How many of you aim low?

[D.Delozier]

When ever I'm shooting at a deer, even though I've got a pretty fast setup (306 fsp) I still tend to aim at the bottom 1/3 of the chest area ,I guess I'm anticipating a string jump even though it's never happened to me yet. I just cant make my self aim spot on where I want the arrow to go.

Anybody else have this hang up ?

[Leo]

Yep and on whitetails especially when you're hunting from a stand it's a darn good idea. If they duck you get them, if they don't you get them still.

Edited May 23, 2009 by Leo

[hungry hunter]

Never had a buck jump the string. Every time I have aimed low well lets say the score is bucks 15 me 0. I now aim where I want the arrow to go.

[sskybnd]

never had one jump the string, and it depends on how high im in the tree if i aim low.

[mule659]

I always aim one third of the way up from the underside of his body behind the shoulder...that way if he does duck I still get him. Also, I have never shot under a deer but have shot over a few so it makes me feel a little better to hold a tad low.

[hoosierhunter]

I've shot both low and high so I'm just a hair behind center on him for the most part unless it's a extreme angle then I aim low....

[fly]

I've only had one doe duck my string at about 25 yards. The arrow grazed her back and I ended up with a few hairs. I generally hunt 25-35 feet up a tree. If a deer was looking at me at full draw I would aim an inch lower.

[Guest Primetime/IL]

Havent ever had a deer jump the string, however on shots 10yds or closer that is a near straight down shot I will tend to tuck the shot more towards the heart region.

[The_Kat]

I aim where I want to hit. Anticipating movement is not needed at that speed.

[dbHunterNY]

yea i do too. it seems like a logical thing to do.

[SuperMn106]

I always aim where I want the arrow to hit. I find the pocket right behind the shoulder, pick a small spot and let her eat.

When I was growing up my brother always told me, Aim small, miss small. Aim big, miss big. Which basically told me to aim at a very small area you want to hit.

[Rhino]

I always try to aim low which means aiming at the heart. If they duck, I'll still hit lungs.

I'm a little surprised many responses indicate the lack of a deer jumping string. From my personal experience as a general rule does seem to duck lower than bucks but most I've shot at will jump string to some extent.

The video of this doe in this link to string jumping is typical of how does react to jumping string here at home. You can scroll down to the step through the deer's reaction feature and see for yourself how much this doe ducks down. Granted the arrow passes above the yellow spot but that's not the point.

http://www.bowsite.com/BOWSITE/features/articles/deer/stringjumping/

[Strut10]

I aim where I want to hit......which is between 1/3 and 1/2 the way up. I'm looking for a lung shot and never intentionally aim for the heart (unless the angle's REALLY steep).

[redkneck]

I typically aim where I want the arrow to hit. Unless the deer is trying to make me out or is spooked and ready to whirl then i drop down just a touch. I don't care what you're shooting and how fast it is, if you watch enough hunting videos you'll see deer that will drop down on even the fastest set-ups at times. 33 yards is still 1/3 of a second on a 300fps bow and that's ample time for a spooked deer to begin a duckdown on you. That's not to mention that the arrow accelerates and doesn't go to 300 at the first sound of your release dropping the string. Just my humble opinion.

[PotashRLS]

I aim where I want to hit......which is between 1/3 and 1/2 the way up. I'm looking for a lung shot and never intentionally aim for the heart (unless the angle's REALLY steep).

Same here.

I also have not had experience with string jump. Just don't shoot at nervous deer.

[layin on the smackdown]

Not me......just put it where it needs to go, and let her rip.

[JimT]

I aim top of heart/bottom of lungs. If I misjudge the yardage this helps a little I think.

[Flintlock1776]

Majority of bow shots I take are under 15 yards and they drop in their tracks. I aim for the heart. Ground blind and ladder stand and upper barn floor

Last year I took my longest bow poke at a nice 6 pointer, 40 yards. Got him in the heart, he did a back flip and died. As others, zero yards traveled.

Similarly, same good results with a 30.06 at a wide variety of ranges.

[turkeydude]

I have never had a deer jump the string but i know what ya mean. Its a good idea. Im kinda the same way though.

[hunter109]

i am a tad lower than half i mean a few inchs from center i have never had one get away when i aimed right there well see you all latter

[crazyfarmer]

Never had a buck jump the string. Every time I have aimed low well lets say the score is bucks 15 me 0. I now aim where I want the arrow to go.

same here... but it also really depends on the distance for me. If he's out past 25 yards I may aim a tad lower. But under 20 yards, he not gonna drop enough to make a difference.

[Doc]

same here... but it also really depends on the distance for me. If he's out past 25 yards I may aim a tad lower. But under 20 yards, he not gonna drop enough to make a difference.

I had one deer at 15 yards move so much that she actually had the arrow enter her under-side as she leaned over into that first turn. That turned out to be one "lucky" shot, as the arrow deflected a bit more and struck the spinal chord from the underside. So don't be thinking that there is any distance that is too close for a deer to react significantly.

This whole "jumping the string" discussion reminds me of a little experiment that my youngest son and I performed back in the 80's. I devised a moveable cardboard target on a slide-wire. My son was stationed off to the side behind a shed with the sliding target attached to the back of his belt. He could not see me, and was to react only from the sound of the bow firing. I was back exactly at 20 yards using my tournament equipment to maximize acuracy. We took several shots to see just how far he could move that target from the time he heard the bow release to the time the arrow actually got to the target face. It turned out that the average distance was just over a foot. Actually it was very consistant over the 15 shots with only about a 2" variation. So, that little experiment proved that a human can jump the string at 20 yards. Imagine what a deer could actually do with their superior reaction times and physical advantages. Moving 1 foot is enough to put a perfect shot into the gut instead of in the 'boiler room' as intended.

Also keep in mind that he was tethered to the target with twine, and there was some slack and stretch involved. Also, he was pulling the target horizontally without any assist from gravity.

It definitely made a believer out of me. And then there are the countless slow motion videos that I have seen on TV. It would appear that an alerted deer that is "on-set", can easily move a significant distance, in many cases resulting in a clean miss. That is why I hate shooting at an alert deer. Anything can happen in that situation. As much as we would like to believe that our super-fast bows and our ultra-lite arrows can get there before any animal can react,, until they design a bow that will propel an arrow a whole lot closer to the speed of sound, don't ever assume that a deer can't mess up a pefectly good shot.

Doc

[hunter109]

i had two or three last year jump the string and thats why i shoot a lot lower than i useuly do