Thread: How to calculate shooting angle?

See if your rangefinder will display the angle then put it into a ballistic app. My Leica 1600b will give tbr out to 800yd but will also display the shot angle

Originally Posted by TimC

Thanks for all the replies.

Grandpamac no I'm not new to hunting at all. I was new to shooting past 300m though until a year ago. Now I've shot many animals out to and past 400. It's the angle thing that I have only just experienced, I was aware of the science behind it but I wasn't aware of my rangefinders short comings to it's limits of angle. It seems I had too much faith in it. Sorry if my queries sound amateur. Thanks for the advice and tips though.

Kelton what rangefinder binos would you recommend that can handle greater angles at range?

Cheers

Greetings @TimC,
I should have said new to shooting at range. You have entered a new room in the vast mansion that is shooting. Last New Years Day, at the age of 73, I started shooting F-Class and shot matches at 300 and 600 yards. 1,000 yards is on the program for later this year. Something new for me as well. No adjustment for angle required though.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings @TimC,
I should have said new to shooting at range. You have entered a new room in the vast mansion that is shooting. Last New Years Day, at the age of 73, I started shooting F-Class and shot matches at 300 and 600 yards. 1,000 yards is on the program for later this year. Something new for me as well. No adjustment for angle required though.
Regards Grandpamac.

That sounds like quite the achievement, well done! Perhaps no adjustment for angle but I'm sure there's a ton of intricacies most wouldn't have considered. Cheers

Originally Posted by stug

See if your rangefinder will display the angle then put it into a ballistic app. My Leica 1600b will give tbr out to 800yd but will also display the shot angle

Unfortunately they don't tell me the angle. The next model up (model flock has) do show angle so lucky for him but not so great for me. I really like my binos so I'll just use an app or find one of those small angle meters that attaches to the scope tube.

If you use strelok it uses your phone camera to give angle (target appears on screen, point that at the object and take angle). I don't think strelok is available for download at the .Kent so if you don't have it will have to use one of the other options, applied ballistics is good, so is shooter (suspect shooter is also unavailable for download currently)

There is the old system which is the cosine indicator which is effective but means you then have to put that into your app.
Then there is tbr with in the medium models of range finders and next is your range finder with tbr and a ballistics engine then you can go full blown with the kestrel paired with your range finder.
Don't forget to put some sort of bubble level system as it's an essential part of LR that most people under estimate it's worth for an ethical shot.
I have all the above t shirts and recommend for what your talking about some sort of tbr system with AB lite in it.

Sent from my SM-A226B using Tapatalk

I use a protractor that I have drilled and made a pointer so when I look along the back of the protractor it tells me the angle. Then I range target and put the numbers into a trigonometry app and It tells me the distance. Bit of fluffing around but it seems to work.

I have some leica rangefinding binos which are my go to. They do account for angle to some extent but i dont use that function, i just use them to range true distance. I use Hornady 4DOF on my iphone as my ballistic app, it measures shooting angle. My process is, range animal, set up rifle aimed at animal, then use the app on my phone sit phone on my supressor which is pointed at animal which allows the app to measure the shooting angle. Enter the true distance measured with binos, wind, dial up scope & send lead. Works for me, i havent shot any outrageous angles (from memory the longest shot i have taken at what i would consider decent angle was 470 odd meters at just shy of 25deg) but its proven to be accurate for me.

Originally Posted by TimC

Thanks for all the replies.

Grandpamac no I'm not new to hunting at all. I was new to shooting past 300m though until a year ago. Now I've shot many animals out to and past 400. It's the angle thing that I have only just experienced, I was aware of the science behind it but I wasn't aware of my rangefinders short comings to it's limits of angle. It seems I had too much faith in it. Sorry if my queries sound amateur. Thanks for the advice and tips though.

Kelton what rangefinder binos would you recommend that can handle greater angles at range?

Cheers

The sig range is very dependable and also has internal applied ballistocs lite giving you shooting soultions after you range . Iv had Leupold and lieca all were reliable the sig is cheaper than both with a more powerful rangefinder i have one sitting here i can send you to try befor you go buying one if you like
They have become my favourite for quick deading and i dont have to be as steady as i did with my other units

You have three main ways of dealing with shooting at angles:
1. Inputting the angle into a ballistic solver. The most accurate.
2. Rifleman's Rule: line of sight (LOS) distance x Cosine (angle) = horizontal distance (HD)
Use HD for drop and LOS for wind. Tends to hit high.
3. Improved Rifleman's Rule: bullet drop x Cosine (angle) = corrected drop
Do not correct windage. Tends to hit low.

2 and 3 are approximations. Your rangefinder is using the Rifleman's Rule. I would recommended comparing different ranges and angles to see which combinations have an acceptable error.
For my applications (no more than 0.1mil of error) I found the following limits for the Rifleman's Rule:
5° good till 1500m (didn't check further)
10° 600m
15° 350m
20° 250m
>25° don't use it

You can calculate the angle from you rangefinder with:
angle = inverse cosine (HD/LOS)

Your deer will die of old age waiting for you

Range
Put phone on barrel, touch blue coloured “ GET” on RH side

Dial
Send it to the chiller

Knights Armament “ Bullet Flite”


Used it for years

From seeing a Sika to having it on the ground often 20 to 30 seconds, if your already behind the rifle

Originally Posted by Kelton

Change your range finder mate range finders like that give other rangefinders a bad name iv never had one thats being unreliable on tbr

Second this. Me and @Kelton shot multiple animals on our tahr trip a couple weeks ago. All shots were steeper than 30 deg and 4 - 500 metres from creek floor up into the vertical bluffs. TBR worked flawlessly as it always has for me.

Or something other then the rangefinder was the error.

Cheers for the replies fellas.

I'll keep running the vortex fury's but just use line of sight function for moderate angles then enter distance into app etc. I've downloaded the Hornady app so will do some practicing with that. If having to get my phone out pisses me off I'll spend the cash and get some lrf bins with better tbr.

Thanks heaps for your generous offer Kelton, I'll give it a miss as they're worth a bit of coin and I'd hate for them to get damaged. You're a good bugger.

Cheers all.

Ok. Just had a play with the binos, changed setting to LOS and now it shows angle. Saves putting phone on suppressor I guess but still have to use app. Everydays a school day huh....