Head Up or Head Down...and Jumping the String

[nchunterkw]

The part of the video that Chris W posted that captured me was the slow motion movement of the deer when it ducked the shot. It was a revelation to me to see the head come up as the back dropped down. Maybe there is MORE than the force of gravity involved in ducking. The muscle groups involved may fire simultaneously, with one augmenting the other. Speed of movement calculations premised on the speed of gravity alone may be seriously flawed.

If that's the case, maybe a "heads up" pose could result in less ability to duck than a "heads down" pose.

Before we get too far into the best "point of aim", I'd love to hear more about capacity to evade an arrow in relation to "head up" or "head down" position.

There is science involved here but maybe it would have to come from a veterinarian who studied a bit of 4 legged kinesiology.

Keith, you started an interesting thread anyway.

There is definitely more than the speed of gravity at work. Makes sense to me that the head can act as like a 4 pound lever to help throw that body down. I'll try to dig up some vids

[AJ01]

I know A LOT of you guys don't like Troy but this video kinda lays out what happens when you shoot at a LIVE animal. Your arrow makes a lot of noise IN FLIGHT!!

It's only 18 minutes or so long.

Give it a look....

https://youtu.be/n-O-O2CW9u4

[wheelsquad]

Here's my shot from 50 yds a few weeks ago. Slo-mo playback is at the end. But you can also push pause at the shot, and then use comma key to go a single frame back, and period key for a single frame forward.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qhabcRKqdoeRNn5x6

Watch how the fawns start responding nearly the exact same frame as the doe. I specifically waited for head to be up, to minimize drop. But she is down a long ways before you see the lighted nock disappear.

What makes her decide to drop is less of a concern to me, be it bow noise, fletching noise, broadhead nose, sight of arrow, etc. What I am concerned with is max shot distance I can reliably take. This video on my BD417 shooting 450 grain arrows with Sevr broadheads shows me I was pushing my luck.

FWIW I was aiming heart (lower 1/3) and it appears I would have hit a littler higher than that had she not moved.

[Hi5]

Wheelsquad

That was some interesting video that you posted. She was relaxed, head up, when you shot. If she had just been a tiny bit less successful in ducking, you wouldn't have spined her, and she would have likely led her fawns away....with a possibly survivable wound.

If there is a pattern to be discovered in the "heads up/heads down" issue, it's going to take time to show reliably.