ORIGINAL: GMMAT
I have 14 treestands on my little 120 acre patch and don't get to hunt all of them in the same year most of the time, so when I sit in a stand I usually don't remember how far everything is, so it helps me to just reassure myself a bit with the rangefinder.
RJ:
But if you DID know what 30 yds was in all of those stands....would you still feel the need to take it?
Yes, because I will take 50 yard shots out of a couple of those stands under the perfect situation. I edited my response a bit after you quoted me to explain a bit more but my thoughts are for those long shots if I don't have the time to take out the rangefinder and click I don't have business shooting over 35 yards. There are situations though that a click with the rangefinder, good footing, enough time to collect myself, and an unalert animal will have me shooting out to 50. A rangefinder is a $200 insurance policy to me that I will never wound a deer due to picking a bad number, and I feel that if I am going to shoot those distances I owe it to the animal to take that time and spend the $200 to get accurate distances.