For years I never did have a range finder...ended up missing several Deer because I'm lousy at judging distances! I had a friend help me put up my ladder stand one year and he marked of several distances for me with his range finder and it helped me later on when I continued Bow Hunting.I finally broke down and bought me a range finder about 2 years ago,so what I do when I'm up in one of my many ladder stands is to range several different distances before any Deer come in so I'm ready in case one shows up un-expectedly.I waited til I caught a nice one on sale at the local Bass Pro Shop..ended up with a nice RX-600 Leupold for around $180.00 when they are usually around $200.00 plus tax!