RE: Why do you use a rangefinder?
Just to throw some fuel on the fire here, a quick true story.........[8D]
This year APAJaws put a marginal shot on a buck on opening day of New York's hunting season. The shot maybe clipped the back of the liver but really wasn't a great shot to be honest, the kind where you come back the next day to look for the deer.I was sitting about 75-100 yards away when this happened. The buck ended up running and bedding in front of me. It was a shot I would have never taken at an animal that wasn't wounded, hard quartering away shot in brush, alert, and a long ways away. The animal was wounded though, and I felt we owed it to that animal to make the best shot possible on him to put him down quickly and I knew I could make the shot if I had the time to collect myself and the right distance. I remember guessing the distance for 47-50 yards, after watching him there for about 15 minutes hoping his head would go down. I clicked him at 43 yards though with the range finder. Had I shot at him for my original guessed distance I would have completely missed and probably sent him running to god only knows where. Instead I pinwheeled him with a perfect heart shot and he only went 10 yards from there and dropped dead saving the animal a lot of suffering.
Just anotherperfect example of why I will always carry a rangefinder with me no matter what.