Thread: How do you judge range?

one of the most simple ways Ive seen used was a laser/red beam mounted on scope...up to a hundred yards the dot was below cross hairs .dead on at hundred and progressively further above as distance increased.... made perfect sense on a .22 magnum used for spotlighting.

If you've got a ballistic reticle in FFP, you can use it to estimate range assuming you know the approximate height of your quarry. I was glad of this on two occasions, when the battery ran out on my rangefinder, and when I lost my rangefinder in the river. On both occasions I was able to continue and make a good clean shot, was glad I'd memorised the equation and method.

Originally Posted by Phil_H

I definitely get what you are saying however must you always use a range finder? I have purchased my cheap SNDWAY to help me sharpen my estimates of distance. I have set up the rifle to hit the mark exactly at 200 meters, all other environmental conditions taken into account. The distance out to 200 meters the bullet should only rise by 2.5 inches at 100 meters. As I limit myself to only shooting within the 200 meter, in essence all I am trying to achieve for myself is to be able to determine if the shot to be made within 200 meters. If it is, do I necessarily need to use the range finder to know that the target is 137 meters away.

What I can add is that with my range finder and ranging deer in the neighbours farm, I haven't yet felt that I would be happy taking taking a shot at anything other than the largest stags at a distance over 150 meters. Call it getting older and having failing skills to not feel confident at taking the longer shots. So just working on the basis of what looks like a shot that I am capable of, I doubt that I will even be shooting out to 200 meters. Personally I believe it comes down to being ethical and KNOWing your personal limitations.

You don't need to know exactly from 80m out. That is just plain rubbish. I mainly shoot small game with a much smaller kill zone, and often with a rainbow trajectory 22lr. I use all sorts of methods to gauge distances. It can be speed of travel x time, using satellite imagery and measuring, using the GPS on the phone, scope reticle, range finder, ... whatever they all build up your abilities for hunting and navigation.

These things can all be used to build up your own 'eye-o-meter' gauge. Once I am happy with the sorts of distances I can reliably estimate with reasonable accuracy (by verifying with other means) and shoot with like accuracy I'll shorten that distance and be happy with that. Generally it is about 1/2 - 2/3 PBR for me to give a good margin of error. As soon as the questions pop into my head, "Is that too far? Is it borderline?" then it is too far without measuring.

Both small and larger game deserve our respect and as humane an ending as possible. Take your range finder with you whenever you can. You'll soon figure out when you'll need to use it and when you can skip it.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

If you've got a ballistic reticle in FFP, you can use it to estimate range assuming you know the approximate height of your quarry. I was glad of this on two occasions, when the battery ran out on my rangefinder, and when I lost my rangefinder in the river. On both occasions I was able to continue and make a good clean shot, was glad I'd memorised the equation and method.

I've done it a fair bit with a SFP scope as well. The calculations are much the same as long as you know what magnification range your scope is calibrated for. You can always scale it for other magnification levels.

There is the old shut one eye and use ya thumb method (I got taught this in primary school many moons ago). Not replacing a rangefinder but gives you a ROUGH ESTIMATE only. Don't get put off by the website name below
https://www.mathsisfun.com/measure/e...-distance.html

anybody got an old hunting magazine with advert for early tasco scope???? 30-30 reticle...went something like if it fills the part from thick x hair to thick xhair its close to 100 yards...from centre xhair to outer its 200 blah de blah de blah......... if it looks far enough to need hold over or dialing up....its probably too far to guesimate....stalk closer or leave for another day.

I use a rangefinder if I think it's above 200, my main selling technique for range finders is asking people how wide the shop is, 90% get it wrong, then we go outside to do a longer range trial, but remember knowing the distance is only the first problem, here is a target we just finished zeroing on it's a roe deer , shooting at 520, with 6.5-55 and then 243, we eventually hit the 4 inch disc every time, 20 mph crosswinds, and some amateur adjusting ( dealing the wrong way)

Originally Posted by Hewie

There is the old shut one eye and use ya thumb method (I got taught this in primary school many moons ago). Not replacing a rangefinder but gives you a ROUGH ESTIMATE only. Don't get put off by the website name below
https://www.mathsisfun.com/measure/e...-distance.html

Well that's buggered the sales for mega buck range finder binos.

When you get out to longer distances its impossible to range distance by eye. 800 yards looks the same as 900 yards on the range, ballistically it makes a big difference.

I can judge reasonably well out to 200 yards by eye when Im looking at something I know the height (like a deer), and sometimes use the rugby field unit of measurement similar to the power pole unit of measurement. Further than that and I want to know the distance before hand or use a rangefinder.

Fence posts 1 - 1.2m high, everything is variable in height.

I admire the clever mechanical system of the US M-14 based M-21 sniper rifle of the 1960s, which adjusted for elevation by a cam/pinion connecting the tilting scope mount to the scope zoom ring. Zoom the 3-9x scope until the man-shape reticle fits your target... and voila!... bullet drop is roughly compensated for. If you are clever, compensate further for wind and the angle of depression/elevation. This would of course not work for NZ hunting as we have no deer the size and shape of a standard Viet Cong.



Notice the loops on the sling.

I reckon a small Fallow would make a good stand in for a Charlie.

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@Russian 22

Sh*t, thought you said small fellow. Never joke about that.

Originally Posted by Cordite

@Russian 22

Sh*t, thought you said small fellow. Never joke about that.

That'd work too haha

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British Army Manual, for Lee Enfield front sight post: _|_

Post height = Height of standing man at 400 yards
Post height = height of kneeling man at 250 yards

... From which you can helpfully deduce that as an average man is 170cm tall,
... a fence post 125cm tall corresponds to height of L.E. front sight post at 300 yards
...and a fence post twice height of the sight post is = 150 yards.

A fence post half the height of the sight post is ~600 yards away... and you'll likely miss at that distance with iron sights.

Yes, it's Christmas, and yes, I'm at work on call.

Normal hunting range (out to about 200 metres or so) was never a problem but there are lots of hills and gullies here in central Otago that makes it more difficult so I have invested in a Leica 1500 range finder. Lots of surprises at first but I love it. The 8x magnification also makes it a good spotting scope.