Crossbow trajectory question?

superd222

superd222

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Hey all crossbow hunters - how (much) do you compensate for shoting downhill?

This is my first season hunting with the crossbow (Exocet 200). My treestand is about 16' off the ground and I sighted-in from that height at 20 yards - the bow is dead-nuts on. I also shot it a lot at 30, 40, and even out to 50 yards - the Excalibur scope is calibrated and works incrediblly well.

Last night a BIG buck came into view about 80 yards to my right - and down a steep hill. I had some doe in estrus scent out on a wick and he was sniffing like mad, his nose was straight up in the air. It was good that he took a while to come in to range (about 7-8 minutes). It gave me time to relax and get settled for the shot. Man, I've never experienced the 45 to 3,000,000 beats per minute like that before. When he was 30 yards away he presented the broadside opportunity. He was about 20 feet lower (downhill)than I was sighted for and I put the 30yd mark right on the boiler room center and gently squeezed off the shot. It was about 25 minutes before dark - so, I just waited until it was almost black before coming down. I called a couple of experienced x-bow buddies over to help me search who came after another half-hour. We immediately found the arrow - which was totally soaked in blood but the trail was faint to start. We were able to track him for about 60 yards into a cedar swamp area where we found a big pile of blood. Shortly after that, the trail dried-up. SH*T !!!! We searched for a blood trail until after midnight - no luck. I went in this morning at first light to continue the search. I searched until 3pm and all I found was a single drop of blood on a bare log 250 yards in (through the cedar swamp and back into hardwoods on the other side). He must have been motoring. There was a heavy dew that probably washed the blood from the leaves - darn it.

The deer trails were visible through the bush and I must have walked over 10 miles covering as many trails and pushing through all the thick crap I could find.

I'm super upset and feel sick that I put a hole in this majestic beast without finding him - and knowing he's not suffering.

I must have hit high for the lack of blood trail. Any thoughts on shooting downhill? No hair was found at point of impact either so no way to tell for sure if it was high or low (brown or white hair).

I shoot a rifle club competition once a week and have shot deer before without a mistake like this. I know I didn't have buck fever here - I was stable with the bow and my elbow on my knee.

I can't believe it!

Last night there were LOTS of coyotes VERY close. I would have thought he'd have at least laid down or stopped for a rest (to die)- he must not have been feeling too good. Perhaps a pack of coyotes provided him with the motivation to keep running. They were really yipping and howling like they were in a feeding frenzy. I hope they got him (even if I didn't) because I can't say how terrible I feel about this.

The next one is getting the shotgun or rifle which I know works with greater success. I'm kinda off the x-bow idea for a while....
 
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All I can offer is to get in there preseason and practice shooting from your stand in an exact replica of how your hunting situation will be. That way you will know.
 
Don't blame the bow... this was your fault. Not intentionally of course, but through lack of effectiove practice. ANY projectile fired either uphill or down will have it's point of impact affected. The reason is this: Gravity (which is responsible for trajectory) doesn't affect the projectile at a constant when shooting at an angle.

In a nutshell: You were shooting down.....gravity doesn't affect the arrow the same way as if you were shooting horizontally.....your shot hit high......likely very high.

With my bow, my 10 yard pin works at 25 when shooting down from 20 feet up....even though the target is 25 from the treestand. My 20 yard pin works at 40...same thing. The same thing happens with bullets: Ask a sheep hunter, they'll tell ya.


The only way to prevent it from happening again is to actually shoot from your treestand (or something else equally as high) before trying to take another animal.
 
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:agree:

Been there, done that with a rifle. ####tiest feeling in the world when you figure out what trajectory has to do with a downhill shot.

We lost the doe that day.

I still feel sick over that one. It was 4 yrs ago and my first time deer hunting. I learned from it....the hard way. :(
 
This is my first year hunting with a crossbow but one thing I did learn from everyone I know is that the arrow always goes high. My best friend said he must have missed at least 30 deer (over many years mind you) this way from his stand.

Thats why I hunt from a ground blind. Yes the scent issue can make it harder but I simply feel better about taking the shot with my bow.

One thing that was suggested to me is after you shoot it use your buck grunt call. From what I'm told often the deer with lose some of its fear and stop to lay down. Also I was told never to chase unless I have waited one hour regardless of how much daylight is left. The deer needs time to lay down and die.

Sorry to hear about your loss. I'd feel pretty crappy too. Maybe go back out each day and keep looking around for him just incase. Even if you can find some remains it will put closure on it for ya.
 
My brother has been hunting with xbows for a long time. When shooting down from a stand he always puts the crosshair where the arrow will come out of the deer, but you need to know the distance. Works for us.
 
Not sure if a deer will react to "string noise" with a crossbow as they can with a compound or recurve. At a "scary sound" deer will often drop down to coil their leg muscles for an up and away leap. I have watched hunting videos of deer "jumping the string" and if you put your finger on the TV screen where you figure the archer would aim, you can see how much the deers back drops and the arrow will go right where your finger is but the deer is no longer there. It looks as though the hunters arrow went high but really it went right where it was aimed. The deer went low.

(Targets don't do this, so all the target practice you can do will not help if a deer "jumps (drops)the string".)

Robin in Rocky
 
robinhood said:
This is my first year hunting with a crossbow but one thing I did learn from everyone I know is that the arrow always goes high. My best friend said he must have missed at least 30 deer (over many years mind you) this way from his stand.

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Anyone who has missed 30 deer with any type of weapon has no bizness being in the woods at all IMHO.Sounds like you and especially your friend need ALOT more practise.This is the exact reason why most vertical bow hunters(compounds,traditionals etc.)despise x-bows being allowed during bow seasons.Any assclown can go to Le Barons in the a.m. and be "bowhunting":jerkit: the same afternoon without a clue.X-bows ARE NOT RIFLES,they are bows,with basically the same trajectory charecteristics as any vertical bow.Do yourself and the deer a favor and get to know your weapon before venturing out again.

BTW,the arrow(or bolt) does not ALWAYS go high,in fact,it NEVER goes high,it just doesn't drop AS MUCH when shot from an elevated position at any given range.There are no shortcuts,only practise from an elevated position will tell you how much you need to compensate.
 
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My cousin shot a BIG 9 point 5 days ago with his crossbow. he hit it high, right below the backbone. At the start there was hardly any blood, They spent 6 hours tracking it, finally found him dead about 1am. They spooked it with the quad around 11pm, found HUGE puddles of blood where he was laying down shortly before they found him. When looking at where the arrow went in and out you could see fat plugging the holes. He had so much fat on his ribs and backbone, we were pulling out GOBS of fat, it really slowed down the blood trail. We were lucky as hell even to find him. Took us around 2 hours just walking through a bean field finding drops of blood in the dark. We found him none the less.


Go back out and look right where you shot him. Countless times we have lost blood trail just to find that the deer almost did a complete circle and died about 100 yards where he was shot.
 
DVXDUDE said:
My cousin shot a BIG 9 point 5 days ago with his crossbow. he hit it high, right below the backbone. At the start there was hardly any blood, They spent 6 hours tracking it, finally found him dead about 1am. They spooked it with the quad around 11pm, found HUGE puddles of blood where he was laying down shortly before they found him. When looking at where the arrow went in and out you could see fat plugging the holes. He had so much fat on his ribs and backbone, we were pulling out GOBS of fat, it really slowed down the blood trail. We were lucky as hell even to find him. Took us around 2 hours just walking through a bean field finding drops of blood in the dark. We found him none the less.


Go back out and look right where you shot him. Countless times we have lost blood trail just to find that the deer almost did a complete circle and died about 100 yards where he was shot.
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Hey! Just think, your cousin did him a favour by shooting him because he was going to die anyway because of all that fat!

I have spent countless hours searching for this buck. I've heard other stories of finding a big pile of blood where they have stopped to lay down - wasn't lucky enough to find that spot. If he was injured, I'm sure the coyotes got him by now. If I just nicked him, hopefully he's healing or hunted by someone else. The shotgun (controlled) hunt opened yesterday and there are lots of guys in the area hunting this week.

On a better note, I had two other big bucks come into my stand area on Sunday. I had the bow and they were about 50yds away. I didn't attempt to shoot. Instead, I let them slip away not noticing me in hopes to shoot them with my shotgun the next day. Man, the rut is ON in WMU 80 right now - they were frantic over the hot doe urine.

Monday morning (with sabot-slug-shotgun) I had a coyote travelling with purpose run through the area. He disappeared as quickly as he came into view. No deer were seen this morning.

Monday afternoon was windy, cold, and raining and a nice 8-pt came 60 yds too close to my stand sniffing out the "hot doe". He got 1oz of solid copper right through the heart and both lungs! After he was hit, he ran about 25 yds and crashed hard - Great Success!
 
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