NerdLord

I was thinking of getting one of these to toss in the possibles bag but I have a few questions.
If I zero it for a 6ft person at 100 yards...
would a 3ft target measure 200 yards? and a 12ft target be 50 yard?
(half the size/double the distance, double the size/ halve the distance)



https://www.amazon.com/standsbyriver...ss+rangefinder

Topgun 3006

Sounds like basic math to me!

hunters_life

Yes sir, that's pretty much how those work. Not the most accurate things in the world but you can get a rough idea. I had one fairly similar to that for a while. Finally broke down and got myself one of those fancy laser range finders. 200 yards and in, I have no real need for one. Past 200 and I like to have all my ducks in a row for the shot.

NerdLord

It's zeroed by holding it at arms length and having a 6' friend stand 100 yr away and slide the finder to where he fills the opening then knot the string so when you hold the knot in your teeth the distance is always the same arms length.
I was thinking set up a 4' target (ave ht at shoulder of mule deer according to wiki) set a second knot, a third for 2', etc. That way a quess-imate of height (@ shoulder) could give a pretty quick distance (within a yard or two)...especially for someone like me that like being traditional (and cheap..I can't afford $$$$ laser rangefinders)

Hell, I was even thinking cheap golf rangefinders.

hunters_life

I zeroed the one I had similar to yours using a McKenzie buck archery target. If I remember correctly, those Golf range finders work at the standard flag stick height at the hole. Not sure how one could vary that. Laser range finders aren't all that expensive anymore. Even the cheap ones work well out to 400-500 yards which is probably further than you need one. The one I got is a Bushnell I picked up on sale for right at $200. I saw several for from just over $60 to some in the $500 range. I grabbed up the Bushnell because it had great reviews for being durable in all weather conditions. Luck has me hunting in some pretty crappy weather most times, that being bad luck, so my equipment needs to be able to stand up to that.

Now, you have a little refiguring to do on how you want to set ranges. You don't mess with the string again. You set the string to your length and that's where it stays. You get the ranges by the height of the target within the aperture. The ranges will be comparable to the target height. The one you have pictured is actually backwards as far as the range hash marks. The shorter the target appears in the aperture, the further it is. So if you have it set at 50 yards minimum for a 4 foot target such as a Mule deer, at 50 yards the mule deer back will be flush with the top of the aperture. And so on.

Nomercy448

These are fun novelties, but they aren't accurate enough at long enough ranges for them to be used for centerfire rifles. As an example, I ran a practice ballistic problem for a rifle student recently - teaching the use of a milling reticle, which is all we're really talking about here. In the problem, we read 1.3 mils from the scope, corrected for magnification it was .866666 true mils. It yielded 320yrds. However, the LRF spotted it at 325. So back calculating, the reading should have been 1.28mils... When 0.02mils means a 5 yrd difference at only 325yrds, how accurately do you think you can bracket your 6ft tall person with no magnification?

Consider this - 1 mil is 3.6" at 100yrds, so if you can't accurately place the bracket around a 6.0ft reference at 100yrds, missing only by 3.6", you'll be wrong by a full milliradian. Wanna think about how much error that would be on the face of your little brass bauble? I know my rear sight on my revolvers is 22" from my eye, so let's assume my string would be 22" long. 1 mil at 22" is only 22 thousandths of an inch. For perspective, that is only 4-5 times thicker than a human hair.

And of course, can you tell if your field reference object is 6.0ft tall? What if it is only 5'9", can you tell at 100yrds? At 300yrds? Being off by 3" is almost a full mil at 100yrds, it's about 1/3mil at 300. But can you tell the difference in a 5'6" object and a 6'6" object at 300yrds?

Remember - I was off by 5yrds at 325 because my reticle reading was off by 0.02mils. If your slide guide were off by two thicknesses of a human hair, you'd be off by 1/3 of a mil. That's about 82yrds of error... Out of 325... Remember, that's about the same as PERFECTLY bracketing a target you thought was 6.0ft, but was really 5'9", OR the same as mis-bracketing a 6.0' object by about 3"... What happens if you incorrectly bracket a wrong size target, and now you're off by a full mil?

If you can hold up a bundle of human hairs at arms length and count them quickly and correctly, maybe this is the tool for you. I need to get closer than arms length to read 8ths of an inch on a tape measure, and have to get pretty close to be able to resolve 1/16th inch marks...

So what's the point? I can do better eyeballing and guessing range than being off by 82yrds at 325yrds...

And of course, what are you shooting? All of the above proves you have to be very close, and very lucky to be able to range even remotely accurately with it - but inside of 300yrds, I'm barely holding over anything at all for centerfire rounds. A few minutes of hold over at most. So the tool isn't really necessary at the range it is ALMOST accurate enough to be useful, and at longer ranges where a rangefinder is needed, this thing isn't accurate enough to be useful any more...

So whatcha really got there? Looks like a brass paperweight on a string to me...

Topgun 3006

"So whatcha really got there? Looks like a brass paperweight on a string to me"
Nomercy448

Ya big party pooper, LOL!

Nomercy448

Sorry amigo - maybe someday I'll learn how to temper my communication to be more tactful and subtle. I've yet to figure out how to show mercy...

Until then...