Where would you aim?

[onecoyote]

This should be interesting because hunters have been told for years to aim different when shooting up or down-hill. I'd like to see what you guys have to say about it.
Should you hold high or low down-hill or just aim right at the animal? Same goes for up-hill.

[Graybeard]

Inadequate information provided to give a response. Need to know distance, gun/load used and angle.

[Glanceblamm]

Inadequate information provided to give a response. Need to know distance, gun/load used and angle.

I respectfully think that this is irrevelent as one could be using a .22 shooting at a Squirrel that is 125yds away from a 300ft elevation...Or one could be shooting at a dall ram at 200yds from a 600ft elevation. My point being that we are matching the caliber to the game within the respective ranges of the said caliber. Hail Mary, or Billy Dixon shots are not to be counted. In other words, the bullet will not cross over the line of sight by more than three inches. The extended range is dictated by the caliber, the bullet drop is adhered to keeping the diameter of the vitals of the game hunted in mind.

Now For The Question... If you shoot a bullet straight up, Theoretically it will run out of power and fall straight back down into the bore.
If you shoot a bullet straight down, it will go just there.
If you shoot on the Horizontal, you will get a horrible curve as compared to straight up or straight down. At this point, it doesnt matter if you raise or lower the muzzle from the horizontal. The lines are going to get flatter & flatter untill you are once again shooting straight up or straight down.
This happens because gravity is pulling on a smaller part of the bullet when shooting uphill or downhill.

I love my sparkling clarity so I will include a final answer just in case. When Shooting Uphill Or Downhill The Bullet Will Strike High. I recon that an /06 with a 180gr bullet shot over a 200yd range at a 45degree angle is going to be around 6" high.

[SHOOTALL]

with respect to all , the distance a bullet travels relative to the earth and gravity is the important factor , the pull is toward the center of the earth , irregular surface is not as important as distance traveled perpendicular to gravities pull , so the flater the shot with respect to the gravity the more time gravity has to affect the flight of the bullet for a spefic distance ie. a hundred yard shot over flat ground would be affected more than a mesured 100 yard shot at say a 50 degree angle either up hill or down hill due to the difference in distance traveled with reguard to gravity vs. actual distance of the shot .
So in effect you would always aim lower ( either on an up hill shot or a down hill shot ) the amount of lower hold would depend on , as noted by GB the distance , the angle , gun used etc. now you are thinking that at a longer range you hold over right ! BUT the hold over would still be lower on a angled shot either up or down than it would be over flat ground !
personal experience with most shots at moderate range its not as important as it sounds . to put it another way , if you had a bullet in hand and one loaded in a rifle , were standing on perfectly level ground and could aim the bbl's bore parallel to the ground and could hold the bullet in the rifle and your hand at the same height above the ground and release both at the same time they would hit the ground at the same time , but quite some distance apart .

[onecoyote]

According to Field & Stream, page 62, May 07. We are talking about hunting not geometry. Gravity only affects a bullet or arrow along it's horizontal distance, not the linear distance taken by the projectile.To calculate your hold, simply figure out the distance between you and your target on a horizontal line.

Examples, if your 20' high in a tree and the deer is 3 yards from the base of the tree, then hold for 3 yards from the base of the tree. If the Ram is 200 feet above you, on a ledge 300 yards away on a horizontal line, hold for 300 yards and pull the trigher.

In other words you don't change anything, just aim like you always do.

[SHOOTALL]

Onecoyote , first I agree , and that's what I meant by not as important as it seems !
if ya see a copy of  " Reloader "  full of stuff like that ! but if ya shoot a slow heavy bullet at a long distance ya might need to know what the bullet is doing if shooting up or down hill !

[iiranger]

What is important is the distance between the gun and the target on a horizontal "plane" as they say in geometry. This is where the force of gravity acts.
SO, the target is 200 yards up the mountain, but at a point only 50 yards away on the horizontal, "straight ahead" without the slope distance, THEN  you hold for the 50 yard travel drop because that is the distance during which gravity acts. And the bullet falls, etc. Obviously as suggested, the velocity drops over the 200 yards because of air resistance. At the same time, the "drop" from gravity reflects the mere 50 yards away that the target is on the "level." Same effect for down hill. Gravity acts over the actual, "level" distance travelled... Real simple once you get it in head... luck.

[Sourdough]

Where my Leupold with True Ballistic Range tells me to shoot.  Take out the guess work.

[SHOOTALL]

when i shoot i like to retain some control as to where i shoot , between work . the govt. , and the wife i get told where to do everything else don't want my scope telling me to ! just kidding ! nice scope !

[onecoyote]

I took out the guess work years ago by not taking long shots. Being an avid older predator hunter for more years then I can count, anything past about 250 yards would be to far to walk. All I need is a good shooting rifle and a good scope, nothing fancy.

[SHOOTALL]

where i live 250 yds is a long shot ! even on ground hogs ! my sons and i started predator hunting a few years ago , sometimes we use shotguns cause of how close the cover is ! other times our scope is on its lowest setting !it would be great to have that much open land !

[Old Moss]

   Gents I have read a lot about this so if one believes what they read or are a physics teacher you aim lower than you normally would on a up hill or down hill shot.  All that being said I agree that if you call'em in close like you should 300 or less yards and hold on fur you have a dead critter!   

   After a half century now, I have found that a good shot in the field "Feels the shot", kind of knows he has killed it or not, even before the trigger is pulled.  One of my best friends and one of the best shots I know, would often stop mid trigger pull during a deer hunt, then say quietly " Nope it just ain't feeling right".  Hour later and a deer flying at top speed would get rolled with one shot.  Go figure.  Learned a lot from him.  Onecoyote and Shootall always figured thinking to much would get me in trouble especially when hunting.  Aim straight and shoot.