ba_50
I got to see some of the snow covered flatter ground on the weekend. I started roughly in the Springfield IL area and drove to Tuscola before taking a more diagonal route to Paris on downward to Marshal which is roughly 15mile east of Terra Haute but on the IL side.
I had the Wife drive so I could check for tracks
They were there of course (read a bunch of them) and of special intrest was that those Coyotes would home in on every small town or farm house along my route with the tracks often being within mere yards of the dwellings only to fan out again as they hit the more open country. You know that they (the coyotes) are doing this year round no matter what the weather or season.
Those distances are going to be quite deceiving in this country. You can see so far that a flag set up at 500yds would probably look like a stone's throw as you know. I do not own a range finder but was wondering how far out they would reach during that trip as we saw many deer both close and far. The range finder would be a nice toy for sure but I will usually work within known distances and then use the call to get them within a point blank 150yds or under.
I did pack a rifle on this trip but we were heading down that way for the baptism of the new grandson. I Figured that I may be able to slip on down south another 40miles to Crawford county and get some hunting in on one of the two evenings. This did not happen though between visiting and going out to eat a couple times..
...My son-in-law and his father thought that this idea was a very good one but the Women were not about to let us get away. We might not come back for quite a spell don't you know.
Sorry that I couldn't help out any on your question. My own thoughts are that the range finder is ok but it needs to be used well in advance to document yardages. To take one hunting might get you busted by the yote because of movement made while doing your scanning.
