For many years I have heard theories about shooting at up or down angles. Recently, Leupold, Bushnell and Nikon have marketed range finders that will take all the guess work out of finding the correct distance and where to aim.

Distance, angle of the shot and height all have to be considered.

For most of us in Central Texas, our hills and trees are not tall enough to make much of a difference to shooters and archers. But it is especially important for archers who use a compound bow with sights. For the archer, misjudging the correct distance by as little as a few yards can mean a missed shot or, even worse, a wounded animal.

If you are planning a bow hunt using a stand in a tall tree or a rifle hunt in the mountains, you need to know where to aim. In the diagram below, the H=hunter, G=game, X=incorrect distance to use and D=correct distance to use. It is all a matter of trajectory and physics. The same theory would be used when shooting uphill also. It is easier to understand if you think about this scenario: You are on a very high cliff with a deer directly below you but out a little ways. Do you use the bullet travel distance to figure out holdover in this case? No. You use the distance from the base of the cliff to the deer.

John Johnston is a retired sergeat detective who served with the Austin Police Department for 25 years and was a licensed gun dealer for 25 years. He now lives in Lampasas County and can be reached via e-mail at olsingleshot@gmail.com Bullets and arrows, when shot, have a natural trajectory, and they drop the farther the distance it is to the game.

Depending on the speed of the projectile, the drop differs.

So if you plan to shoot at long distances with up or down angles, you have to know the proper distance to use.

If you are like me and not likely to get in a situation often enough while hunting to warrant the purchase of one of these new range finders equipped with the angle and true distance computer, just remember to aim slightly lower than you normally would to compensate for the difference in distance.