Aiming for the drop (bow) and where to aim (rifles and bows)
I thought this might be a good topic for discussion with all the archery harvests showing up on social media and as we enter rifle season.
My own reason for bringing it up is from my first experience shooting at a deer with a compound bow. I believe DarekG might have had a similar experience. Anyway, I knew to anticipate the drop while shooting. There are dozens of slow motion videos on YouTube showing how deer generally react and that it is good to make sure the shot is low (but obviously still in the kill zone in case the deer does not react)
In my case, which I am still not quite sure have to solve for if it is even possible. When I took the shot, the deer was completely in front of me and broadside to me. I aimed a bit lower than I normally would and just behind the shoulder.
To my surprise. When I found the deer, the wound was not behind the shoulder. It entered in front of the shoulder. To add to that surprise, when we turned him over, the exit hole was quite far back (I'll dig up a picture later if I have time) ... Anyway, if it was much further back, things would have got rather messy. So magically (well not really) a direct broadside shot went as diagonally through the deer as it potentially could without intestinal involvement. There is really only one possibility for that to happen and it did not even register in the moment (I never saw this take place) and that is the deer reacted after the shot, not only by dropping (that was anticipated) but the deer would have had to have quartered far in toward me for that split second. I feel very lucky it did not hit the shoulder blade or poke through to the guts.
I do not think it is possible to solve for that by shot placement. Though if anyone can think of a way I am interested. I suspect the only thing that would help is to increase the speed of the arrow. With a 26 inch draw and 47lb draw weight, my shots will be slower than many, one of the reasons for my 20 yard limit. I could probably squeeze in another inch on the draw length (though not very proper) would probably help the most. Draw weight I could probably go up to another 5-10lbs without much muscle training. Arrow weight might be another thing.
Anyway here's a good video with rifle shot placement tips for various angles as well as bow shots and deer reactions. It starts out with rifle discussion and then around 10:25 it discusses bows and safely compensating for "the drop" (the common deer reaction to the thwap of a bow) Probably a lot of common sense to many but I was able to take away some good rifle tips from it. I figure hey, if a thread like this can collectively save some meat, put the animal down faster or prevent an animal from not being recovered it's worth tossing up. And hey, there might be better videos or tips up there so feel free to post them up.
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