Depends on what "sight line" your talking about, 20, 30, 40 yard pin, etc... all different sight lines.
Negative Kimo Nada! No limbs. I am taking Mobow & Gr8's advice if that shot comes up again. If it doesn't, after bow season I will set the doe target where the buck was standing and take the shot (with field tips, bh's too expensive). This thread was meant as a eye opener for others who may run across this shot. The 10 yard or 20 yard (whichever is your first) ain't gonna work!
So......... If I shoot a line straight down that is parallel with the tree I'm in, my line of sight and the path of the arrow will intersect? I think not. If u were to not worry about point of impact or even be aiming at anything....... And you draw your bow and release the arrow perfectly level, that arrow will NEVER rise above your line of sight. It can't. It starts below and if released perfectly level, it simply cannot. Same shooting STRAIGHT down. I the arrow is reased perfectly level on the verticle plane, it simply cannot meet your line of sight. It will once again stay below it. If my line of sight is level and my arrow is released level we have parallel lines. They cannot intersect. Now in this particular instance with the deer being 3 yards from the tree we aren't shooting STRAIGHT down and yea, eventually the 2 lines will cross. But if we WERE shooting straight down, you would use the same pin if the target is 30 feet away or 300 feet away. Won't make any difference.
if its within 10 yards you should always use the longest yardage pin ur bow is setup for i know that because of last year i shot my big 9 point at 4 yards straight down
Thank you!!! All this thread was about was to educate those who do/did not know this. The buck, a 170 class, was 8' from the base of the tree. It was my only shot. I placed the 10 yard pin on him low and released. The arrow went over his back. When I consulted Mo and Gr8, they both informed me to use the longest pin. Hopefully, those that can use this information will go past all the misguideds posts and retain what is important. WHEN SHOOTING THAT CLOSE TO YOU, USE YOUR LONGEST PIN EVEN THOUGH IT MAY NOT MAKE SENSE IN YOUR OWN MIND! Then, you don't have to watch a great buck run away unharmed! Now, lets end this thread and get back to hunting.
How can an arrow that is shot perfectly level, and starts it's flight 8" BELOW my eyes ever intersect my line of sight? The arrow will be dropping toward the ground the instant it's released. It will be falling AWAY from my line of sight. How are those 2 lines ever going to intersect? Admitedly this is all academic as we aren't ever going to shoot perfectly level. But I we did, the arrow would not move toward my line of sight. In fact I would do just the opposite, on level ground. But having thought about it u may very well be right on the straight down shot. The plane the arrow is on doesn't move but my line of sight isn't parallel to it. So eventually my line of sight would meet the path of the arrow. But the fact remains I'm using the closest pin to my arrow on a straight down shot.
Although this chart is not perfect, I hope it gets what Don is trying to say across. The black line is the distance. The red lines show the angle from the peep to the different distances The blue line represents the height of the target (deer). For the 10 yard pin, the angle from the peep to the target is greater than 20, 30, 40, etc. When shooting down, the lesser the angle, the truer flight of the arrow will be seen. So the longer pin you use, the better chance of hitting the target where intended. Don, does that explain things the way you explained them to me?
mobow, the path of the arrow must cross the line of sight in order to drop back to POI relative to pin. Jeff's crude drawing is correct. The sight path is a downward line from eye to POI (intended). Although when level or pointed downward, the arrow will never rise but it must cross the line of sight. That's why, my bow for example, the arrow is 1" high at 10 yards when using my 20 yard pin. The arrow crosses my line of sight and impacts higher. Same down range, this is not unlike a bullet which crosses the path/line of sight and then drops back into the POI/target at sighted in ranges. Again, why a bullet may hit 1.5" high at 100 yards to be dead on at say, 200 yards. The bullet crosses the line of sight high at 100 yards but the bullet too never rises but is fired upward. This is of course on level ground shooting relatively level/horizontal to earth. When shooting straight down or very close to it, the arrow may not cross the line of sight to the 20 yard pin but may at the 40 yard pin, thus this discussion.
But, you are not going to have that arrow droppage when shooting down because gravity is pretty much taken out of the picture. When shooting horizontally, yes, the arrow will be affected by gravity but not on vertical shots.
Not sure if your addressing me as I know what you saying, I said the same thing. That's obvious to me and I've played the 3 yard shot game to a lot of people to teach them that lesson. Although he won't admit it, guess who taught your opposition as well.
Not if we don't concern ourselves with aiming or where the arrow hits. If we fire the arrow perfectly level it won't connect with our line of sight. How can it? No argument at all if were talking a 20 yard shot aiming at the X. Ab****ely the 2 lines meet BUT we aren't firing the arrow perfectly level. It's pointed upward.
The arrow should be level with the bow and the bow is pointed upward. Right? Anyway I tried it from my balcony at a 3-d target 7yds away and the point of impact with my 20yd pin was dead on. I wouldn't trake a straight down shot anyway. Also I noticed there is no discernable difference at 20 or 10 yds.
Exactly correct. Actually I typically split my 40/50 yard pins inside of 4 yards. At 4 yards your arrow doesn't have time to climb to the 20 yard pin position (even more exaggerated on slow bows). Regardless if you're 3' in the air or 20' in the air the horizontal shooting distance is the same. The closer your arrow angle is to being parallel with the force of gravity, the smaller the effect on trajectory. The only reason that any projectile has a trajectory is to counteract the force of gravity...
Correct, except for the fact that your arrow is only affected by gravity over the horizontal distance that it travels. Whether the arrow travels 12', 25', or 100' doesn't matter if the horizontal distance traveled (perpendicular to Fg) is the same. If you were to shoot your arrow "straight down" (as in paralell to the force of gravity) it wouldn't ever cross any lines, because it travels zero horizontal distance.
Let me see if I got this straight. The reason the arrow hits low at 8ft is because it is initially pointed upwards (towards the top cam) The sight is adjusted so that at 20yds the arrow falls into the target (bullseye). This will be the second time the arrow crosses the line of sight , correct? The first will no doubt be somewhere around ten yds. This is on level ground. Does this then mean that at ten yds up the 20yd pin will again be on, and due to a shorter gravitational effect at 20yds up will the arrow then hit high? (I always hated physics, I'm sure there's a mathematical formula for all this, but I'd get a headache!) And if the arrow is shot straight down, it will only cross the line of sight once, right?
The only reason that the line of sight will intersect the path of the arrow is because in order to shoot at distances we have to increase the launch angle to hit our target (thus combat gravity)... Correct? So when your arrow is shot straight down, the launch angle and line of sight will never meet...?
