Calling all snipers and hunters.

[The Annoyed Man]

....and then there is the question of whether the windage/elevation controls on your scope are in Mils or MOA, and whether the stadia lines on your reticle (if it has stadia markings) are Mils or MOA. Although I own scopes with different kinds of reticles, I prefer mil/mil/mil setups myself because I think they simplify the process of ranging.

[RiverCity.45]

I love it! Thanks for the reminder that math and physics matter in our evertday lives.

[Jumping Frog]

The easier math is a squared + b squared = c squared. A being your height and B being straight line distance from grade to target. So if you were 200 yards at grade and 20 yards above the target the line of sight distance would be 200x200 + 20x20 or 40,000 + 400 = sight distance of the square root of 40,400 which is 200.99 yards. You have to be way above the target to make a real distance.

Yeah, a tree stand doesn't make much difference. But I've hunted where I was up on a hillside shooting down into a valley. Have a vertical distance of 300-400 feet, and that can matter.

It is also critical to be aware of incline shots if someone is a bow hunter, because an arrow trajectory is more much severe than a bullet trajectory. Shoot downhill from a tree stand and you can put an arrow in the dirt if you aren't taking it into account.

[Carry-a-Kimber]

The easier math is a squared + b squared = c squared. A being your height and B being straight line distance from grade to target. So if you were 200 yards at grade and 20 yards above the target the line of sight distance would be 200x200 + 20x20 or 40,000 + 400 = sight distance of the square root of 40,400 which is 200.99 yards. You have to be way above the target to make a real distance.

Yeah, a tree stand doesn't make much difference. But I've hunted where I was up on a hillside shooting down into a valley. Have a vertical distance of 300-400 feet, and that can matter.

It is also critical to be aware of incline shots if someone is a bow hunter, because an arrow trajectory is more much severe than a bullet trajectory. Shoot downhill from a tree stand and you can put an arrow in the dirt if you aren't taking it into account.

For a rifle shooter, even long range (for hunting) shots with high levels above grade don't make a huge difference. For instance, if your target was 400 yards away at grade and you were 400 feet above it, the shot distance would be 421 yards. A more realistic distance of 200 yards is a 210 yard line of fire if you are 200 feet above it.

[C-dub]

Okay everyone. I thought I had it and now my head hurts from all this trig talk.

My friend at work said he's always been pretty accurate until he got up into a tree stand this year for the first time. He said he normally has only taken one shot to drop his deer or find it collapsed a short distance away. This year he described using a tree stand for the first time and taking two shots at a deer and missing both. Yeah, he said he was shocked that the deer did not run off after the first shot and just stood there. He uses a single shot bolt action rifle so he had to eject the spend case, get another round out of his pocket, load it, reacquire the target and then fire.

He doesn't know if he was missing high or low. He was estimating his distance to be about 150 yards. I thought I'd be simplifying things with 200 yards.

[Carry-a-Kimber]

Okay everyone. I thought I had it and now my head hurts from all this trig talk.

My friend at work said he's always been pretty accurate until he got up into a tree stand this year for the first time. He said he normally has only taken one shot to drop his deer or find it collapsed a short distance away. This year he described using a tree stand for the first time and taking two shots at a deer and missing both. Yeah, he said he was shocked that the deer did not run off after the first shot and just stood there. He uses a single shot bolt action rifle so he had to eject the spend case, get another round out of his pocket, load it, reacquire the target and then fire.

He doesn't know if he was missing high or low. He was estimating his distance to be about 150 yards. I thought I'd be simplifying things with 200 yards.

A tree stand might be what, 15 feet off the ground? The difference would be negligible, less than 3 inches further of a shot. Maybe your friend needs a better rest or to sight his gun in.