Thread: Shooting at Medium Range

Sounds like you want the same simple system like the old basic golf ranging. Where the assumption is the flag pole is a fixed height and calibrate against gradations through a monocular.

So....if you know the depth of a hind or stag and know what magnification your scope is at then even with a duplex reticle you should be able to estimate the distance give or take. Would just take some practise. And some more practise. Until its second nature.

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Originally Posted by Ned

Sounds like you want the same simple system like the old basic golf ranging. Where the assumption is the flag pole is a fixed height and calibrate against gradations through a monocular.

So....if you know the depth of a hind or stag and know what magnification your scope is at then even with a duplex reticle you should be able to estimate the distance give or take. Would just take some practise. And some more practise. Until its second nature.

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Greetings Ned,
Exactly right. My scope is fixed power so I am going to use the multi dot reticle instead and have calculated how far away 400mm is between the various dots. Bear in mind this is just to let me know when I should use the rangefinder or when I don't need it. I am sure that I remember a system such as you suggest being touted on some scopes a decade or three back. I can use my fixed power mil dot scopes the same way. I used to do stadia level surveys where you set up your level and have your assistant place the staff on points of interest. You then read top wire, middle wire and bottom wire in the level plus the bearing. The distance from the top wire to the bottom wire times 100 was the distance from the level which together with the bearing allowed you to plot the survey without faffing around with a tape. Now that is all done with electronics.
Regards Grandpamac.

tasco 30/30 reticle of 80s vintage.......simple duplex FROM MEMORY "if your buck fills across from thick outer bar to thick outer bar,he is 100 yards...if he fills from outer bar to Xhair he is at 200 yards,if he only takes up half way from XHair to outer bar he is .............
where it falls over is an animal of larger or smaller than normal body size...but its still pretty good rough n ready system. how many rugby fields never worked for me.

Mildots were intended for ranging. Know the size of something but not the distance measure it in mil and half mils and you can calculate the distance. Conversely if you know the distance you can calculate the size.
Once you are familiar with it you can estimate distance much quicker and with sufficent accuracy out to around 4 to 500 metres to connect without the time penalty of going for a rangefinder then back to the rifle.
It's not as accurate obviously but is good enough in many situations and has the bonus of giving you your holdovers without the need for knob twiddling.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

tasco 30/30 reticle of 80s vintage.......simple duplex FROM MEMORY "if your buck fills across from thick outer bar to thick outer bar,he is 100 yards...if he fills from outer bar to Xhair he is at 200 yards,if he only takes up half way from XHair to outer bar he is .............
where it falls over is an animal of larger or smaller than normal body size...but its still pretty good rough n ready system. how many rugby fields never worked for me.

Greetings Micky,
From my archive. My Tasco scope was a 2.5 power purchased around 1980. Made in Japan and still here although not currently fitted to a rifle. I guess the ranges would be 125 and 62.5 yards (half of 5 power) not a fat lot of use really. I had it zeroed at 200 yards on my .308 and shot our NZDA comp out to 300 yards with it until it cot shuffled aside by higher power optics. Still would be a good choice for the thick stuff.
Regards Grandpamac.

well my memory isnt too shabby after all......not bad considering I havent seen one of them adverts for 30 something years LOL.
guys who shoot on farm land can use a fence batten........ they pretty much all same height..... much more reliable than animal size.

I know that my drop with both my hunting rifles is "hundreds minus 1.5" which gets me within a click or so out to 400m, I can choose to either dial or hold with my FFP mil reticles. Range everything unless it is obviously very close, I have not lost a chance at an animal as long as I can remember due to any delay from ranging or dialling, but I generally try not to disturb the animals I'm hunting and scare them off.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

well my memory isnt too shabby after all......not bad considering I havent seen one of them adverts for 30 something years LOL.
guys who shoot on farm land can use a fence batten........ they pretty much all same height..... much more reliable than animal size.

Fence battens are 1.050m to 1.070m tall. By the time you lose a bit in the grass at the bottom say 1.0m or 10 mrad at 100 metres. Might have been made for ranging and we never knew.
Regards Grandpamac.