If someone wants to take a Range Finder, by all means take one. It would come in handy if you’re hunting in the wide-open spaces of the Karoo in RSA where shots tend to be a good bit longer - think pronghorn antelope out west etc. Could be useful for trying to snipe baboons at long range but, you have to realize, If you take a shot, it pretty much ends your hunting in that area for the rest of day.
If you do take one, I think for spot and stalk hunting, you’ll find pretty quickly you just won’t have time to mess with it. I’ve been with a couple of guys who’ve tried to use one and the extra motions and delays in getting the shot off, meant….they didn’t get the shot off and lost the chance at very nice trophies.
If you have one and are sitting in a blind like Bud above, something you can do to reduce your movement and time to shoot is – determine your most likely field of fire then pick out maybe 3-5 significant features, a bigger rock, or tree or the far and near edges of the waterhole and laze their distances in a pattern from L-R or R-L. #1 – 125yds, #2 – 140yds, #3 – 85yds, #4 – 175yds and put the LRF away. The difference in bullet drop between 85-175yds on most rifles is less than 3”. If you’re zeroed at 150yd, just put the crosshairs on the center of the vital triangle and squeeze- Hard to get more K.I.S.S than that!
One of the things that always gives me a good chuckle is watching the TV bowhunter shows. They’re always sitting in a permanent blind, in full camo, with an absolute KNOWN distance to the waterhole and they ALWAYS, have to pick up a LRF and confirm the distance. “29.345644yds” or whatever before they shoot from one of 10 fixed pin sights. Oh well, got to make the endorsement $$$.
One thing spot on Bud mentioned, is to know your limits – spot on 100%. Just as or more important is to know and understand your kit (rifle in this case). As JG, Ingwe mentioned and I think I did too was, just sight your rifle for 1 ½” high at 100yd or dead on at 150yds and that’s it. Virtually EVERY legal hunting caliber, if you use either of these two, will be somewhere between 1 ½” high at 100yds and close to dead on at 150yds and around 2” low at 200yds. Hell, even my 458 WM with 350gr TSX’s at 2600fps is sighted 1 ½” high at 100yd. It’s dead on at 50, and again at 150yd and 3” low at 200yds. Scope has a heavy duplex recital and the crosshairs cover 1 moa at 100.
More important is spend a good bit of time studying shot placement and where the “vital triangle” is on ALL African antelope species. Specifically, study/notice the upper leg bone formation. On full broadside shots, the only bone you’ll encounter are thin rib bone. The most difficult shot is the one quartering towards you. Those damn upper leg bones will sit right across where you need to put the bullet. If you try to miss it, you’ll either hit in the guts or the other side and you’ll pass thru just lung. The vital triangles are pretty forgiving. 6” or so on springbok, 10” or so on gemsbok/wildebeest/hartebeest, 12” on zebra (notice they have a natural aim point already marked), 14” on eland and 16” on giraffe.
Shot Placement ImagesOne thing all American hunters should take special notice of is how far FORWARD in the chest the heart is. On a broad side shot, if you aim where you have been accustomed to for US deer, you’re going to be in the guts and the recovery rodeo will be on. A good rule of thumb is to NEVER aim behind the front leg. Either straight up the onside front if it’s a true broadside OR if it’s quartering any discernable amount towards or away, use the OFFSIDE front leg. Main aim point is 1/3 of the way UP from the bottom of the chest. If you’re spot on, you hit heart. If you’re a little low, you’ll hit the bottom of the heart. If you’re a little high, you’ll hit the main arteries at the top of the heart and IF a little higher still, you’ll spine it.
