Pace off your effective distance?

[idgobble]

As I read all the posts about how far guys shoot their turkeys and how they sometimes misjudge the distance and get lucky or wound one that gets away I wonder if anyone ever paces off their effective distance when they set up to call.  It's easy and eliminates all the guess work.  We all know the effective distance of our gun and ammo.  All you have to do is pace off the farthest effective shot.  If you know it's 40 yards, great! Jam a stick in the ground or lay a branch there. Do another one at 30 yards on the way back and try to wait for that shot.  Do it in a couple directions if you want. If you're in a rush just jam the stick in 25 yards out. Then back up your first shot with the heaviest size shot and load that's legal in case you have to shoot at one that's wounded and getting away. Might not lose any more birds. Even do it with your range finder from your stand.  Does anyone else do it or have a better method?

[Boilermaker]

I started doing this 2 seasons ago when I made a fatal error and misjudged the yardage and lost the bird.  I invested in a range finder and was much more cognizant of my setups and the distances I would allow myself to shoot at.  It should definitely be something to make yourself aware of when you select a setup.  Take the time to walk the yardage to your tree or blind and make sure you know what the rough yardage is to the extents of your setup.  I've heard sound advice from others who say to setup so that the bird is within shooting range when he makes his appearance and you can see him or he can see your decoys.  Preparation is 9/10ths of the game I say... 

[Gobble!]

My style of hunting that's not always an option. I do carry a range finder.

[silvestris]

Turkeys tend to see me were I to go pacing off distances.

[snapper1982]

Pretty hard to pace off distances when a hot bird cuts you off at 80 yards. Much easier to use a range finder but even then there is going to be times that there is not time.

[Spitten and drummen]

I will say from my experience that this is not a option most of the time. Take a range finder and range things before he shows up. The way I set up on birds , I just about guarantee when he is visible, he is plenty close. I use the terrain to force him to peep if he wants to know for sure if it's a hen there. This is not always the case but it is 90 percent of the time.

[Boilermaker]

This tactic is definitely not feasible for the run and gun method...

[Happy]

Not usually practical for me. If I am where I want to be 40 yards closer to the bird means a busted bird. 40 yards or closer is my goal before the shot happens. Now I patterned my gun this spring and it puts 200 #5 pellets in a 10" circle. I also shot at 50 yards and it cut the number of pellets in the ten in half. Not promoting 50 yard shots but we all need to know how are guns perform. I know I have a 10 yards of "forgiveness" in my gun which is plenty. Now if I stick to my 40 yard limit there should be no problems. The key is sticking to the 40 yard limit. We all may not agree on what is the ethical distance to shot a turkey but we had better all agree that throwing a "maybe" shot is a crime. If we think it's pushing our guns limits it is.

[GobbleNut]

I always pace off the distance to 80 yards,...my personal shooting limit.  If I happen to scare one or more of the gobblers that have heard me calling and have already shown up, I just go back to where I am going to set up and call them back again.  What's the big deal?....

[MK M GOBL]

I just use my foot to push them past the end of the barrel so I can shoot

It's built into my scope, I call it the Circle of Death


MK M GOBL

[Cut N Run]

A couple of the places I hunt have downed trees that I use for ready-made blinds. I have measured by pacing off distances to rocks, logs, and trees in the vicinity.  If the turkeys are close or inside of those landmarks, they're dead.

On the other horse farm at one of my brush blinds, I found an old SPAM can that the wrapper had deteriorated off of at least ten years before. I hung the can upside down on a small stump exactly 35 yards from the tree I sit against.  It gives good perspective and eliminates a lot of guess work, especially since the woods are kind of thick and the trees aren't very big around, which makes it tricky to judge distance.

Twelve years ago at my old lease, there was a big sweetgum off the end of an old decomposed sawdust pile in the woods left over from logging 45 years before.  I built a natural blind at the base of that tree out of dead cedar limbs.  I stepped off 38-40 yards to a few trees in front and to the sides of that blind and tied black cord around those trees about a foot off the ground to help range distance. Turkeys naturally liked to come scratch the the rich soil and it was easier to call them to a place they already wanted to be.  It just took a glance to confirm if they were inside of range before I shot.

Jim

[Wigsplitter]

Pratice stepping off distance while on scouting runs or in the yard or woods right before season will sharpen your judgement up on how far something is I do this often. No time for me to pull this off during a setup if I can walk 40 steps forward towards the turkey that's where I need to be sitting not gain ground then give it up for me. Rangefinder is probably the best technique for the distance game especially in open or field country. Good setups as others have mentioned sure do help to make him be in range when he shows up!!

[idgobble]

This tactic is definitely not feasible for the run and gun method...

I've been using it for 50 years when running and gunning.  Don't always have time to do it but most of the time can at least pace off 20 yards. I wouldn't do it if the gobbler answered me from 100 yards or less but if he is further away or I just hear him gobble or he answers a locator or even if I've called him and can tell he's hanging up sometimes I can do it.  If he is staying 150 yds. away and gobbles I know I have time to pace off 30 yds. and get back to where I was calling from.  All depends on the situation. Suppose I'm walking along and hear him gobble 100 yards away. I might look behind me and if I see a good set up 30 or 50 yds back I'll mark the spot and pace it off back to where I'm going to sit, making a couple marks sometimes.  Now I'm set up and know one mark is at 41 yds and the closer one is 28 yds.  My favorite set up is a place where I can see him coming 50-100 yds away and then he is out of sight for a while and appears again 30-40 yds away. When he's outta sight I might give him a cluck just to encourage him along but if he's heading right toward me I'll usually be quiet.

[strum]

I did some mid day scouting yesterday and have a spot picked out that ill be in at daylight. When sitting to asses the view i spotted a tree that would be the farther est i could shoot . because of the terrain thats it . I paced it off and its 43 yards.
So If i see a turk it will be in range. By the way In an open field 40 doesn't seem that far but in the timbers its a bunch.

[Treerooster]

Better to have the ability to judge distance. I don't know...maybe some can't do it??

I am pretty good at judging distance out to about 60 or 70 yards. Never been off more than a yard or 2.

I practice judging distance all the time. Its easy and costs nothing. I don't need a range finder...I have legs. I hunt a lot of different states and the terrain varies quite a bit. Judging distance in different terrains can make it hard to be accurate. So whenever I get to an area I practice by taking a second as I walk along and judge the distance to some object. Then I pace it off to see how accurate I was. After a few times I get the hang of it for the type of terrain I am in. Even if I was hunting the same area all the time I would practice ranging objects now and then to keep sharp at it.

The closer one is to the ground the harder it is to judge distance. If possible I take a second to judge distance to a few objects before I sit down when setting up on a gobbler. I will reaffirm that distance when I sit down. If I haven't been able to do that, I judge distance from a sitting position in increments. "OK That's 10 yds...20...30...and 40 yds." Judging in increments helps me a lot.

I have been caught off guard a time or 2 and had to drop to a prone position when gobbler sounded off very close. If that happens and I am not real confident in estimating range from such a low position, then I just have to bring my max range in a bit for that particular situation. Better to be sure he is in range and I will kill the gobbler rather than wound him.

Like was said, I want my gun to have a killing pattern a bit further than I intend to shoot. For me that's 40 yards and a 5 yard cushion is plenty good for me.


As a side note...I am amazed out how many posts there are about setting up a gun and how few there are about judging range. Some will spend many hours or even days setting up a gun and dialing in the pattern and have no idea how to judge range. I always thought range estimation was a shooting skill.