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if you are on a ridge shooting to the bottom and the drop off is a 100 yards down . i know the bullet does not fly straight am i shooting over or under the deer?

It really depends on what caliber and grain bullet you are shooting and how you have your gun sighted in, but you should be shooting a little high

270 inch high at 50 yards
150 grain silver tips win.

not sure of the exact baalistics off the top of my head but if you are a inch high at 50 yards you are probably going to be at least 3 inches high at a hundred yards, and shooting downhill it would put you even a little higher

What is the determining factor is how far is the drop down? This creates the angle. If it's 100 yards away, and there's only a 5' difference in grade then there will be no effect, yet if the target is 100 yards away and 100 yards down, your range finder will tell you it's a lot farther than you need to shoot the deer for. There's some geometric formula to this, plus some physics involved...Never taken physics, and haven't had geometry since 10th grade in high school, so don't get me to lying. If it's 100 yards away (per the rangefinder) put your crosshairs behind the shoulder and shoot.

thanks

I can tell you that if you shoot almost straight up at an elk approx 300yds away and don't use a rangefinder that's in your pack about 100 yds away and your gun is sighted in for 200yds, when you put the cross hairs on the heart you will miss low. Don't ask me how I know this though!

Jeff wrote:I can tell you that if you shoot almost straight up at an elk approx 300yds away and don't use a rangefinder that's in your pack about 100 yds away and your gun is sighted in for 200yds, when you put the cross hairs on the heart you will miss low. Don't ask me how I know this though!

just a hypothetical situation huh

while I have never done it, a few ole timers I know who have frequently shot from the levee say "aim low when shooting down hill"

crankbait wrote:270 inch high at 50 yards
150 grain silver tips win.

Who knows. Depending on scope height, it could be high or low at 100. With a flat shooting rifle, sighting it in at less than 100 can be counter productive, and near impossible to judge the balistics of a bullet after that.

But, to get to your original questions, if you are shooting into a low spot, the distance down is irrelivant. You need to judge how far out the animal it from you on a horizontal line. You could use the pythagorian theorum if you want to get techincal.