Geometry for Hunters

Here’s some geometry formula I ran across years ago in a magazine, I wish I could remember the name but I can’t.

This can be used to calculate how arrow trajectory changes when shooting on an incline: Visualize the hunting situation as a right-angle triangle, with two perpendicular legs; (A), the distance from the hunter to the ground; and (B), the distance from the animal to the ground directly below the hunter.

The sloped hypotenuse, (C), is the distance from the hunter to the animal. In essence, the drop of an arrow fired along the inclined hypotenuse will equal the drop of an arrow traveling the horizontal distance (B). For example, imagine you’re in a treestand, where you spot a buck standing below at a 45-degree angle to your line of sight.

 The buck is 30 yards. Using a basic formula from geometry, called the Pythagorean Theorem (A2 + B2 = C2), you can calculate that side B, representing the horizontal distance to the deer, is roughly 21 yards. To hit the deer in the kill zone, then, you would use the 20-yard sight pin, not the 30-yard pin.

It’s that easy, just use this formula and fill in your distances from different areas that you shoot. Go to your tree stand and look for land marks, like a tree or trail that you think where the deer will come out write it down the distances and bring it home. You will be amazed on how the distances change with different angles.

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