Bowhunting-Ready Checklist & Ballistic Card Export

Guide

The Math, the Kit & How to Print a Card That Survives the Woods

What Belongs on a Bowhunting Field Card?

Numbers you would otherwise guess at. Pin yardages, arrow weight, speed, and the kinetic energy and momentum those two produce.

A steep-angle table. Rangefinders that read line-of-sight punish anyone who forgets the cosine. A printed row is faster than mental math at 6 a.m. with cold fingers.

A pack list that matches the hunt. A stand hunter and an elk hunter share a release and little else. The presets above sort the list for you.

One number you decided in advance. The optional max-shot strip prints the longest yardage you will take. Pick it at the kitchen table. A limit chosen with a buck standing at 48 yards is not a limit.

How Do You Compensate for a Tree-Stand or Steep-Angle Shot?

Take the line-of-sight number your rangefinder gives you and multiply by the cosine of the angle. The result is the horizontal distance the arrow actually has to cover, and it is the number your pins belong to. Uphill or downhill, same rule.

Here is that rule run across the 20–70 yd pin range this tool accepts, at the three angles on the card. The cut is how many yards you would over-shoot by holding the raw reading.

The steep shots hide in the short readings. From a 20 ft stand, a rangefinder reading of 10 yd is really 7.5 yd of horizontal distance (a 42° angle), and a 15 yd reading is 13.4. Flip the table above to From my stand height and it does that arithmetic for every reading.

What surprised me when I ran the geometry: a stand hunter rarely lives in the 45° column. The angle depends on stand height and how far the deer is from the base of the tree, and it flattens out quickly.

From 20 ft up, a deer at 15 yd sits at 24°: line-of-sight reads about 16.4 yd and the cosine trims it back to 15. That is 1.4 yd, small on paper and enough to matter on a pin gap that tight. The 30° and 45° columns earn their keep on hillsides, ridge-to-drainage shots and steep canyon walls — the elk hunter’s terrain, not the stand hunter’s.

Two honest limits. The cosine rule assumes a flat trajectory; the Lab tool’s drag-and-gravity solver shows it stays within about a yard for a typical 285 fps setup, erring short uphill. Full model on the Tree-Stand & Angled Shot Distance Compensator, and the reasoning is documented in the angled-shot methodology. And a rangefinder that already compensates for angle makes this table redundant — see how two popular ones handle it in the Vortex vs. Leupold comparison.

What Do the Kinetic Energy and Momentum Numbers on the Card Mean?

Kinetic energy in foot-pounds is arrow weight in grains × speed in fps squared ÷ 450,240. Momentum in slug-feet per second is grains × fps ÷ 225,218. Both constants fold in the grain-to-pound and pound-to-slug conversions. Run them yourself with the Arrow Kinetic Energy Calculator and the Arrow Momentum Calculator.

Published guidelines commonly cite roughly 25 to 41 ft·lb as adequate for deer-class game and 42 ft·lb or more for elk-class, which is where the reference band under your energy number comes from. Treat those as bands, not guarantees: broadhead design, shot placement and FOC move the real result. For pass-through estimates use the Kinetic Energy, Momentum & Pass-Through Calculator, and check the Broadhead Flight & Tuning Stability Checker before you trust either number in the field.

My stance: momentum is the number worth arguing about, and heavier arrows are the easier way to raise it. The presets deliberately put the elk build at a higher arrow weight than the whitetail build for that reason.

Which Card Mode Reads Best in the Dark or Under a Red Light?

Day is white stock with dark ink and uses the least toner. Dark Tactical is charcoal with amber, easy on the eyes on a screen and heavy on ink if you print it. Hi-Vis is pure black on yellow with thicker strokes.

Hi-Vis uses no red ink on purpose. Red ink disappears under a red headlamp, while black on yellow keeps its contrast in white light, red light and dusk. If you read your card by headlamp, print that one.

🛠️ Interactive Utility & Downloadable Asset

Included Asset: A print-ready PDF at true physical size — US Letter or A4 sheets with dashed cut lines, or single pages at exact card size.

How to Use: Set your numbers, choose a size and mode, download, print at 100% scale (turn off fit-to-page), cut, and laminate with clear packing tape.

What Should You Pack for a Backcountry Hunt That Turns Into a Pack-Out?

Cooling is the job. Idaho Fish and Game’s backcountry game meat care guide says to get meat cold as quickly as possible after the kill, recommends washable canvas or cheesecloth game bags to keep insects and dirt off, lists rope or parachute cord for hanging meat, and calls for at least two sharp knives. It warns that plastic bags are for very short use only, because meat spoils quickly in plastic.

Breathable game bags and paracord map straight onto that guidance, and the scalpel with spare blades stands in for its sharp-knives advice. Citric acid is on the list as an optional extra; that item is my addition, not that guide’s.

For tree stands, Wisconsin DNR’s tree stand safety page recommends a lifeline that keeps you connected from the moment you leave the ground until you are back on it, and a haul line to raise and lower your bow. It also notes that one-quarter of the state’s bowhunters have had a fall or near fall from an elevated stand. Deep in the backcountry, a satellite messenger such as an inReach covers the case where there is no signal to call from.

⚠️ When Not to Rely on This Card

Avoid If: you are treating it as a legal document, or as a substitute for verifying yardages on your own sight tape. The card is a packing and reference aid: carry your original tags, licenses and hunter education card, and check your state’s equipment rules — some set minimum draw weights or arrow energy requirements. And never read a card while climbing; stop, clip in, then look.

🗣️ Where Bowhunters Disagree

Paper versus phone: Plenty of hunters keep yardages in a ballistics app. A laminated card does not run out of battery in the cold and does not light up the stand, which is why I print one even when the app is loaded.

How many pins: Single-pin sights and multi-pin sights both have loyal users, and this tool supports three to seven pins so it fits either habit.

Cosine versus a full model: Purists want drag and gravity in the angle math. For most stand shots the gap is inside a yard, so the card uses cosine and the Lab tool covers the edge cases.

Frequently Asked Questions