couldn't even dare try to put a number on it...far too many (other) variables...best thing I could suggest would be to make a personal test as someone else mentioned above...sorry

 

[Stumpkiller]

It's going to matter what range you're sighted for, and height of sight-plane above bore axis. For my rifle, sighted 2" high at 50 yards with 3/4" sight height over bore axis and a .54 cal of about 1,700 fps muzzle velocity it will be about 1" in your example. Hardly enough to worry about, really. It's enough to miss a squirrel. But, if you then change the distance to 75 yards down a ravine where the deer is 40 feet below horizontal you're in the neighborhood of a 3" difference. Add to that the angle through the deer's chest is steeper so the "kill zone" is narrower. That's the difference between a heart shot and a flesh wound. That's why I usually aim center lungs.

With a bow from a tree-stand or similar elevated amgle I concentrate on the bottom of the visible ribs, a 5" difference or so. I seldom have hunted from a tree stand, but our archery 3-D course had several elevated stations. The pin shooters HATED the 25 yard fox from a 12 ft high platform because the 25 yard pin put the arrow off the target entirely. But then came the 320fps carbon arrows and they beat the trad. shooters with velocity and flat trajectory.

 

[JeffD]

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happened to me a couple of years ago. Missed the largest buck I've ever seen in the woods. I was fairly high in a tree stand and I'm pretty sure I shot over its back.

 

[roundball]

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happened to me a couple of years ago. Missed the largest buck I've ever seen in the woods. I was fairly high in a tree stand and I'm pretty sure I shot over its back.

And...I learned another problem with extreme angles...I was so used to picking the spot behind the shoulder when practicing on level ground, that when I would try to compensate by holding very low under that spot, I forgot about the steep angle.

Of course the projectile didn't pass through the deer horizontally...it entered at such a steep angle that it went out the bottom of the deer, leaving white belly hairs on the ground, after making a very shallow wound channel that entered and exited along side of the heart, and not across through it.

Just lightly wounded what should have been a few "gimmes" that way...and once I got it through my thick head what was happening, I haven't hunted at those extreme heights since.

 

[BS]

How much higher is the point of impact shooting out of a treestand, say 20 - 25 ft high, when shooting at a deer 15 - 30 yards away?

At 25' in the air shooting 25yds [75'] you gain 4 feet. A 75' shot, turns into a 79' shot.

a 75yard shot, you gain 1.4 Yards.

It don't mean DIDILEY!

 

So if it were directly overhead, you'd shoot high?

If it were directly below you (tree stand), you'd shoot low?

Sorry, but Stumpkiller and all the others are correct. It's about gravitys effect on the ball. A rather simple concept relly. No mass, no accelleration, no BS, just gravity.

 

[Darkhorse]

I take it you were hunting with good old open Iron sights when you missed those deer?
I think if you try and split hairs and aim high then you will end up shooting over a lot of deer.
I think if you shoot at the belly line you will shoot under a lot of deer.
You could try this; Forget all that complicated stuff that just serves to confuse the issue. We're not talking bows and arrows or 300 yard downhill shots. Or a target the size of a squirrels jaw. We are talking about the side of a deer.
Sight your rifle in for 50 yards for regular whitetail hunting. Then aim equal distance between the belly and top.
But first practice shooting about 10 times as much as you think you need too. Sometimes in the excitement you don't actually concentrate as well as you think you do. A lot of practice can help overcome this.
I know this sounds way too simple. Maybe I'm just lucky. But its worked for me hunting deer with round lead balls for the past 30 years.
From some of these answers one would think you needed a rangefinder and a calculator to shoot a deer with a muzzleloader.

 

[410-er]

Well I did a test........kind of.I went up about 20' and had a target at 50 yds.The difference was this time I used a 54 and PRB.The results was no difference between the ground and being up.I'm starting to wonder if when I used the 50 with a 390gr. TC Maxi it might have gone under because of the extra weight and angle.Here too I would say that a PRB would be faster with less arc.

 

[markc05]

I agree with you on the fact you shoot high whether shooting uphill or down. I have a Lyman 47th Edition reloading manual that covers exactly that.