Shooting High

Don Thomas

Since it's whitetail season and a lot of us are hunting from trees, ever wonder why it's so easy to shoot too high from a tree stand? Sure, bucks do jump the string sometimes, and their first movement is downward. But 3-D targets don't, and most of us tend to shoot high at them too.

There's a simple explanation for this problem. Shooting downward at a steep angle creates a natural tendency to drop the bow arm as you aim. That changes the critical angles in the triangle formed by your bow hand, your drawing hand, and your dominant eye. You shoot high for the same reason you shoot high at a flying bird with a shotgun when you lift your cheek off the stock.

A couple of simple alterations to your shooting form will help. First, make a conscious point to tuck your chin down toward your chest as you come to full draw. That will keep your dominant eye down against your anchor point where it belongs.

Second, concentrate on bending at the waist with your stance otherwise unchanged in order to get your arrow pointed downward at the target. You can practice this from your stand by picking two targets, the first one imaginary and the second one real. Start by picking a spot on a tree 15-20 yards away at eye level and come to full draw on it. Then, while keeping your head and both arms in a stationary relationship with one another, bend at the waist until you're ready to release at the spot you've picked on the ground.

Practice these methods and you'll be surprised at how many fewer deer wind up jumping the string!