Tips for estimating distance?

[Sir-diealot]

I think rangefinders are useless for turkeys myself, they require to much movement in most cases to get on the turkey. (This may not be a problem with people like me that blind hunt) but why spend several hundred dollars on a rangefinder when I get the same advantage from a $3.00 rope?

You do not use the rangefinder to range a bird, you use it to range rocks or trees in the area (long before a bird comes in), so that when a bird passes particular landmarks, you know he is in range...

You do not need an expensive laser range-finder for this type of task...  You are not ranging a deer at 400 yards, you are ranging a rock or tree at 40 yards or less.  (My cheap optical range finder from the 1990's is accurate enough for this type of activity).

As a bow-hunter, this is likely not necessary for you...

Here brings up another reason I would not like a rangefinder. My GF complains that I don't remember things, and she is right. It's a side effect of the Fentanyl and Oxycodone that I have to take every day (Well patches every other day as they last 2 days) to help control my pain as well as others I take for nerve pain and others for inflammation. I have to write the super important stuff down or I forget them. I can remember 1986 like it was yesterday but remember yesterday like it was 1986 It's one of the horrible trade offs I make so I can function every day.

Now another reason this MAY not work for me is I mostly hunt field edges so it is hard to mark and remember a blade of grass or wheat or alfalfa or so on. When I set up I set up so that a bush is to my back door so nothing but me is coming in from that way and then I judge my shooting angles and if it is going to be really wide then I pull out a third decoy and set it up to the outside in that 30 yard range unless I am trying to work on dominance then I put a jake much closer to my blind unless I am hunting public land then I don't use a tom or jake at all for safeties sake.

You do have me thinking about the hanging up outside thing though so perhaps I will move the hens in closer and try sticks in the ground around 30 yards or some other kinda marker that won't hurt the farmers equipment if I forget and leave it there., it will have to be something natural though.

Somebody above mentioned all the moving around being to risky I believe, when I set up a blind or tree stand I set these up and the markers at least a week ahead of time so my scent dissipates and the critters get used to the blind or tree stand.

I just stopped walking with a cane last year and though I am walking much better I am not confident in walking in the woods at night to a stand or blind yet so for now I am sticking to field edges or maybe some woods off to my left (I shoot right handed) but not right in the woods just yet. I think I will be there next year.

Though I may not agree with or use your methods for me I do truly read and think on what you are saying and if it is something I can use, so please don't be shy about giving advise, I am more that willing to weigh it out and use it if I can and I think you for it.

[mspaci]

I don't guess anymore.

I carry my rangefinder.  When I setup, I quickly zap several distinct trees or other objects in my anticipated kill zone and remember how far they were.

Pretty easy.  Pretty quick.  Pretty effective.

THIS WORKS WELL FOR ME TOO

[ilbucksndux]

I have been bow hunting for years so my mind is very good at judging distance in increments of 10 yards. A range finder is useless to me for the style of turkey hunting I usually do. My rule of thumb is if I can clearly see his eye,he is dead. The only problem with that is I'm gettting a little older and I cant see near as far !

A game I play with my kids is we get out the range finder and we guess how far something is. A tree a light pole ect.

[davisd9]

If you can see his eyes pretty clear then he is in range.  I do not mean just seeing he has eyes but can actually make them out and all with detail.

[mufishgrad]

3D archery shoots if you're into archery are really helpful with this for practice if they're the kind that don't let you use a rangefinder. Practice makes perfect judging targets using your preset pins, and eventually you start to get a knack for estimating distance even uphill or downhill.

[Jrkimbrough]

Same here!  I rarely use my rangefinder on the actual target, turkey or deer hunting.  I usually range my max shooting distance and mentally mark those so I know anything inside those is within range.

I don't guess anymore.

I carry my rangefinder.  When I setup, I quickly zap several distinct trees or other objects in my anticipated kill zone and remember how far they were.

Pretty easy.  Pretty quick.  Pretty effective.

[Turkeyman]

X3. Doesn't take long and worth it.

[Gobble!]

I don't guess anymore.

I carry my rangefinder.  When I setup, I quickly zap several distinct trees or other objects in my anticipated kill zone and remember how far they were.

Pretty easy.  Pretty quick.  Pretty effective.

That's my approach.

[Aurora Wild]

A reliable trick for range estimation is this. On level ground, extend your arm level out in front of you look at the point on the ground at the tip of your middle finger. This is pretty close to 20 yds. Do this before you set up and pick objects at double that distance as your dead zone.

[TRG3]

Ranging distance over open featureless ground is difficult. That's why I use my rangefinder on my gobbler decoy and try to keep him at 20-25 yards when I set it up, making it somewhat easy to judge another 10-20 yards beyond, if necessary. This all needs to be done during the decoy set up and not while the gobbler is coming in. For bow hunting deer, I range several trees at 30 yards and place a small orange ribbon/thumb tack around all of my ladder stands.

[randy6471]

  Rangefinder for me too.

  But in situations where it's a quick set up and I have a gobbler that's close, I use the same method that Ontario_caller described. Pick out landmarks in 10 yard increments. Same for bow hunting.

  If it's a field set up then of course it's more difficult to judge distance, but if it's a field then I usually have a decoy out. My strategy for decoy placement is similar to what others have already mentioned and that is to place my decoy around 15 yards from me, so that if the gobbler hangs up 15 yards from my decoy, he is still well within gun range.

[Bowguy]

Here's a trick. When the bird gobbles and you can feel the air move it's close enough. Just kidding guys but if you aren't sure just don't shoot. If it's close you'll know it's in range. It's not about one walking away a few yards too close it's more about one getting wounded a few yards too far.
I'd use a range finder as suggested but I've never carried one for turkeys.

[OJR]

Like several have mentioned. When I set up I use my rangefinder to hit a few trees, bare spots, stumps, etc. and just remember if he's inside "that" then he's in range.

[Gen.27:3]

Knowing and judging distance comes with time and hunting experience. However, a great trick is to learn what ten yards looks like, then just judge it ten yards at a time all the way to the bird. However, this does not work well in a field, but it does great in the woods.

[Ctrize]

I use my 6x rangefinder more for  binoculars  and also range the farthest object in range and go from there. If you want to practice ranging when ever I walk to a grocery store or around the block start ranging objects then pace them off the thirty to fifty are the hardest but you will get good at it. The old range finders use to use grid lines and  where a deer fit between those lines would determine distance. You can use a variation of this by using your bead and paying attention to how much of the head it covers at say forty yards.Practice on a decoy it's not foolproof but does give reference point.