First off, I violated a cardinal rule of bow hunting--always practice the exact shot you expect to take under normal hunting conditions. This violation cost me the recovery of my first bowkill deer. Worst yet, the shot I took on this doe was 5 inches back, resulting in a pass through gut shot. I feel absolutely miserable about the whole event and hope that this posting might prevent a similar outcome.
Here's the setup: I'm 20 feet up a large oak in a hang-on with my feeder 14 yards line of sight from my location. A mature doe comes in on a string and offers me a broadside shot at 13 yards. I'm sure someone will do the math on this but my guestimate is that the angle of incline for this steep shot was around 60 degrees (which brings into play the relevance of the 3rd axis). I shoot and clearly see my arrow hit nice and low, right on the heart plane, but nearly 5 inches too far back. Retrieving the arrow, I confirm a gut shot. I wait nearly an hour to attempt the recovery and can only find trace smatterings of blood. A 6 hour grid search of the entire property yields nothing. I go and get my 18-1 Rhinehart and recreate the shot....I'm stacking my broadheads on top of fieldpoints, all nearly 5 inches to the right.
That's when I learned a hard lesson about 3rd Axis adjustments. The videos below give a quick overview and how to make the adjustments to your sights. Having made these adjustments, I'm grouping dead center from the same elevated position.
Apologies for the long post, but I feel compelled to share my experience in the hopes it could prevent a similar mistake.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO_fa0bGwu4"]Understanding the Effects of 3rd axis - part 2.wmv - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUYuhOZTd34"]Leveling a Hunting (pins) Sight - part 5.wmv - YouTube[/ame]
Here's the setup: I'm 20 feet up a large oak in a hang-on with my feeder 14 yards line of sight from my location. A mature doe comes in on a string and offers me a broadside shot at 13 yards. I'm sure someone will do the math on this but my guestimate is that the angle of incline for this steep shot was around 60 degrees (which brings into play the relevance of the 3rd axis). I shoot and clearly see my arrow hit nice and low, right on the heart plane, but nearly 5 inches too far back. Retrieving the arrow, I confirm a gut shot. I wait nearly an hour to attempt the recovery and can only find trace smatterings of blood. A 6 hour grid search of the entire property yields nothing. I go and get my 18-1 Rhinehart and recreate the shot....I'm stacking my broadheads on top of fieldpoints, all nearly 5 inches to the right.
That's when I learned a hard lesson about 3rd Axis adjustments. The videos below give a quick overview and how to make the adjustments to your sights. Having made these adjustments, I'm grouping dead center from the same elevated position.
Apologies for the long post, but I feel compelled to share my experience in the hopes it could prevent a similar mistake.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO_fa0bGwu4"]Understanding the Effects of 3rd axis - part 2.wmv - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUYuhOZTd34"]Leveling a Hunting (pins) Sight - part 5.wmv - YouTube[/ame]
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