First off congratulations on getting your deer.

Secondly about your aiming higher....... Actually you should aim lower if you are shooting downward. You are shooting at a shorter range than you think.

The base of the triangle is your range not the hypotenuse or Line of sight from your position in the stand to the deer.

You may be shooting higher than you think and shoot over the top of your target if you are up in a tree and shooting downward and aiming higher.

But if the range is close that may not matter as you may still hit your target.

But, at a longer range this really does make a difference.

Get yourself a (TBR) True Ballistic Range finder like one of the Leupold's and study the manual or go online and read the Leupold's manual on the True Ballistics Range Finders (TBR).

You will better understand what's going on when you shoot downhill or uphill vs. in a level straight line to the target.

A little Trigonometry helps to understand the ballistics path of the bullet or the arrows.

I use to also think that I should aim up higher when shooting at a bird sitting in the tree or a squirrel up in a tree. But actually one should aim lower than you would if they were level with your position.

The bullets are not going as far as you think.

-------------------------------------------