Ways to measure distance for shots without laser rangefinder

[orionengnr]

Come to an Appleseed,

Thanks for the reminder...I need to do that.
Two friends (who live three states away) did it a few years back...great reports.

At that time, the nearest one was well over 200 miles away, and that made it a weekend event.

I just did a Google search, and it appear that there is one closer these days. I think I just found something to add to my "to do" list.

Thanks again.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Hiking GPS. Distance is much more accurate than absolute position because most of the error is from the effective thickness (thickness, density, and ionization) of the atmosphere which changes gradually between measurements. Even your fix is going to be accurate to within a few feet with WAAS.

Mike

 

[WestKentucky]

I'm thinking about a bow rig I saw last year. Had a sight line, and about 5 lines below. You put the sight line on the deers back (assuming it's an average sized deer) and the other lines were where another portion of said deer was, I believe it was the belly but may have been feet. Either way a deer that's close appears bigger, and one that'd farther appears smaller, so you set it up in 10 yard increments or whatever you choose then use the right sight pin to line up the shot. Simple and nifty. For a rifle or handgun maybe a person could judge based off of notches in a blade sight or something.

 

[chemist308]

I had a very similar question a while back and I now have the answer--at least if your rifle has a normal hunting scope. The duplex reticle, which is what most scopes have, is a built in range finder. Basically there are thick parts on which the thinner crosshairs rest. Well those thick parts are there for a reason, which has nothing to do with support. That's your duplex reticle, used for range estimation.

What you do is measure the distance between them at 100 yards with your scope set at the highest power. Depending on your scope, it might be something like 6-8 inches--get as close to an exact measurement as you can and write it down. If you have a target or point near your target of known size, size it up in your duplex at highest power and extrapolate from there.

I've since realized that the same theory can be applied to sight pins of a bow...

 

[caribou]

We have "room" here in teh Arctic and a simple way to do such;

Go get a spool of dental floss, they are 300 feet often, and say so on the label. Poke a large 2 foot tall stick into the snow and strech the string, then put another stick in the snow, and repeat, untill you have measured off the distances you wish to learn. Then we add barrels and sheets of plywood with targets and such and most all the village uses such adhoc range's to death. Can do the sam in Summer on Tundra.

shoot it, learn the ranges and your estimates will be reasonably accurate

 

[artee]

To the original poster:
Back in the day that those 2000 yard (or 1600 or whatever) sights were designed, the infantry theory was point and area targets. A point target would be hitting something very specific (generally, a man... but maybe a head) whereas an area target was just that, a large area. Think of the space a company of the 19th century would occupy. A hundred men would march in something like ten files by ten ranks (or, maybe a 12 x 8 or three 4 x 8's or 10's with a gap) A 10 x 10 company falls in to about a 30 foot x 30 foot square. You're aiming for the "blob" any hit on anyone anywhere in the blob is the goal on those 1000 ish to 2000 ish area targets.

Ranging practice in the latter 1800's in the US Army was a part of the soldiers "qual test". You not only had to shoot a certain score on the known distance range, but you spent a day doing ranging exercises (or passing ranging tests) that were based on two styles. In one, a line of troops marched away from the "testee". He had to direct one troop to 'drop out' at each 100 yards from 100 to 1000 yards. To pass this, the soldier who stopped had to be at X yards +- y yards, according to standards. The standards for "Expert" were quite tight, like +- 10 yards at 500yards. You acquired these skills by frequent practice and drill. The other style of the test was just being quizzed on random objects, such as, "soldier, range to tree this side of bend in brook". Col Townsend Whelen talks about these tests in his books, such as "The American Rifle" and "Suggestions to Military Rifleman".

In the time period of the Civil War and Indian wars, the army use to issue a piece of brass (about 5 inches by 2 inches ) with a slot in it. The slot was tapered. You would frame a standing man in the slot, and read the distance on the scale.

A range estimation method that used to be taught in the army used the lensatic compass. It is a trig method. The 5 degree rule. Take a bearing on your 'target' move perpendicular off your sight line, counting your paces. Continue to take bearings till you are 5 degrees off your original bearing. Your original target distance is 11 1/2 times your pace count to your 5 deg offset.

 

[SilentStalker]

Like others have said using a mil reticle of some sort and an approximate known size of what you are shooting at plus lots of experience. In my experience, I have a dope book with sizes of lots of different things, average height of a male, how tall a stop sign is, average height of a bus etc. etc. use the surroundings and that will give you some idea as to what you need to calculate distance. Google how to calculate unknown distance to target using the mil reticle or something like that. There is a ton of info out there. Where it gets tricky is factoring in shooting downward or upward slopes . Then there is the wind which is very different from where you are vs. Your target.

 

[artee]

Part II:
Today, to get range NOT using a laser, I would use Google Earth, a hiking GPS, a topo or scope subtended angle. If you can't get a range of +- 10 yards over a 1000 yards with either a Garmin Hiking GPS (such as the Map60 or it's replacements, the 62 or 64) or using Google Earth then there's no hope for you.

 

[george burns]

There is undoubtedly an app for your smart phone that does that. I just looked, there are a bunch for android, even a mil dot calculator. Several for Golf also.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

It also calculates lead and windage.

 

[edfardos]

GPS.

 

[Caliper_Mi]

Now I have to disagree. If I am sighted at 100 yards, at target at 225 is going to show hits ABOVE. Bullet path is straight but sight is scoped in down from that down.

Same way if I sight for 25 yards and shoot a 100 yard target, my hits will be high. So using 25 yards, if I want to sight my gun in for 10, I would make sure that when I am on target, the bullet hits are 2.5 inches low.

You're right about the 25yd zero. On an AR, a 25 yd zero is the same as a zero somewhere in the 300yd range, depending on bullet weight, velocity, etc. What's happening is you're seeing the near and far zero. At 25yd, the bullet is still moving upwards as the bullet path intersects your line of sight. From there, the bullet carries on further upward before its arc carries it back down to the far zero. It's kinda like the arc of a long throw with a football, although on a 300yd scale...

100yd is a bit different though. With almost all centerfire calibers in a rifle with typical sight heights, somewhere near a 100yd zero is where the arc of the bullet just grazes your line of sight before heading back downwards. Your zeroes at all other distances (closer and further) will both involve raising the sights from the 100yd setting.

 

[Palehorseman]

If a known object's dimensions is near target, I can get a good idea as to range. From slingshots to high powered rifles, Kentucky windage has always been my friend