Archery cut chart: distance to dial for uphill and downhill shots
Rangefinder says 50 yards, but the shot is 40° downhill — what do you dial? The table below gives the answer for a representative modern hunting setup (285 fps launch, ~0.32 fps/yd velocity decay, 4" peep-to-arrow sight line). Negative angles are downhill, positive are uphill. "—" means the cut falls below what a slider tape can dial — hold low off your nearest pin.
| LOS / Angle | -60° | -50° | -40° | -30° | -20° | -10° | 0° | +10° | +20° | +30° | +40° | +50° | +60° |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 yd | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 17.4 | 19.4 | 20 | 19.5 | 17.6 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| 30 yd | 14 | 14 | 19.7 | 24.5 | 27.6 | 29.3 | 30 | 29.5 | 27.9 | 25.1 | 20.5 | 14 | 14 |
| 40 yd | 14 | 21.8 | 28.7 | 33.6 | 37 | 39.2 | 40 | 39.5 | 37.7 | 34.4 | 29.7 | 23.1 | 14 |
| 50 yd | 18.9 | 29.4 | 36.7 | 42.3 | 46.4 | 48.9 | 50 | 49.5 | 47.4 | 43.6 | 38.3 | 31.1 | 21.2 |
| 60 yd | 25.8 | 36.2 | 44.4 | 50.9 | 55.6 | 58.7 | 60 | 59.5 | 57.1 | 52.8 | 46.7 | 38.7 | 28.3 |
| 70 yd | 31.6 | 42.9 | 52 | 59.4 | 64.9 | 68.4 | 70 | 69.5 | 66.9 | 62.1 | 55.2 | 46.2 | 34.8 |
| 80 yd | 37 | 49.3 | 59.6 | 67.8 | 74 | 78.1 | 80 | 79.5 | 76.7 | 71.4 | 63.7 | 53.7 | 41.1 |
Why "LOS × cos(angle)" is wrong on steep shots
The rifleman's rule (multiply by the cosine) ignores two things real bows do. First, your arrow launches about 4 inches below the peep–pin sight line; the sight tape absorbs that offset when it's made on level ground, but it stops cancelling when the bow tilts — which pushes true cuts BELOW cosine at steep angles. Second, gravity has a component along the flight path: downhill shots arrive faster and cut deeper than the same shot uphill. That's why every column pair in the table is asymmetric.
Example: 50 yards at −60°. Cosine says dial 25.0. The full physics says dial about 20.5 — a 4.5-yard difference, roughly 5 inches of vertical miss on a real bow.
FAQ
How much should I cut for a 45° downhill shot at 40 yards?
About 25–26 yards on the dial for a typical 285 fps compound setup — noticeably less than the 28.3 yards plain cosine suggests. Steeper than 45°, the gap to cosine keeps growing.
Do uphill and downhill shots need different cuts?
Yes. Downhill cuts slightly deeper than uphill at the same angle because gravity adds speed along the flight path going down and removes it going up. The difference is small inside ±30° and grows past that.
Does my arrow speed change the cut chart?
A little. Faster setups cut slightly less at the same angle. The table above is computed for 285 fps; The Forge computes the exact chart for your bow's measured speed.
These numbers are validated
Every table on this page comes from the same trajectory engine that powers The Forge — validated cell-by-cell against Precision Cut Archery's published charts (mean agreement 0.06–0.12 yd across the full ±60° envelope) and against real chronograph data. We publish our methods and our version history — see how we test.