Distance

I am not a big game hunter, but I loves the taste of the harvest. My hunting exp is bird from MN Pheasant, grouse, Duck. But, I know in big game judgement of distance seems crucial. How do you judge on the eye? No range finder(I hate those guys in Golf) This can come into play with fishing but not as much.

My only claim is I go back to my work exp in construction or I grew up and still play golf..ok quit laffin.. with work I would judge from burying cable and shooting bores under roads with 25ft rods and the distance to get to the other side or how many rods. From golf I seem a little more confident to know how many Yards to the hole and what it takes to get there. This is a par 3, par 4 par 5++++.

How do you judge?

I have a range finder.

Actually, I use a range finder after estimating distances. It has helped a lot. The funny thing is that I've only shot three big game animals with a scoped rifle, which makes 26 animals I've shot with open sights at ranges under 75 yards.

Distance is what tipped my decision to switch from the 30-30 to archery when I hunted years ago. I stepped off the distance to the last buck I shot with the Winchester at 30 yards, realized I'd never shot one any farther away than that, and realized that with a bit more practice I could consistently place arrows at that distance. I only hunted near my home, in brushy western WA, so I've never used a scope, let alone a rangefinder.

Sg

Similar to Salmo g. I started with arcehry and became real familiar with my pace. A long stride for me is approximate to a yard. After a while I got better and better at judging yardage by guessing first then pacing the distance. Playing golf and construction work also helped. The longer the distance the harder it is to judge. The faster and flater the rifle/bow the more room for error.

Either you are good at guessing distances, you measure different areas that you are hunting and remember the reference points, or you get a rangefinder.

I have a couple of tricks I use. I know that the front sight on my ML will cover/blot out a human head at 100 yards. So I look for another hunter and point at him and if his head is showing a little on either side of the sight then I know he is less than 100 yards away.

Seriously?

What's the other trick?

Rocket Red - - ---> LMAO

Go to a shooting range or hang out at a football field. There's a high school FB field on the way to the store and right before the season I take a gander that direction.

I got the I-phone app.

Full of win!

That's pretty good, I'll have to remember it. I've studied my rifle's ballistics and know how much my bullet drops at a given distance. With that in mind, I'll eyeball the distance to a stop sign and then judge my estimate by how far my bullet drops below the center of the O in STOP.
Shooting from the truck in the dark really helps to keep me sharp for when there's hair in the scope.

LMAO.

I'm gonna have to try your method with my iron sights. It could be done anywhere, which is handy.

The hard part is getting your target practice buddy to hold still long enough to figure out the yardages.

This guy is available for the upcoming season.

Known values are never a concession.

LRF or bust.