judging range

[model 70]

ok, i'll admit it. i am HORRIBLE with judging range. i'm going hunting in the very near future and simpley cannot afford a range finder. is there any quick or easy ways to judge how far a target is?

[rem 700]

What you must do is use range markers and set them at known ranges, or else you can find the range of landmarks and use them to help you. If you are on the move, however, practice is a must: get used to how big an animal sized target looks at 50 yard intervals, and then when you get a good feeling of that, try guessing range without knowing how far the ranges actually are. This doesn't have to take a long time to get used to, a couple hours can greatly help range judging.

[fabsroman]

Another way to figure out range is by looking at how much of the reticle the animal takes up in the scope. The more of the reticle that the animal fills out, the closer it is. With practice, you will learn to do this easily. Of course, I just bit the bullet, no pun intended, and bought a range finder several years ago.

Even with a range finder, sometimes you do not have the time to get that thing out and use it before the deer is gone. So, knowing how to judge range without a range finder is a good skill to learn.

[Dale]

I suggest the same as fabs. Go to the shooting range and put out targets at know ranges and measure them against the reticle. If possible make the targets close to the same size as the game you are hunting.

[Evan03]

ive learned that shooting targets at known distances in a familar place it not even close to substitute for guessing the range when it comes to live moving targets.

ive passed up shoots across ravines and cayons on deer before thinking they were beyond 300. later to find they were inside 200.

i think the lay of the land changes our eyes perspective. i also dont think looking through optics helps guess the range. unless your useing the 18" theary or something similar.

just make sure you practice at the longest distance you think your going to be able to cleaninly kill something. then go out in the feild in the areas you hunt, pick out trees sage brush clumps of rock anything you can put a visual on and pace to.

i think youl be amazed at how far of you are on your guessing. you also will never be able to come close when paceing across cayons and hilly terrian.

in most cases it takes practice and luck to get the ball rolling and the game falling with no aid in decideing the distance to your target.

Evan

[fabsroman]

Rocky also uses a theory on big game wherein you sight in high at 100 hundred and then you can just aim at the brown deer from anywhere from 0 to 400 yards. If that is the case, you should be okay without having to guess range. Unless of course, you plan on shooting at things beyond 400 yards.

PM Rocky about his method. I read about it and am seriously thinking about using it myself.

[model 70]

when i say i'm bad, i mean BAD. i've looked at a rock or tree across a canyon and guess it to be around 400-500 yards only to find it's closer to a mile, maybe a bit more. yeah, THAT bad.

[Evan03]

you just have to figure out where to site in. 4"s high at 100. would keep you in there at 300 not sure about 400

i site in for 200yds and punch paper there. and have taken game farther

i think the site in ungodly high at 100 to kill game at xxxxx yards wounds game and alot arent recoverd. atleast here in idaho. weve got wide open country game can be spoted from miles away and many times it seems like hunters shoot at game from miles away thinking they can hold dead on cause there sited in high. when all reality they have no idea how far theyre shooting or how theryre rifle shoots.

Evan

[fabsroman]

Model 70,

You have to remember that when trying to estimate range, you need to look at something that you know the size of. Picking a tree or a rock will not do it because they all come in extremely different sizes. However, a whitetail, from the largest to the smallest, are usually somewhat comparable in size within an area. Hence, ranging them is a lot easier than picking a rock off the side of a mountain and trying to figure out its range.

One example is my thinking that the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon was a hop, skip and a jump away because I could see it from the Canyon Rim. I mentioned that I would like to walk down to the river and see it up close, and was told that it would take a day to get down to it and another day to come back. I could not believe it when I heard it, but finally came to the notion that the Colorado River must be pretty big, and therefore, look a lot closer than it is.

[Boyd Heaton]

i'm going hunting in the very near future and simpley cannot afford a range finder. IMHO You can't afford "NOT TOO"

[quigleysharps4570]

What are you shooting? Guess it really don't matter though...you need a rangefinder anyway.

[Evan03]

boys thats alittle harsh

model70
a range finder is not necessary to kill big game if everything is in line.

you nned to practice, go out plink at rocks on the mtn side, punch paper. shoot at long range jack rabbits crows whistle pigs and the like.

that 270 will get you to 300yds and ill call that the max,

i have this gut feeling when im hunting, i use no range finder or anything, just the naked eye. ive killed 7 bucks, from 20 to more than i d guess at.

the more than id guess at buck happend ounce and i call it ounce in a lifetime shot, i was inexsperinced and didnt know how far it was but i go the spot each hunting season looking for the same shot. tried passen it but its just to steep and rugged i cant do it.

anyways 9 times out of 10 your shots will be inside 200. but its the times that they arent that the gut feeling has to surface and lets you know whether you can make the shot or not.

this gut feeling is my oath. and has come with many shots missed on varmits and big game. i think its the misses that teach you more than the hits. anyone can make hit but its puitting it where it needs to be. and the misses teach you alot about wether you should have hdl over or dead. or into the wind.

as much as boyd and the rest rely on gadgets i know they have the gut feeling to. and im sure they turned down that ideal 700 yd shot more than ounce even though everything was just right.
sometimes you just feel you cant make it and its not worth trying

it takes a man to turn a shot down. but you have to shoot at everyuthing to get to that point where you know you should let the shot go

Evan

[denton]

I just got a rangefinder, and found out how bad I am, too.

My theory is that when you are hunting, you don't have time to do much with the rangefinder. The trick is to use the rangefinder to calibrate your eye before the season.

Around familiar landmarks, like cars, roads, and buildings, I do pretty well. I've practiced judging distance, and then pacing it off. It turns out that is of little value when you get out in the trees and brush... the references are gone.

FWIW, I had the same experience judging distance across a ravine... something about that throws me completely off.

Anyway, I think the answer is to borrow a rangefinder for a weekend, and get into the hills, away from man-made references, and just practice for several hours. Judge a distance, and then measure it. Even the half hour that I've spent at it reduced my error noticeably. I plan to spend more time at it, and then leave the rangefinder home.

[Jack]

Denton, you're right that practice with a rangefinder before hunting will help your range estimating.
Another thing you do, if you're smart, when you use a rangefinder, is use the rangefinder before the game appears. When you're in a spot for any length of time, take out the rangefinder and check the range to a few places, like "ok, that clearing is 300 yards" "that hilltop is 225"
That way, when game appears, you are likely to know the exact range without having to use the rangefinder on the game itself. Much quicker that way.
Model 70, I've been hunting woodchucks since 1955, and doing a lot of range estimating. Buying a rangefinder taught me that I was nowhere near as good at estimating range as I thought.
I would strongly suggest you get one- I know it may not be easy, financially, but it's more important than another firearm, for example.
IMO, Leica makes the best hand held one.

[fabsroman]

Okay, I agree that having a range finder is a good thing, and that everybody that CAN AFFORD one should buy one, but I do not think it is a necessity.

Let's all agree that while hunting involves a lot of science, it isn't a science, but an art. What did we do before rangefinders and short short short magnums? We had to judge the range and pull the bolt a lot farther. Even with a range finder, mistakes are still made. Even with a 3.5" 12 gauge shell, I still miss some ducks and geese. Technology is great, but eventually it will take the challenge out of hunting. Heck, we already have people doing hunting from their computer. That is pathetic. Don't get me wrong, I strive to make one shot kills, but if I were to agonize for more than a day over the crippled waterfowl that gets away, I wouldn't be hunting anymore. For those that say they never missed, they have never pulled the trigger.

I have owned my range finder for over 5 years now and have killed probably 40 deer in that time frame, two of which were pretty decent bucks that I got mounted. In those 5 years, I have not used the range finder on a single deer because I just didn't have the time to do it, especially on the bucks. One buck I shot while it was moving across a field. It stopped for a second and I pulled the trigger. Dropped him in his tracks with my .300 Win. Another buck I ended up walking up on. The rear half of his body was behind a tree. Just as I got the gun up and looked through the scope, I could see him looking directly at me.

This past season, I killed two anterless deer on opening day and had absolutely no time to break out the range finder. I saw them running down one edge row of the farm that was about 500 yards away from the farmhouse, but didn't have a shot on them from the house. So, I grabbed the UNLOADED gun and ran to the top of a hill. These deer must have been spooked because they were running like crazy. I rested the gun on top of a fence pole and tracked them through the scope. They were headed right to a creek. After jumping the creek, the lead one paused and I dropped her. Same thing happened with the second one. Checked out the distance afterward and it was 250. I had guessed a little over 200. Where I hunt, it is rare to come up on a deer that isn't spooked, especially on opening day.

My range finder is used mostly to determine how far away from homes I am because it is illegal to discharge a firearm in Maryland within 150 yards of a dwelling and it is illegal in the county I live in to discharge either a firearm or a bow within 150 yards of a dwelling. The exception is if you have verbal or written permission from the owner of the dwelling.

Boyd,

A range finder is a good thing for you because you aren't worried about spooking that deer when you are shooting at it at 800 yards. For the rest of us, we cannot always use it and come home with meat.

With that said, I do think that the range finder is a good way to practice judging distance. It continually amazes me how off people are. A couple of years ago, we were waterfowl hunting out of a pit blind and the guys were trying to figure out how far away a feeding trough was. My guess was 400 yards and nobody would believe me. They all thought it was 200 to 250. So, I took the range finder out of the pack and it turned out to be 425. They were all shocked. On the same farm, I had another guy tell me that it was about 400 yards to the front field. I almost started laughing because I knew it was 800+ and that none of us should be trying to shoot any deer in that field from where we were.

As I did with the feeding trough, I try to range things around where I am hunting to figure out what the distance is. That way, when the unexpected shot presents itself, I am ready for it.

[Evan03]

i thought for sure you ran up the hill no bullets in your pocket or pack and an unloaded gun. to have just wastched the deer go

if im doing anything remotly close to hunting atleast one rifle of mine is stocked with 4, never anything down the tube. its legal here even

[fabsroman]

Evan,

There were 3 in the mag, but nothing in the chamber on that 150 yard run. I was breathing pretty hard by the time I got to the top of that hill because my rifle weighs a ton with the full length bedding block and bipod on it.

By the way, from what I wrote, I can see how you would have thought I had no rounds on me or in the gun. The only time I did something like that was after I got clobbered by my scope and was bleeding everywhere. That is a long story, but suffice it to say that I forgot to load the gun and dry fired on the first antlered deer I ever saw. I think I will be telling that story for the rest of my life.

[JackRabbit]

judging distances is never the same.as flat land compared to hilly or mountainous land.or across water and in the woods.every situation is different and unless you can be out every day it's always going to pose a challenge out to 300 yards or better.I like setting my rifle 2" high at 100 yards.then as best I can pick out land marks 100 yards or so in all possable directions.out to 300 yards aim right on the heart.

[denton]

My son-in-law and I just spent an hour out with the rangefinder, playing how far to that rock? how far to that tree?

We tried three different locations, where there were no houses, or cars for reference, mostly across rivers or ravines.

First, we're still not really good at it, but the encouraging news is that in just an hour, we reduced our error quite a bit. I think that 3-4 more sessions, and I'll have it down well enough for hunting purposes.

I am amazed at how far off I was, especially at first.

BTW, I've heard good things about the Nikon 600 rangefinder.