# Sighting in xbow



## cubsfan (Nov 17, 2008)

I have a nice scope the only problem is I have sighted it in and then I went to my tree stand for practice and it was off. I resighted from the ground and traveled back to my stand and it was off again. Any tips I tightened everything down as I could I'm not sure if its moving as I transport it to my hunting area in the car or to the stand


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Define "off"

Is it just an elevation difference or windage also.

Elevation will change when you get in the tree versus flat ground shooting. The amount will depend on arrow (bolt)speed, your height difference from ground to target and the distance from tree to target. It could be small or large depending on these varibles.

If you are getting a windage change, you have a defective scope or something ( front rest, scope mount, etc, etc,) very loose.


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## RichsFishin (Nov 4, 2007)

WELCOME TO BOW HUNTING................Rich


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## ironman172 (Apr 12, 2009)

this happened to me from transporting on the atv....missed low to many times, found out there was movement in the scope mount...let it go where it wanted and has been good since.....just use the next crosshair down(out of 4) for dead on


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## PartyCove (Feb 26, 2010)

Assuming your scope is tight as you mentioned, I agree with Lundy. I am willing to bet it has to do with your shooting elevation. Try shooting uphill, even slightly uphill, and your bolt will hit low(er). Out of your treestand your probably hitting high. I was surprised the affect it made on my crossbow, they dont shoot as flat as you might think. If its a left to right issue, see if there is something in your treestand causing you to hold your crossbow anything but level (horizontal). Good luck.


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## cubsfan (Nov 17, 2008)

Its elevation seems to keep missing high. I quess I was thinking 20 yards ranged is 20 yards. I will countinue to practice especially since I pulled my trail cam today and this guy was on it.


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## Mad-Eye Moody (May 27, 2008)

20 yards ranged might be 15 yards horizontal depending on your stand height.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

cubsfan said:


> Its elevation seems to keep missing high. I quess I was thinking 20 yards ranged is 20 yards. I will countinue to practice especially since I pulled my trail cam today and this guy was on it.


20 yds is 20 yds but when shooting from and elevated stand you have changed the angle of the shot to gravity.

The only influence, causing it to drop, on an arrow or bullet of football is gravity. When shooting on flat land gravity is at a 90 degree angle providing the most influence. Get up in a stand and shoot at some downward angle and the influence is reduced causing the arrow to hit higher, less drop.

The amount of difference will depend on stand height, angle of shot, speed of arrow. Using a crossbow I doubt you are seeing a big difference, couple of inches?


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

The best way to get a real feel for the distance is walk it off or use the rangefinder from the ground at the base of your tree. This is the horizontal distance that you want to go by to determine your elevation for the shot. Unless you are extremely high a 20 yard shot should not change all that much but shots at shorter distances will have more difference. For example, if you are in a 20' high stand shooting at 20 yards horizontal distance your line of sight distance is barely more than 21 yards. At 10 yards it is 12 yards. Keep in mind though this that is with a flat ground surface. Say you are hunting on a downhill it will be more. If you are using the rangefinder from the stand pick a tree and get the distance to it at approximately the same height up that tree as you are, in other words looking horizontally to the tree.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

im with the other guys on this one. shooting from a stand will cause you to shoot high. the higher you are the worse its going to be. if you feel its off enough to be a problem then sight your bow in from your stand then leave it there. you can still pratice from the ground just dont adjust your bow.

now if your bow needs sighted in after you get home when you were shooting off from your stand. then something is moving. if you had it sighted in at home and went and shot out of your stand and it was off, and you went back home and it was still off, then something changed. if shooting from the stand was your only problem you should have still been sighted in at home, unless you adjusted your scope while you were in your stand. then it would make your shot be off at home. does this make sense? if your just shooting high from your stand i would sight it in from my stand and then see if i was hitting low at home. then just leave it alone as long as i was hitting a good group low.
sherman


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

sherman51 said:


> im with the other guys on this one. shooting from a stand will cause you to shoot high. the higher you are the worse its going to be. if you feel its off enough to be a problem then sight your bow in from your stand then leave it there. you can still pratice from the ground just dont adjust your bow.
> 
> now if your bow needs sighted in after you get home when you were shooting off from your stand. then something is moving. if you had it sighted in at home and went and shot out of your stand and it was off, and you went back home and it was still off, then something changed. if shooting from the stand was your only problem you should have still been sighted in at home, unless you adjusted your scope while you were in your stand. then it would make your shot be off at home. does this make sense? if your just shooting high from your stand i would sight it in from my stand and then see if i was hitting low at home. then just leave it alone as long as i was hitting a good group low.
> sherman


Good points! And I will ask this although it may seem obvious to most. Sometimes the most obvious things are overlooked. Are you shooting the same arrows from the tree as you are from the ground at home? Both with same tips? If you are practicing with field points they may fly a bit different than your broadheads.


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

I'm new to crossbow hunting and its definitely different.
My 100 gr field points are on out to 40 yards, no problem at all.

I've shot 3 different 100 gr broadheads and all 3 hit low left. All in pretty much the same spot. 2 of the heads were fixed blades and 1 is mechanical. The mechanical's margin of error was only about 1/2 of that of the fixed blade.
I was wondering if it was just the "blades" making the difference or if it was the extra length (changing the FOC) of the arrow or even a combination of both.

Last night, I took the blades off of one of the broadheads and it shot the same as the field points so I guess it's not the extra length.
If this were a compound bow I would have some ideas as to what adjustments to try. With a crossbow, I don't see many options outside of just making some sight adjustments or changing arrow and/or broadhead combinations until they impact the same as field points.

A friend of my has the same bow/arrow combination as mine and he is getting the same impact with both points. I'm going to try his broadheads tonight off of my bow and see what happens. If I don't get the same impact point after this, I guess I'll just adjust the sights.


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## TomC (Aug 14, 2007)

Broadheads tend to hit lower than field points. Do you have a scope? Also what kind of bow and setup are you using?


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

crappiedude said:


> If I don't get the same impact point after this, I guess I'll just adjust the sights.


Move your sights!

But before you do please check the balance of the broadheads. Stand the arrow (bolt) point down on a hard smooth surface, glass is the best, and spin the shaft rapidly. Does your broadhead spin without wooble? If it does you are good to go, just adjust your sights to where your broadheads are grouping. I personally have never understood the fixation of having field tips and broadheads needing to impact the exact same spot. They are aerodynamically different, they SHOULD impact slightly different points. The farther distance shot the farther the difference in impact point.

If your broadheads wobble. spin balance them and they should all group together


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## nschap (Jan 6, 2008)

hey crappiedude i just wanted to tell you all i use field points for is discharging my bow at the end of my hunt.choose your broadhead,and you get what you pay for,sight in with one of them and hunt.good luck


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

Lundy said:


> Move your sights!
> 
> *I personally have never understood the fixation of having field tips and broadheads needing to impact the exact same spot*. They are aerodynamically different, they SHOULD impact slightly different points. The farther distance shot the farther the difference in impact point.
> If your broadheads wobble. spin balance them and they should all group together


It's just me... I like it so when I practice it's all the same. The broadhead groups were left about 3" and low about 2 1/4". It holds a nice consistent group. 
Spin testing is the 1st thing I do when I put on broadheads. I do it before I even put the blades on. All the arrows spin just fine. My groups with field points and broadheads both were 2 or 3 inchs out to 40 yards.
I bit the bullet tonight and after trying yet another fixed head with the same results. These were G5 Montec and they impacted in the same spot as the Wasp SST Hammers and the Wasp Boss. 

So after trying 3 different fixed blase heads I went back to my beloved 100 gr Wasp SST Hammers and just moved the sights(cross hairs). I'm getting very good groups at 40 yards (if I do my part....squeeze the trigger). My last shot centered an 1 1/2" circle and my 2nd last shot was off by 1/2" @ 11:00.

My set-up is a Wicked Ridge Invader (180#) with 3x (3 line) scope shooting the 20" alum 2219 shafts that came with the "package". It's a nice set up. 
I think I eventually need to add some silencers of some sort to this thing.


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## cubsfan (Nov 17, 2008)

So I took my xbow in and the guy said its just to fast to get much drop from 20-30 yards so I used my 20 pin at 30 and was just 2" low of center. I am trying to upload the picture of a monster buck I just got on my trail camera last week. Ty for all the feed back


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## cubsfan (Nov 17, 2008)

View image in gallery​








View image in gallery​
This is why i ASKED FOR ADVICE DONT WANT TO MISS THE CHANCE IF HE CMES OUT N LIGHT


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

That is a awesome buck!!!

I hope you get him. I would like to see some good color daylight pictures of him.

What camera are you using? He doesn't look too thrilled with it.


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## PartyCove (Feb 26, 2010)

And if you need help retrieving your trail camera so you can let Lundy know what kind it is, I will volunteer to get it for you. Just give me the GPS Coordinates of your cam and I would be glad to do that. Let me know where your stand is too so I can take a few shots with my xbow and make sure thats not what is throwing you off. Just kidding, I hope you get a shot at that monster.


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## VitalShot (Feb 10, 2012)

cubsfan said:


> View image in gallery​
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Now that is a killer buck. 


Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


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## cubsfan (Nov 17, 2008)

Its a wild game, and he was not I have it set on video I took that picture from my laptop video. He has been staying just out of range for the last month just giving me glowing eyes. I have seen some huge rubs but had no idea he was going to walk in. He turned looked at the camera then slowly backed away. no flash its infared.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

I hope you get a chance at him.

I run 8-9 cameras and sometime it is the IR cams versus the white flash that seem to bother the bucks more. With IR they still see the red blob when it fires on a pic and it is sustained on video. I'm glad he didn't seem to spook but he definitely is checking it out closely.


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## cubsfan (Nov 17, 2008)

Yeah like I saidhe slowly backed away, but he returned when I pulled the card the next time he was there at 7pm and stayed to lick the apple block Unfourtainly I havent been able to hunt past noon but I am planning a afternoon hunt tomorow tilldark sohopefully he decides to stop and say hi.


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