The other night I was out hunting. Started off with my compound but it broke and then I headed out with my Bear recurve. My luck has it that I had the biggest buck of my life come under my stand and I took a bent over seated shot and shot 4 feet over his back. I thought I hit him at first but the whole incident was a blur. Everything went wrong, the release the aiming.
But I have to admit it sure did feel exciting and a whole lot more natural using the recurve. Kind of simpler.
The kill zone on a straight down shot is too small with too much room for error. Don't do it-for the animals sake.
Wait til the animal makes a move, either out front or to the side,then at least you have a better chance to put it into the chest.
I hate real close shots out of tree stands! The kill zone gets real small don't take them let the deer get out farther or let him walk. I had a bad experience last season with about a 6 yard shot i was up about 18 feet. I found the deer about a week later my hit was perfect but with the angle i took only one lung and it went along ways on the other through a pine tree farm with golden rod. I would never take that shot again.
If your gonna do it you should be standing and bend over at the waist. It is a hard shot with a minimal sized kill zone as the others said.
I don't shoot straight down anymore...too many things can go wrong.
My best ever straight down shot- from 17' with a blunt.....smoked a coon right between the ears. Was hunting bears with a buddy when it got too dark to hunt bear, had a coon sitting right below us on a log. Told my bud the plan, and when the arrow cracked him on the head- it sounded like I hit a rock, my bud starts laughing that I missed...nope. Had to bend way over- using my harness for support. Won't shoot any whitetails that way- too much room for error.
That is why I prefer when possible to have heavy cover surrounding the base of the tree that my stand is in. It tends to help from getting busted as well.
Peachy is 100% on this one. If your gonna try it you must stand up and draw back holding bow level then bend at waist. The draw, then bend will give you the proper form/stance to make the shot. It has always been a contaversial shot option. I have killed many deer with this shot, the largest being 325#. None of the deer I have shot this way made it any further than 15yrds. Most fall on the spot. This is not a shot for someone shooting light poundage and light arrows. The minimum I have done it with would be 64# longbow with 600gr arrows.
I totally agree with Dave(hunt it)....but some of my blood trails have been quite long(single lung),but they were steady and ended with a dead deer every time......Curt }>>----->("Guru" on Tracy's sign in)
Terrible shot angle. If you don't shoot thru and out the bottom, zilch for blood trail. I would never try it. especially on "the biggest buck of my life"