Hunters and shooters tend to overthink steeply angled shots, when in reality they are more straightforward than we realize. (Photo courtesy of Rob Gearing/Spartan Precision Equipment)
December 19, 2025
By Richard Mann
We were high on a ridgeline overlooking a lot of flat and wide-open Wyoming countryside. The FoxPro electronic call had been playing for about 10 minutes, and we’d seen nothing. Just as we were about to call it quits, a lone coyote appeared started heading our way. Finally, he stopped and began looking around in an attempt to pinpoint the dying jackrabbit. We were probably 200 feet above the coyote, and he was a bit more than 300 yards away. I held dead on and dumped him.
Many hunters get all worked up when they must shoot uphill or downhill. Angled shooting does affect bullet flight. When you shoot up- or downhill, you need less trajectory correction. Gravity is the force that all bullets must reckon with, and it starts pulling bullets toward Earth as soon as they exit a barrel. Fortunately, gravity is a constant, which allows us to make accurate predictions no matter the shot angle.
DISTINGUISHING DISTANCES For trajectory calculation, we only apply gravity to the distance the bullet travels that’s parallel to Earth. If you’re shooting on a flat range and the distance to the target is 300 yards, gravity will work on your bullet over that entire distance. If you’re shooting at an angle and the distance to the target—“line of sight distance”—is 300 yards, the flat horizontal or “gravity” distance will be less. How much less?
To get the true horizontal or level distance, you must solve a right-angle triangle. (You should have paid more attention during high school trigonometry and physics.) We know the hypotenuse or angled distance—line of sight distance—is 300 yards because our rangefinder told us that. The other thing we must know is the angle we’re shooting at. Some rangefinders tell us that, too. With that information, you simply input the distance and angle into the following formula, and it will tell you the horizontal distance you need to trajectory compensate for:
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Illustration by Peter Sucheski Simple, right? Yeah, not so much. You’ll not be working this formula in your head while you’re behind your rifle watching the trophy mule deer you’ve been after all morning. Back in the day, before most modern hunters were born, we had a cheat sheet to help with this angled shooting estimation. (See included chart.) We memorized the range multiplier based on the estimated shot angle and did the math. If the shot angle was 40 degrees and the target was at 300 yards, we just multiplied 300 yards by 0.77 and aimed like we were shooting at 231 yards.
The good news is that with most modern high-velocity hunting cartridges, you must only worry about the shot angle in rare cases. This is partly because in most situations the angle and distance you’re shooting at isn’t enough to matter—just like with the Wyoming coyote I whacked—and partly because most modern rangefinders do all this math for you.
ANGLED SHOOTING REALITIES To illustrate how much or little an angled shot affects the trajectory of your bullet, let’s imagine you’re shooting a common 150-grain bullet from a .308 Winchester at a deer 300 yards away and you’re 150 feet above the deer. This would make the angle of the shot 9.59 degrees and the actual horizontal or gravity distance 295.8 yards. If you corrected for the 300-yard angled shot distance, your bullet would impact about 1/2-inch high, which is not enough to matter. If you were 300 feet above the deer, the bullet would impact about 2.5 inches high if you held for a 300-yard correction. This is still within a 6-inch kill zone, and again, not enough to really matter. With this cartridge and load, you would need to be about 400 feet (133 yards) above the deer, shooting at a 25-degree angle or more to be in danger of making a bad shot.
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A 25-degree angle may not seem like much, but in the real world, it’s pretty darn steep. Now, in some locations, a shot at this steep of an angle can be more common. However, having hunted all over the world for all sorts of game, I’ve only had to shoot at an angle this steep three to four times. Now, as the distance to the target increases, so does the variation in bullet drop. However, to have a 25-degree shot angle at a deer at 600 yards, you would have to be 760 feet (250 yards) above or below the deer.
Angles matter, but only when they come with distance. Except in very steep locations, if you’re shooting at less than 300 yards with a modern high-velocity rifle cartridge, you really do not have to worry much about high-angle shots. For example, with rifles, treestand height just doesn’t matter. On the other hand, if you frequently hunt very steep terrain, there’s a much easier way to solve the angled shooting problem than by trying to do math in the field while you’re snuggling up behind your rifle.
MOUNTAIN MUST-HAVES For those hunting mountainous areas where there is a high probability you’ll need to shoot at a steep uphill or downhill angle, the easy answer is to just buy a rangefinder or range-finding binocular that does everything for you. Modern laser-equipped rangefinders and binoculars not only give you the line-of-sight distance to the target, they also give you the angle-corrected distance, and they feature a tilt indicator that provides the shot angle. You can then input this information into your ballistic calculator/app and determine the correct holdover for any shot.
However, even this technology is outdated. The most modern rangefinders and range-finding binoculars, like the Swarovski EL Range, can give you all this data, including the ballistic correction in mils, MOA, centimeters or inches that you need. A push of a button now solves a problem we once had to answer by trying to remember range multipliers and/or by conducting some hurried math.
If you’re going to shoot long in steep country, buy a good rangefinder or binocular that does the math for you. If you are going to shoot in steep country at any distance, select a good bipod or tripod to steady your rifle. When it comes to making a shot that is up- or downhill at a steep angle, your rifle support is just as important.
This article was featured in the October 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe.
