Your Guidance Counselor might have never told you to aim low, but I will!

I think all of us have painful memories of standing in disbelief as the buck we just shot at runs off unharmed. It's happened to all of us (or it will) regardless of whether we're armed with our bow, shotgun or rifle.

I'd bet that the vast majority of those misses are high. This is definitely the case with a bow. Most bowhunters are familiar with the expression, "jump the string". This refers to a deer's natural tendency to drop its belly to the ground, sort of  like spring-loading itself, immediately before it bolts off.

This occurs because the sound of your bow travels faster than your arrow, so the deer has time to react before the arrow gets there. The farther away the deer, the more time it has to react.

One solution to this is to put your sight on the lower one-third of the deer's lungs. If the deer doesn't react to the sound, then you're still in the vitals, and the exit wound will be lower
because of your lower aiming point. A side benefit is that low exit wounds generally produce a good blood trail very quickly.

If the deer does "jump the string", chances are you'll still make a good shot because your lower aiming point will  keep your arrow in the boiler room.

Any one else have a story about a deer "jumping the string," or a tip to prevent it from happening? Let the Trophy Nation in on it at Trophy Talk.