How far away is that deer .. 75 well maybe 100 ??

[WD45]

 Hello fellers,
I'm new around this site and it is THE best site I have found and I got a question for you all that hunt with yer favorite lever gun.
How do you all judge distance to the intended critter for supper ?
I see and here a lot of people that will say they will limit the  range for a certain gun / caliber but it has been my experience that most hunters could not tell the difference between a deer being 75 yards or 110 yards or lets say between 100 and 150. Now I am not including everybody here or get 100 % exact distance but I think part of the reason the old cartridges get such a bum rap is the poor ability to judge distance. Take a fella that has never shot anything but a 270 and give him a 45-70 and when he cant hit the side of a barn beyond 100 yards he says its a useless inaccurate antique that belongs on a rack over the fireplace.
I had one fella that I was hunting with a couple of years ago that could not understand why he missed that deer. When I asked how far away was it he said " OH around 100 yards "  but when we paced off the distance to where the deer was it came out to 170 paces. Now I know paces are not real yards but I think it makes the point. Sooooo how do you all do it ?

[Lone Wolf]

I use my rangefinder if I can. If I can, I estimate best I can by the size of the animal in my scope. I shoot a Marlin 1895G 45-70 with a Leupold 1x4 and pretty well know by the size of the deer compared to my recticle if its over 100. If I question I get closer.

[Sixgun]

It is hard.  I shoot alot of silhouettes and I look at something and say to myself, "is it chicken, pig, turkey, or ram?"  It works every time.

Sixgun

Ps:  I am shooting Cowboy Rifle, Pistol Cartridge tonight after work, I loaded up some new loads for my M92 Rossi 357 and I can hardly wait to try them in this practice match tonight.

[Oldtimer]

Elmer Keith discussed the problem on one of his books, "Sixguns".  He told of working with surveyers and they could get within about 20% of the actual distance.  There are so many variables, that you really have to know the area where you hunt, or the animal, to be close.  At most distances that people shoot lever actions, being off 20 or 25% is not critical.  I have read that most deer are shot within 75 yards.  If you figure +/- 20% of 75 yards, that would mean the deer might be 67 to 83 yards, so the drop of any gun would be irrelevant.  My rule for shooting deer is that I wil not shoot a deer any further than I can keep my shots in a 9 inch circle.

[Mikey]

WD45:  I usually do not hunt areas that I have not checked out thoroughly before the hunt.  I will pace or mark out distances to landmarks and the like to get range distances and then go from there.  

During whitetail season I hunt an area where I know the distances and the drop of my slugs - that works for me.  When hunting coyote, I will already ahve paced off distances in fields to know where the 100, 200, and 300 yard lines are and what the distances are in the middle.  That way I know where my bullets will hit at any of the given ranges.

I would also opt for a range finder.  My brother has one of those monocular types that can zero right in out to 400 meters, and they don't cost that much.  For pacing by the average height man, 120 normal paces equals 100 meters/yds.  Do both and see how accurate you are.  Hope this helps.  Mikey.

[WD45]

Thanks for the replies gents. I too do a lot of pacing (  so to speak ) where I hunt to establish general yardage. I have read about Elmer kieth and his sighting system for sixguns but never anything about judging yardage which would be interesting indeed. I was taught some things about judging distance by an old goose hunter which can apply to any animal. Now I understand you dont always have time to use this but  here it goes any way...
When we see a deer we dont really SEE the deer... we see the whole animal and dont pay attention to the details other than the rack it has.
Certain features / details of the animal are visible or not visible depending on the distance. For instance , A goose is within 50 yards if you can see its feet . 30 yards if you can see the color of the feet.
The next time you see a deer at one of those paced off places note to yourself what details you can or cant see at that distance because those details will apply to every deer you see at that general distance
Has any of you ever used this method ?
By the way sixgun , you ever ate one of them thar silhouette thingys ?
I here they taste like chicken :lol:

[Sixgun]

WD45,

I have shot alot of those silhouette thingys but never killed one.  You can knock them down but they always get up for the next round.  They are really quite tough critters.  I have even seen some with holes all the way through them and they still come back for more.  I have seen some wounded so bad that they couldn't stand up but a quick trip to Dr. Welder and they are as good as new and usually stand a few thousand more hits.

By the way, what does your handle stand for.  I used to spend hours upon hours farming on an Alice Chalmers WD45.

Sixgun

[Rick Teal]

It doesn't really matter much to me how far away the animal is, because I close my eyes before I start jerking the trigger anyways. :twisted:

Actually, I've always sighted my rifles in using the rule of threes (now called MPBR), and in my area, you rarely see deer that are more than 50 yds away, so all I do is hold right-on and fire up the fry pan.  :-D

[WD45]

well ,,, as for the WD , thats my first and middle initials and the 45 is just my choice of calibers to shoot most of. Although it originally got stuck on me when I turned 40 and since my initials are WD... WD40 ... Although i have used WD40 on tractors  the name had nothing to do with tractors..I like the old iron though .

Where I live long shots are actually more the exception than the rule.
Most deer are killed between 40 and 80 yards. It is very hilly here and if you are not shooting downhill you are shooting uphill or across the holler to the other hill. come to think of it I dont know if I could hit something that wasnt on a hill  :eek:

Are you sure them things dont tast like chicken

[marlinman93]

The difference between 75 and 100 yds is not a factor that will cause you to miss. If you sight your gun in at 100 yds, and you shoot dead on at anything less than 100 yds, you'll still result in a kill. If you shoot at something at 75-125 yds, it will still be a kill.
 Now the big difference comes, if you don't know the difference between 100 yds, and 150-200 yds.!
 I practice by guessing at distances, and then using my rangefinder to see if I'm right. Practice and experience are the only way to get good at judging distance. Some people just never get the nack of it, and should limit their shooting accordingly.
 Hope this helps.

[WD45]

Marlinman hit the proverbial nail on the head and I agree 110 %.
Unfortunately what I have found is that there are far to many out there that can not tell the difference between 100 and 150-200 yards! They see a deer or whatever they are hunting and shoot at it. How far away it is doesnt even enter their mind ! Such was the case with the guy I was hunting with in my first post to add a bit to the story. On the drive home I asked him If he ever shot at anything at a known 150 yards and of coarse the answer was no. :shock: After this I began to wonder how many people were out there like this guy so I started asking when I talked to other hunters and I think you can guess what type of answers I was getting :cry: I believe this is one of ther reasons I here so many stories about the one that got away or could not be found because they were hit bad. If I recall the story of Elmer kieth killing the Mule deer ( or was it an elk ) with a sixgun at like 400 yards was because the guy hunting with him made a bad shot with a rifle and it was makeing tracks to parts unknown so Elmer took the shot to keep from losing the animal.

[wesco]

Simple where I hunt. 100 yards is a L-O-N-G shot. And I practice, practice , practice form april to october. I am good offhand to 100 yards with my iron sighted levers, and with a rest, out to 150 or so. If the deer is past 150 I am doing something incredibly wrong. 30 or 40 yards is more the norm. If the deer looks real small, he's too far away and the shot is passed--period

[Sixgun]

A few years ago I was hunting whitetail up in the Clearwater Country of North Idaho.  I had my Brother-in-law, his son and my son with me.  It was the first hunt for all of them and our tags were for either sex.  As we were walking along through the trees I saw several whitetails that none of the others saw before the deer disappeared.  I decided that what I would do was shoot me the next one I saw and then concentrate on helping them.  

We came to a clearing that I judged to be 200 yards accross and I saw a deer on the other side, almost in the trees.  It was snowing so hard that the deer was just a shadow.  When I put up my rifle and looked through the scope I could see it was a nice buck.  My rifle was sighted in for right on at 200 yards so I aimed right behind his shoulder and touched it off.  He didn't fall and didn't run off so I sent him another one only this time I aimed about 2 inches below his back bone.  I figured since he showed no reaction to the shot, it didn't hit him and it didn't go over him.  I also decided he was farther than my estimated 200 yards but because of the snow I didn't know how much farther.  

I got a reaction from that second shot.  He did a back flip and got up and ran back into the trees.  He only made it into the trees, maybe 5 yards.  When I field dressed him I discoverdd that his heart was blown up, also his whole off-side was blood shot.

I paced it off, after cleaning up, and it was 258 paces, so it was at least 50 yards farther than I thought.  The snow didn't help at all but I think the big reason that I misjudged him was I am used to seeing mule deer in my scope and just didn't know how big he really was.

Sixgun

[huntsman]

Distance can be a tough nut, especially if you don't prepare yourself for the likelihood of taking a long shot. The only clean miss I ever had on a whitetail was when I misjudged the distance by over 100 yards. Shot over his back because I thought he was about 350 yards (7" drop). In actuality he was only about 210 yards (0.5" drop). It was an open field and I was viewing over a slight rise, cutting off vision of the deer's legs. No reference points for distance and poor proportioning for size estimation. Had to aim high in the kill zone to avoid possible ground clutter on the rise. In retrospect, it was a shot I should have passed up. The fact that he was a handsome 10-pointer and light was fading fast clouded my judgment. So I lived and learned. Fortunately, so did the buck.

I hunt from permanent stands or blinds most of the time. One of the things I do in preseason is pace off in several directions and try to get landmarks for distance from my stands. I.e., "Far left shooting lane 150 yards to the mesquite log, 80 yards to the cactus bunch on the left." Or, "220 yards straight across the field to the fence, 300 to the live oak motte north along the fenceline, 400 yards to the far southwest corner. Patch of bluestem at 75 yards left, 3 gopher holes at 100 yards right." When the deer appear, I can roughly reference them to these known distances and increase the odds that I won't miscalculate too badly.

Also I spend time waiting in my stand by estimating distances to certain objects. I start with an object I think is about 10 yards away and keep moving out toward an object at a known distance by 10 yard increments. It's a great time-killer while waiting for a deer to show up. Do it enough and you start to refine your estimating skills quite a bit. I can pretty consistently judge distances to objects out to about 150 yards at about + or - 10 yards. Beyond that I try to group things into 50 yard increments and aim accordingly. At out to 300 yards this will put a flat-shooting round within a few inches of point of aim. After that things get pretty low-percentage unless you train a LOT on those distances (I don't).

[44 Man]

Always used to guess the distance or pace it if possible.  Just bought a rangefinder and WOW was I off on my estimates!!!   Thought I was shooting in the back yard at about 25 yds / rangefinder says its 39 yds!  An old friend, John Rupert, had an informal competition a while back.  Said he got tied of people telling him they shot their deer at "400 yds, running!" so he set up a bunch of targets and invited those "friends" for a shoot.  Most of them looked at the far target and said that was way too far away to shoot at, must be 500 yards.  Nope, 250!  So much for good guesses in the woods.   Keep using that rangefinder!@    44 Man

[John Y Cannuck]

Where I hunt, max you will see a deer is 85 yards in the bush. So, if I can see it, I can shoot it, no matter what I'm carrying no consideration to range is needed.

[WD45]

I found one of the toughest to judge is shooting across a small valley.
The drop into the valley is decieving and without one of those new fangled range finders you cant even get close. pacing it off is no good and you can pretty much rule out the tape measure :lol:
I think we all know some of those people like your friend invited over to shoot .  It sort of drives the point home of how decieving distance is.
I would also be willing to bet those guys had not shot more than 2 , well I will give them 3 , boxes of factory ammo through those guns and most of that was sighting in :roll:
There is no substitution for just plain ole practice at every distance you think you will shoot a deer at.... Paco's rule is a good un

[targshooter]

I actually pace off distances in the area I am going to hunt when I scout. That way, I have an idea of judging distances in the topography and cover I'm hunting. To me, there is a vast difference in estimating distances in the woods versus open areas. I have a tendancy to over estimate distances in the woods and under estimate distances in the open.