Bowhunting How-To Shoot a Deer From a Tree Saddle

Hey everybody PJ Reilly Lancaster Archery we are here you know I think it was nine years ago we did a video how to shoot a deer out of a tree stand. Hi folks this is PJ Reilly from Lancaster Archery Supplies. What we're going to do today is show you the effects of shooting at a deer from a tree stand. 10 yards out this is pretty steep. I needed a much steeper angle. That's actually how the arrow hit. If you want to learn about angles of shooting from a tree go to that one. But today we're going to talk about how to shoot at a deer from a saddle. If you're like me and you have hunted from tree stands all your life switching to saddle it takes some getting used to. There's a lot of things that you've learned your whole life as a tree stand hunter that you kind of have to unlearn as a saddle hunter or get used to. So we're going to run through that how to shoot a deer from a saddle setup and before we show you that what I'll say is it's a good idea if you just take your stuff out set it up and practice. I know that's kind of a pain to go through all those motions but there are so many things that are different and nuanced about saddle hunting and shooting from a saddle that better you learn it you know somewhere in a practice setting than in the woods on a real hunt. All right let's get up in the tree and yeah there we are. All right so first thing with saddle hunting is when I set this up I'm a right-handed shooter. My intention is that my main shooting direction is going to be 180 degrees this way. I can shoot the other way but when I set it up I'm planning for a shot in here. Also when I set up I'm a right-handed shooter you got to think about where you're going to put your gear so my bow is hanging right here so when it comes time to shoot I'm ready to go just like that. All right so now I'm going to take a shot this is my main direction and another thing you kind of if you're coming from tree stands the other thing you have to think about is you have to trust your ropes. I am not holding on I know as a longtime tree stand hunter this is counterintuitive to what we used to do. You never leaned back out of the stand you you always had your hand on something with saddle hunting you have to trust the rope. So I'm just gonna hook up here and take my shot at a deer that's about 20 yards away. Dead deer. Another shot this is what I'm gonna say is probably the most challenging for a tree stand hunter shifting to a saddle hunter. So is going to be shooting this direction right here because you know you the way you get stability this is not a very stable position. I'm actually leaning into my ropes which means I am leaning off away from the tree. Again for a tree stand hunter that's the last thing we were ever taught to do but you got to trust these ropes are going to hold but when you when I push into these ropes now I have stability. If I try and balance I'm kind of moving all over the place. So let me just show you what that looks like to make a good shot. Dead deer again. Again pushing into the ropes that keeps me stable allows me to make a good shot. All right now something that I like to do for shots in this quadrant here gets you a super stable position is I'm actually gonna lower my tether a little bit I'm gonna give it some slack so that I can come in and set my knees against the tree and that there gives me man I just am rock solid. Center 11 again. So that might be actually that might be the most solid position is shooting in this direction. For me I think I'm just balanced in every on every position. All right so with the saddle you know we still want to be able to shoot 360 degrees and this is my right hand side. I'm a right hand shooter. This is my off side. This potentially is the most awkward. There's many ways that people account for that. I'm going to show you how I do it and what I'm actually going to do is lengthen my tether. I'm going to turn around in this platform and at the end what's going to happen is this tether is going to come across my chest so it's going to hold me against the tree to keep me from falling. Here's what that looks like. Okay you can see my tether right here is across my chest. It's holding me in the tree and so to take my shot this is actually a very comfortable. I mean this to most tree stand hunters this should feel the most natural. These deer don't stand a chance man. All right so obviously shooting this direction requires the most movement by me so if I'm expecting a deer is going to come down here and I have to shoot this way I'm going to move plenty early. I'm not waiting until the deer is right there to spin around. I'm going to get in this position well ahead of time.