Thread: Rangefinding

Is there any way of finding outt he distance of an animal without a rangefinder

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No

It depends how precise/accurate you want to be

if it looks big, youre close, if it looks small, youre probably too far to shoot it. i used to take an educated estimate before i had a range finder, 1 rugby field, 2 rugby fields kinda thing, but that can really be decieving in big open stuff. even a cheap rangefinder is better then no range finder.

Yes - maths - trig etc
Scopes can help with mil or measurements - need to know the height of deer etc

However really for a animal for shooting - rangefinder is far far better

If you have a topo map and both you and the animal are on clearly identifiable features you can have a decent estimate. But thats a big if, and still not that precise.

Originally Posted by silentscope

if it looks big, youre close, if it looks small, youre probably too far to shoot it. i used to take an educated estimate before i had a range finder, 1 rugby field, 2 rugby fields kinda thing, but that can really be decieving in big open stuff. even a cheap rangefinder is better then no range finder.

What sort of cheap rangefinder would you recomend

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Originally Posted by Southhunter

What sort of cheap rangefinder would you recomend

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i started with a 200 dollar nikko stirling. ranged good to 5-600m. i now use a 800m leupold range finder which works better in the bad weather. i work on the theory if i cant range it i cant shoot it and try and get closer.

how bout shoot it and count the steps from you to it??

Originally Posted by silentscope

i started with a 200 dollar nikko stirling. ranged good to 5-600m. i now use a 800m leupold range finder which works better in the bad weather.

I have some budget unbranded one, I've ranged trees out to 800+ with it and it has measured fairly consistently with other rangefinders. But the optics are like looking through a muddy pond, so at times you can hardly tell what you're pointing it at. At some stage I'll upgrade to something nicer but its better than nothing.

As an exercise I often estimate ranges using a mil dot scope. Practice on fence posts, and the like. You have to know the height of the target to calculate the range though. Targets height in metres x 1000 divided by the height in mils is the range. With practice you can be quite accurate (5_ 10%) with game though assumptions have to be made as to size and this can blow the accuracy out a bit. Still at most practical ranges it works well. One thing it does do is improve your eyeballometer and for opportunistic shots where theres no time to fumble with a rangefinder it can make all the difference.

Originally Posted by Southhunter

What sort of cheap rangefinder would you recomend

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Ive just put a good brand new one in the Buy and Sell section

Yes, shoot it, then take a waypoint of where you are standing with the gps. Walk over to the dead animal and then get the gps to tell you the distance back to the waypoint.

If you want to find out the range before shooting it then use the gps to make up a range map i.e. that hill is 600m and the tree in front is 400m. The deer standing half way between the hill and the tree is then logically 500m

Or

Get much closer.

That's the Stalking part of "Deer Stalking"

That way you don't have to worry about range ................ just point, shoot and enjoy.

Cheers
Pete

Originally Posted by mikee

how bout shoot it and count the steps from you to it??

@mikee

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Cheers
Pete