Trailblazer
11-02-2008, 01:41 PM
I shot over a real nice buck in early deer season here because I misjudged the range. It was at first legal light and I was looking across two low ridges. I couldn't see the deer by naked eye. I could only see them with binocs or scope. I estimated 400 yards. There were actually three bucks and I ended up killing the last and littlest after I decided holding over didn't work. Not with a cast bullet because this is the California buzzard zone where lead is illegal. After daylight I could see it was more like 300 yards. So the wife bought me a Leica 1200 CRF for my Christmas/birthday present. Gotta love that woman!
I just returned from a late season hunt where I ranged several places where I had killed deer in the past to find out how accurate my range estimations were. They weren't to good. One that really surprised me was a short shot. I thought it was about 60 yards and it turned out to be about 120 yards. There were a couple long cross canyon shots that I estimated the range with a topo map that were right on. I was happy to see the topo's were close in those cases. My estimations at the time of the kills were close too although I didn't try to estimate exactly at the time.
As I suspected because of my early season debacle light levels did effect my estimations. Dim light makes things look further away than they really are. On the other hand a brightly lit canyon wall looks considerably closer than it is.
Another surprise was that I killed last years cast bullet buck at 250 yards. I thought it was about 200 yards which I considered my maximum range with my 356 Winchester with the Saeco 250 grain bullet at 2100 FPS. He was on the move going up hill when I shot. I did hit him lower and further back than I would have liked but it was still in the boiler room so it was good. The 50 yard under estimation made a difference.
I just returned from a late season hunt where I ranged several places where I had killed deer in the past to find out how accurate my range estimations were. They weren't to good. One that really surprised me was a short shot. I thought it was about 60 yards and it turned out to be about 120 yards. There were a couple long cross canyon shots that I estimated the range with a topo map that were right on. I was happy to see the topo's were close in those cases. My estimations at the time of the kills were close too although I didn't try to estimate exactly at the time.
As I suspected because of my early season debacle light levels did effect my estimations. Dim light makes things look further away than they really are. On the other hand a brightly lit canyon wall looks considerably closer than it is.
Another surprise was that I killed last years cast bullet buck at 250 yards. I thought it was about 200 yards which I considered my maximum range with my 356 Winchester with the Saeco 250 grain bullet at 2100 FPS. He was on the move going up hill when I shot. I did hit him lower and further back than I would have liked but it was still in the boiler room so it was good. The 50 yard under estimation made a difference.