Trouble ranging Big Game, need help

[Jeffrthehunter]

Homemade from a spotter window mount. The clamp wasn't wide enough for a LRF, so i chopped off the fixed side and bolted a piece of aluminum angle to make it work, A 1" piece of aluminum bar is bolted to the spotter mount on the head. I tighten the bolts when I get the spotter reticle and LRF co-witnessed.... Maybe easier to see from this angle.

Very nice setup!

 

[WildRose]

Homemade from a spotter window mount. The clamp wasn't wide enough for a LRF, so i chopped off the fixed side and bolted a piece of aluminum angle to make it work, A 1" piece of aluminum bar is bolted to the spotter mount on the head. I tighten the bolts when I get the spotter reticle and LRF co-witnessed.... Maybe easier to see from this angle.

From that angle I can see it. Very nicely done.

 

[Dosh]

Steve, I have have been worried that continuous scan would eat the battery but I will try your suggestion with an extra battery in my pocket. Do you any issues with battery life.
Thanks for the tip, Jeff[/QUOTE

Jeff, can't see any worry about an extra battery with spares. I like to steady on a shooting tripod.

 

[Canhunter35]

Good replies, but study how the reticle ranges in you're rangefinder. It probably bounces things on the bottom part of the reticle? Flat country is the pits for ranging. I've bungled more than a few shots because of inaccurate ranges. As stated above I try to bounce something ahead or behind and scan across the animal until I'm confident in my range.

 

[coyotezapper]

I a sig range finder as well. I found the the very bottom of the circle was where the laser was actually aimed. That has helped me get more accurate ranges. I took my range finder out and using the auto scan feature I ranged the very top of a power pole to pin point where it was aimed at.

I sold my 2400 for this exact reason. If they can't align the laser properly I wont buy it / keep it. Never have had this problem with my Terrapin, G7 or Leupold 2800.

 

[Bravo 4]

I sold my 2400 for this exact reason. If they can't align the laser properly I wont buy it / keep it. Never have had this problem with my Terrapin, G7 or Leupold 2800.

I've had this happen with $20,000+ rangefinders that are rated for 25,000 meters.
Point is no matter the maker or model, check yo stuff!

 

[DeadmansPoint]

Do you confirm range with your reticle? When my spotter walks me onto the target, I confirm the ranged distance prior to shooting. Most of the time (if I'm already on target), I can call the estimate prior to him being comfortable with his distance and wind call.

I've been let down by batteries and bad scans too many times to rely on them solely.

 

[Bravo 4]

Do you confirm range with your reticle? When my spotter walks me onto the target, I confirm the ranged distance prior to shooting. Most of the time (if I'm already on target), I can call the estimate prior to him being comfortable with his distance and wind call.

I've been let down by batteries and bad scans too many times to rely on them solely.

I had a range confirmation issue happen to me a few weeks ago on an elk hunt, while using a more than capable LRF. Had someone spotting for me that is not exactly experienced. He gave me a range while I was setting the rifle up on a small group of elk. They had moved up hill a little by the time I got on them, so I said to give me a range and he called out the same range. I was a bit skeptical but he had the rangefinder, I shot and hit under my intended target and they ran back down into the abyss of dark timber. I grabbed the rangefinder and they had moved from 925 to almost 1000. The illusion of them moving up hill made it look like they had only moved in altitude. He felt like crap but it was my fault, I pulled the trigger.

 

[DeadmansPoint]

I had a range confirmation issue happen to me a few weeks ago on an elk hunt, while using a more than capable LRF. Had someone spotting for me that is not exactly experienced. He gave me a range while I was setting the rifle up on a small group of elk. They had moved up hill a little by the time I got on them, so I said to give me a range and he called out the same range. I was a bit skeptical but he had the rangefinder, I shot and hit under my intended target and they ran back down into the abyss of dark timber. I grabbed the rangefinder and they had moved from 925 to almost 1000. The illusion of them moving up hill made it look like they had only moved in altitude. He felt like crap but it was my fault, I pulled the trigger.

My drop card on my hunting rifle has all the mil calls for whatever animal I'm hunting. It just takes a second, and we tend to have ample time for set-up on 400+ yard shots.

Your story is like deja vu for me. Tools are slick, but I always confirm now. If I'm the spotter for an infrequent shooter, I actually wait for their range call first.

 

[coyotezapper]

Do you confirm range with your reticle? When my spotter walks me onto the target, I confirm the ranged distance prior to shooting. Most of the time (if I'm already on target), I can call the estimate prior to him being comfortable with his distance and wind call.

I've been let down by batteries and bad scans too many times to rely on them solely.

Not exact enough. Close maybe but IME not close enough. If you were ranging something that you knew the exact size of then maybe.

 

[coyotezapper]

I've had this happen with $20,000+ rangefinders that are rated for 25,000 meters.
Point is no matter the maker or model, check yo stuff!

Good point. That's why I have more than one and check them against each other often. Each has their own thing they are good at.

 

[HOT TUNA]

Range finders are good tools, that can give you precise ranging capabilities. They do have limitations that at times can't be overcome. Weather, terrain, target reflectivity, dead batteries, equipment failure etc...

It's been touched on a little in the thread, but you should be prepared to to have the ability to range targets accurately by other means than a laser rangefinder in the field.

My favorite way to quickly cross check my rangefinder is by milling the target. When I go hunting I make mil ranging table for the species I'm after and tape it to the stock of my rifle. Before I hunt I make the table with two columns. The first column is range, and I do mine in 50 yard increments out to 800 yards. The second column has the mil size of my target animal at each range. I like to use the average measurement from the brisket of the animal behind the front shoulder to the top of it's back. This measurement doesn't change as dramatically from how the animal is oriented to you. As far as if the animal is at a lower or higher elevation than you are, or if it's quartering towards or away from you. Mil ranging in my experience is reliable out to around 800 yards. This is due to the fact that you have a fair amount of dead space usually in the trajectory of your bullet to play with even if you make a little bit of an error.

Other methods I use in the field to determine range to targets include: printed topographic maps, printed satellite maps (which are very accurate I've used them successfully to put rounds on targets at very long ranges), utilizing handheld gps (you can use them to create waypoints on easily identifiable terrain features and them use the "navigate to" function to give you the distance from your location to the target), there's an app called BallisticsARC you can get on your smart phone that will allow you to build a range card overlay on a satellite map, and last calibrating your own range estimation will serve you well (every time before I determine a range by any method I always estimate just by looking at it to see how close you my guess is. After awhile you'll be surprised how good you get.)

 

[WildRose]

Not exact enough. Close maybe but IME not close enough. If you were ranging something that you knew the exact size of then maybe.

It isn't hard to learn the distance from the elbow to the top of the whithers on any game animal. You can then use such body dimensions to rapidly calculate both ranges and drops.

 

[Bravo 4]

I will agree that utilizing the mil-relation formula can be a good way to estimate range to a target of known size. So can what we call Scaling from a Map, Utilization of GPS, and even using Naked Eye/Appearance of Objects (and there are others). Every method has its limitations but they are all just methods to "estimating" range, laser rangefinders are the best way to get a range determination. Yes even they have many shortcomings, and I agree that reliance on electronic devices is potentially setting ones self up for failure. However there is just too much room for error in "estimating" range when on the fringes of ELR (as defined by this website). The "danger space" available on basically any modern cartridge is so small at these ranges and the margin of error is just too great to make this a high percentage shot, to me at least. The methods posted (not just by me) have their time and place. Unfortunately in my case mentioned with the elk it was not. In spots I may frequent I will also have a sketch/range card built and have drops established for a multitude of points. However this was my first time visiting this spot. And I, being the most experienced shooter, made mistakes that I blame solely on myself. I'm just glad I missed and seen the actual impact or would have spent a sleepless night and at least half the next day looking for an elk I "may have hit".