Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why am I shooting high on game?

Doesn't happen all the time but for instance on Thursday I shot a deer at about 25 yards. I was using a Marlin 336, 30-30 with a wide (ghost ring) peep.

I was sitting on a 3-legged stool about 5 yards into the bush in a natural blind overlooking a field. I know the rifle is sighted dead on at 100 yards.

I thought I had the front post centered just above the front leg, half way up but ended up with a spine shot! Clean kill but caused me to wonder. If the deer was much further away would probably been a clean miss over the top.....I have had this happen during flintlock season using express sights on the muzzleloader and on occasion with longer shots with scope sighted rifles.....obviously, a clean miss is better than a bad hit and I want to avoid the latter at all costs. As I said it doesn't happen often but often enough.

Again, these weapons are all sighted in correctly and I suspect it is a form problem but would like some advice...Thanks, Tree

Common, not holding your head down through the scope/sight.
Common when hunting is to lift your head to see the animal.
Stay on the sights/stock weld until after recoil.

It's a TOUGH habit to break, and even worse when shooting uphill or downhill.

^^^^^^ +1

My advice would be to duplicate the shooting scenario and see what happens. Shooting off a bench and shooting freehand off a 3-legged stool can yield radically different results.

Me? I've gotten to where I'm using a rest for about 80% of my shots on deer. I really don't trust my offhand shooting all that much, but I also don't need it all that often anymore. Even then, a rifle can shoot different off a treestand shooting rail than anchored off the side of a tree or . . . it pays to know what really happens.

I don't know the trajectory of a 30-30 but that's what I would check first. Dead on at 100 may be quite a bit different at 25.

Several years ago my 270 was set up for pronghorn at 200 plus. When the shot was taken at 50 it ended up a spine shot. Lesson learned and remembered.

How much higher was the POI from the POA?

When you zeroed your rifle, where did you put the top of the front sight, at 6-o'clock or centered on the bullseye? If you zeroed with a 6-o'clock hold and shot the deer with a center of the bullseye hold your bullet would have hit about 6" high. When I was younger and my eyesight was better than it is today, I always zeroed my peep sight equipped rifles with a 6-o'clock hold at 100 yards so that if I was shooting beyond 100 yards the front sight would cover less of the animal.

A 30-30 with common 150 or 170 grain factory loads should only rise around 0.5" above the bore between the muzzle and a 100 yards target with a 100 yard zero and only around 2" with a 150 yard zero. I zero my 30-30s to be 2" high at 100 yards with whatever load I'm using and I mostly use 170 grain FED/REM/WIN factory loads or, in my more accurate Savage 170, the flex tip Hornady LeverEvolution 160 grain ammo.

Lots of things could cause it but one not mentioned yet is you may not have had the top of your front sight centered in your ghost ring. Easy to have that in a hunting situation with a ghost ring, which is why I don't use them despite the fact that I've been using aperture sights for hunting and competition for 45 years.

Just a question, but did you shoot from your weak side? IOW if you normally shoot right handed, was the deer over to your right forcing you to switch shoulders to the left side to make the shot? If the answer is yes, mebbe unfamiliarity (cheek weld, dominant eye, trigger muscle memory, etc. ) is your answer.

Great suggestions above....

Everyone's different, but when I start losing a shot high with a rifle, it is always because my thumb, which is across the the top of the stock, gets too-active when I'm squeezing the trigger.
By "active", I mean that I occasionally tighten my thumb pressure as I'm squeezing the trigger. That little bit of extra thumb pressure will press down, which raises the barrel a smidge and the shot goes high.

By testing this out at the range, I've found that varying degrees of thumb pressure are all "OK", as long as I keep the SAME pressure throughout the shot.

Good luck!

Plenty of good advice....the load is 150 Sierra Flat Point and 34 G Varget..... I used the brass from two boxes of 170 G Core-Lokts I shot and then re-sighted for the hand loads...the top of the post was centered on the target bullseye at 100 not 6 o'clock when sighted and this from a sand bagged rest.

I do recall shooting it at 50 yards from sitting which is my usual position in the woods. The results were spot on. So I'm trying to figure what it is in the way of bad form. Don't usually use that stool but was using it bow hunting and seeing deer so figured why not. Was writing this at the same time as old crab so didn't see his post, again plenty of good advice to contemplate.

Buck fever? I've seen it many times before, but usually on elk. Losing shots high seems typical in my experience. When I shoot offhand, my shots tend to hit higher, but I'm talking one-to-two MOA, not 20-30 MOA. Seems like "muffed shot due to total form breakdown because of shot on game animal" explains it best.

Yeah, that's probably the biggest factor.

I can't answer the question as to why, but had a similar experience on elk a number of years ago. 150-200 yard shot, uphill angle and broadside. Had a steady rest prone shooting over a log for support. Crosshairs centered on lower half of chest intentionally holding a bit low. Elk dropped at the shot and never moved. Autopsy showed the bullet impacted in the upper shoulder blade and stopped in the spine. I've always wondered about that shot - impacted a good 12" above POA with a rock steady rest. If I hadn't hit the spine, I would have lost him...

Form at the bench vs form in the field could be it.
Lighting differences can corrupt iron sight alignment.
Relaxing just as the shot breaks can do it.

Exactly! This is it. You need to “follow through”

AFTER the recoil

I think it is likely to be an operator issue - lapse of form or buck fever, call it what you will.

What you could try is replicating the shot on paper: sit on your stool, shooting from the same position and under the same lighting conditions, at 25 yards, and see where the bullets are impacting.

FWIW I do see a difference in POI when shooting offhand compared with rested. You'll also see a difference in POI with changing light if your front sight is shiny (which is why I make sure mine are a uniform matt black). However these don't usually make anywhere near the difference in POI you observed. I have a .30-30 with a ghost ring peep and I would expect to hit near enough to on the button at 25 yards when the rifle's zeroed, whether offhand or from some other position. Any deviation from that would be down to me.

I will agree with other posters. Improper shooting techniques. Not following through or possibly flinching. I use open and peep sights for hunting and have never experienced the problem you describe.

Amazing expertise in the replies...I have it narrowed to what you said "lapse of form andr buck fever"...I think I know what to work on, Thanks

My guess is flinching / yanking on the trigger instead of a slow squeeze.

Could it be that you're subconsciously aiming higher than you think? The spine is a bit lower on most animals than it often seems, especially critters with big withers.
Up or downhill shots conplicate this even further, and so does front sight posts that are relatively large, and cover up more of an animal than crosshairs.