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Old 12-23-2014, 09:55 AM
  #10  
Nomercy448
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kansas
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Unless you're shooting up or down a mountainside, elevation angulation doesn't affect the ToF enough to make enough difference to worry about for hunting.

There are a lot of variables that figure into the geometry of angular shooting, but the simplified version is to simply multiply the line of sight measured range by the cosine of the angle (line of sight = hypotenuse, not "opposite"), hence why a lot of long range shooters use cosine angle indicators on the side of their rifles. For example, if you rangefind a deer at 400yrds, but it's 45degrees down a mountain side, it's actually only 283yrds away: cosine(45) = x/400, 400*cos(45) = 283yrds (cos(45) = .707).

If you're on flat land, then the time of flight difference when shooting at high angle close shots, the angular deviation (moa shift) won't be enough to matter. When shooting long shots, the deviation is too small such that the cosine of the angle will almost 1, so the degree of hold will be negligible.

Angle only matters in the hills.
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