[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.