Thread: Things to look for in a range finder.

Originally Posted by Tussock

Having been roundly chastised for saying this every time I say it, I will say it again. There is no great difficulty in correcting your drop to 500m with a simple drop chart and some kind of reference reticle. Ballistics calculators are a recipe for disaster in the field which most people will disagree with. I have just seen way to many people go "oh hey, I made a data entry error" at the range.

When you miss a this range the tricky variable is wind. People miss plenty due to elevation but vastly more often due to windage. When you are shooting steel or rabbits, no one has an issue saying they missed due to windage.

People who shoot deer at longer ranges, in my humble opinion, are not mentioning the gut shot deer.

I'm not saying don't do it, but whenever I read one of these threads and people are shooting out to 500m and the only thing mentioned is ways to correct drop, then I wonder what the outcomes look like.

Ah wind, everyone suffers from it in one form or another even at short range it can have a major influence and unlike elevation for distance which is "constant" the effect of wind varies with the cartridge. Drop charting 15 km wind deflection at 3 oclock can be useful you just adjust for wind speed and angle and its pretty good to go. At the longer ranges reading wind on terrain can be a real challenge.