Turkey hunting forum for turkey hunting tips

After misjudging the range on a gobbler last year I started to carry and use a rangefinder. Do you use one?

Mostly when scouting.  I like to challenge myself at marginal shooting distances.  I've gotten much better, but terrain, slope (uphill versus downhill) and lighting can still lead to some surprises.  It is nice to have the monocular too.  I really should carry it more often.

Yep, only thing I am interested in is a 40 yard reference.  So when I set up I quickly pull it out and find a 40 yard object as a reference or two.  from that you can mentally determine a 40 yard arc out in front of you and when the bird shows up you are sure of when he steps inside your arc.

I use mine when scouting - like stated above - I will find land marks and know where the 40yard range is. If I know I am going to sit in a spot multiple times I will mark a tree to help me remember my range limits. It also helps me when I have taken other people along for the hunt - I can show them the mark and tell them to wait until he is inside this perimeter. 

i dont use it everytime i set up but i carry it everyday. if given the time, I range 50yds in each direction

 rangefinder found a home in my vest really takes the guess work out of it

Unless you're a "blind sitter" I see no need for a range finder....if you think you need one then the turkey is most likely too far.

I carry mine, but usually only use it to verify distances after a kill, just for curiosity's sake. Or on the rare occasion I bowhunt turkeys its nice to have.

I never have but I've been known to quickly step off "how far to that tree" a time or two when the situation allowed.

I'm a guide and like to give myself and clients a reference distance as I generally call the shot. 

If I were bow hunting or shooting with a pellet rifle, I would likely use a range finder.

For a shotgun...  Not so much. 

With a pellet gun or bow, the difference between 30 and 35 yards could be a miss...  With a shotgun, if the bird is in range it will likely die.

I have not carried a rangefinder to turkey hunt up to this point, but I may start. I consider myself a pretty good judge of distance, however last week I misjudged the distance to a gobbler by about ten yards and I missed him. My first miss ever! I was'nt happy but later that day I bagged a good one at what I thought was about 35 yards. I was right that time. IMO you are more likely to misjudge distance if you are sitting close to the ground rather than standing up. That's just my opinion. Now where did I put the batteries to my rangefinder? LOL

Like many have said, I'll usually step off the distance to rocks, fallen trees, a particular tree in front of me.  Most of the places I hunt are pretty tight and I usually don't get the opportunity to take long shots.  I have never killed a turkey over 35 yards away because I only ever shot at one farther than that and I lost him.  He ran off and I never found him, so I quit taking shots longer than 35 yards.  It was in the days before Hevi shot (all I shoot now), but it made me overly cautious.  Even though I know my gun & ammo will do the job well beyond 35, it is a mental thing.  I've let a lot of birds slide that I could have killed, though I often get them later anyway. 

I have also been bowhunting for over 35 years and got to be pretty good at judging distance.

Jim

I carry one in my vest to measure a reference point if i'm in open timber or in a field,if time allows.If im in thicker timber then no I dont see the need.

I use one, I range various objects to get my bearings on range when a bird comes walking in.

I do. 

Generally sit down and get gloves on & mask up then range a couple landmarks as reference points.

Been hunting turkeys a long time without one and saw a couple years back that I can still have a "rookie moment" when judging yardages.  Luckily a 10 ga BPS with a bad attitude and some #5 shot took up my slack and wrote a happy ending.

I decided pretty much right there that I owed it to the bird to make a better effort to NOT let that happen again.

Nope, I'll pace off the decoy or landmark on occasion though...

mudhen

I use one every single set up........I know my gun's effective range and try to laser a quickly identifiable  perimeter around me so I can minimize mistakes. Using a scoped gun it's really easy to get tunnel vision and lose track or be fooled by just how far a bird really is.
Knowing that when that birds passes the "Dark stump" or that "Big White Oak" then he is in range really helps.

Nope.  I carry around too much other crap.

If I have time to and the set up allows I have set up how many steps is from my decoy after I set it up back to my tree. Regardless of how far the decoy is set up at I knew how far away it is and that gives me a reference point. If I step off 28 steps for example when I'm getting back to tree in a hurry I know he is in range 12-15 steps past my decoy.

I do carry a rangefinder sometimes. If I have time to pull it out and click some trees like said above I'll find a tree at my max range and then I know anything from that point in is a dead turkey if I do my part.

I use one on new land if I have time after setting up so I have a pretty good idea when a tom gets in range. Just adds that extra bit of confidence when taking the shot.

I do sometimes mostly use it after the shot to get the exact yardage

Sometimes, usually to mark area around setup and after kill to tom.

I have a Simmons Pro Diamond scope it has a built in rangefinder hasn't failed me yet. It works for turkeys and deer. :OGturkeyhead:

Just out of curiosity, has anybody ever put a small flag, or some other marker, out at 40 yards? I have heard of people doing this for deer but I have never tried it.

Unless i've got to set up in an extreme hurry I almost always range a few spots out to 40 yds.That way anything inside that "zone" is whack city.

Quote from: mudhen on May 20, 2014, 01:32:23 AM
Nope, I'll pace off the decoy or landmark on occasion though...

mudhen

I have used decoys as reference at known yardage when blind hunting fields, but no rangefinder.


I don't carry one and so far I've not needed one... i have a switch that flips in my head when they get inside my kill zone..it's automatic...normally inside 40 yards..but if they're coming I'll go ahead and let them keep coming, as close as 20 yards, by then I'm pulling the trigger...If I was bow hunting, I'd have a rangefinder with me.

Quote from: WyoHunter on May 07, 2014, 07:25:22 PM
After misjudging the range on a gobbler last year I started to carry and use a rangefinder. Do you use one?

:icon_thumright: Only in a new area then just spot different tree yardage, 20 > 30 > 40 etc then put it away. Never on a bird, to much movement you need to set it down then prep your shot. Found this out the hard way a few years ago "got ya" "see ya" I'm gone.  :angry9:

I have one in my vest just in case. Doesn't hurt to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it.

I will this year, I made the same mistake you did last year. Mine had a happy ending, I hope yours did as well. Al Baker

I have never bought one, but I can't say that there weren't times when it would have come in handy.  It has been on my to buy list for the past several seasons, but by the time I have bought all of the tags for me and the kids, figured gas money for trips, motels, etc, I have already overspent my budget and the rangefinder gets put off.  I would use it more for taking the kids and other folks than for when I am hunting alone.

Quote from: VAarrowslinger on May 08, 2014, 10:20:41 AM
i dont use it everytime i set up but i carry it everyday. if given the time, I range 50yds in each direction

Yep. Never leave home without it. If I have time I range everything out to 50 when I sit down. 

This will be my first season really turkey hunting so I will probably take a rangefinder to range decoys and out to 40 yards.

I have never shot a bird more than 35 yards out...duck hunting over the decoys has given me experience and judgment. I don't use a range finder- a good pair of compact binoculars (Leupold Rogue) I find of more use both hunting and scouting. :morning:

I don't use one. I am a pretty good at judging distances. That said, my son uses one and it is the first thing he gets out of his vest when we make a setup.

I have a diamond reticle in my scope. Once the base of the neck touches the bottom of it while the top of the Tom's head meets the top of the diamond, I launch!

I bought my first rangefinder this fall. I plan on using it this turkey season when I set up on a bird to quickly check a few distances.


Sent from my iPhone that I ain't smart enough to use with tapatalker

I have a couple of range finders but quite honestly I never took one turkey hunting, heck rarely take one bow hunting anymore. I've never felt that I wish I woulda had a rangefinder for turkeys, but I dont now hunt for turkeys.

Yes mark spots at setup

Quote from: deerbasshunter3 on February 26, 2015, 06:27:48 AM
Just out of curiosity, has anybody ever put a small flag, or some other marker, out at 40 yards? I have heard of people doing this for deer but I have never tried it.

At my old lease, there was a 50 year old sawdust pile in the woods that had turned to rich, dark soil. The turkeys had that place torn up by scratching for grubs. The sawdust kept things from growing there, so it was like an oasis in the middle of regrowing mixed pine & hardwoods.  At the end of the opening was a big sweetgum tree that had buttressed roots, about like an easy chair.  I dragged a few dead cedar trees up to help break up my outline, then cut some small trees to make shooting lanes closer to my tree. I stepped off 40 yards straight in front of that gum tree and tied a small black nylon rope to a tree in the widest shooting lane.  Any grown turkeys that got inside of that marker were in easy range.  The woods around there were so thick that it was hard to hunt anywhere close by, but that's also what made that spot great.  I took 8 grown gobblers from that spot in 6 years I hunted there and my best friend killed another 5 from the same spot.  We never hunted it more than a few times a week to give it a chance to rest.

Jim

I range objects in advance because I'm usually bow hunting. Never have with a shotgun in hand but I normally cant see far anyway. I try and setup so that he cant see where he thinks the calling is coming from til it's too late.

SwampKrunk