@cantexian few years back I always had pins set at 20, 30, 40 - but when analyzing my shot history and my stand set ups....I quickly realized I had immensely more shots under 20 than I had over 30. I've still to this day only shot over 30 yards ONE time on a deer. INSANE. I switched to 15, 25 and 35 pins and now routinely shoot down to 10 yards fairly regularly whenever I'm practicing. *edit: I do have a 45 pin as well...but honestly that's relegated to Yote only shots. I regularly practice with it however just as much as the other distances and those inbetween.
for me, from 5-25 I just put the pin on the where I want to hit and it does..it's not high or low. now at 5-10 I do have to bend at the waist so that maybe why I hit dead on. but over the years I have had more 10-15 yd shots than anything else. if I do not bend, I hit high from 20ish ft up. usually it comes out the bottom and dumps good blood.
It’s something that many don’t think about. At really close range your arrow is sitting quite a ways under your sight. At less than 5 yards it doesn’t have room to arc upwards very much, so you have to choose a lower pin that is closer to the arrow. On my current setup it works out best using my 40 yard pin (or 40 yard mark if using a single pin mover). My previous bow and setup it was my 50 pin that was best under 5 yards. At 6-8 yards, such a little difference, but now the arrow has time to rise a bit more before impact, so my 30 pin has to be used. At 9 yards or more I’m fine to just use my 20 pin. Bending at the waist is always going to be proper form for a steep angle, but if you held your 25 pin low on a 2-5 yard shot you’re going to shoot way low in many cases. You’d actually need to hold your pin high. Next time you have some practice time, and yes it feels silly, but shoot a target from 3 yards. You’re going to find that possibly your 40 or even 50 mark is best. Then do 5 yards, 6 yards, 7 yards, etc. At 5 yards your same pin you used at 3 may still work, but by 6-7 yards you’ll have to switch to perhaps your 30 yard sight mark. Then shoot 8, 9, and so forth until you find what yardage your 20 pin mark starts hitting POA.
6 of 1, half of the other. You could say I aimed at the right spot but used the wrong pin, or used the right pin and aimed at the wrong spot. See below To be clear, I wasn't saying that my bad hit and lost deer was because of an untuned bow and light(ish) arrows- that was on me. He was less than 10 yards from me and I used my top (25 yard) pin and hit way higher than my POA. He didn't flinch or jump the string; I just should've been more familiar with that close of a shot and what it takes to adjust for it. Whether that means I should've used my 50 pin dead on or just used my 25 aimed at his ankle. But I was also making the point that the lack of penetration was due in large part to light arrows and an untuned bow. He was so close that the arrow was probably tailing 15* off center. Just dumb.
Actually I practice those shots a lot. I've killed many deer from 3-7 yards. I don't use sites, theres no pins to choose. I have to know where to hold my broardhead point with a good waIst bend. I can tell you at those yardages I don't have the tip of my broadhead even on the deer. It's in line with my target but that close that shot will be high period. So from the ground along sidecp to an aim under the belly will put a broad head mid way up on yardage mentioned. Years of practice from a stand. Not using a range finders just placing the target at random distances. Shooting just 3 arrows at a tine until I'm dead nuts ,then moving to a different spot. Shooting from stand,shooting up hill and sharp down hill which also changes aiming a lot
I would pass a deer that is standing under the stand at 10 yards before I would pass on a deer at 35 yards.
I would too. I just limbed out a tree for my climber a couple weeks ago but to get best coverage for all the trail junctions I had to use a tree that is on the bank above one of those trails. If a deer walks it I’ll have to let it go by and then stop it for a quartering away shot. If I stopped it broad side it would be a 2 yard shot almost straight down. No thanks.
every deer I have shot high was w/in 15 yards, to include my infamous pincushion buck and my graze/miss earlier this season. Get 'em out past 20 and I have only had one bad hit and that was back not high or low.
