Hunter's estimation of distance

horseman2

horseman2

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Years ago I read an article where the actual length of various hunter's yard as measured.

Varmint hunters were very accurate but whitetail hunter's had an eleven inch yard and mule deer hunters was about 17 inches.

This would have been perhaps 50 years ago and I sure wish I would have kept it at the time.

Obviously it is out of date with the proliferation of range finders.
 
Very true, some folks are much better at range estimation then others, no question about that. I carry a range finder these days and will test my range estimation skills in the field now and then. Sometimes I'm reasonably accurate and other days not as good. I find the terrain your in can also strongly influence accurate range estimation.
 
I've found that with most hunters the estimate varies. When taking the shot, they usually underestimate the distance. When telling about the shot afterwards they usually overestimate the distance.
 
I have seen evidence of these "short" yards many times over the years.
These days I carry a rangefinder, but I always make an estimate of the
distance first, then check it with the rangefinder.

Some impediment to accurate range estimation are: distances over a pond
or body of water. A dark animal standing on a snow covered hillside, and
across gulleys.

Once had a gent tell me he shot his moose at 800 yards.
I asked him what he was using as a firearm. He told me it was a 300 Weatherby
Magnum. My next question was: "How do you sight that in?" reply: 1" high at
100 yards. My question: "How high did you have to hold to hit this moose at 800
yards?" I nearly choked on my sandwich when he asserted: "Oh, I did not have
to hold high at all, the 300 Weatherby does not drop at all between 200 and 800
yards." 13" yards, lol.

Last fall, on our Elk hunt, I spotted a legal Bull across an open field. Mentally, I
calculated close to 400 yards. My rangefinder said 422. When my 8mm Mag
barked, it was all over but the work. :) Dave.
 
kc34 said:
Very true, some folks are much better at range estimation then others, no question about that. I carry a range finder these days and will test my range estimation skills in the field now and then. Sometimes I'm reasonably accurate and other days not as good. I find the terrain your in can also strongly influence accurate range estimation.
Click to expand...

These are my thoughts also
 
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OP, you refer to a 11 inch and a 17 inch yard. Are you sure you didn't mean foot, a yard is three feet, 36 inces and not easily confused with a foot. The standard military pace is 30", 2 1/2 feet. This is fairly easy to use for checking your estimated range. An elongated or stretched pace will approximate a yard on even level ground but not in the mountains or across a logging slash.
Large bore target shooters get good at range estimation, so do frequent hunters, it's mostly practice, practice and then checking for accuracy. Then you get older and suddenly need glasses, they magnify making everything seem closer that it actually is throwing everything you learned about range estimation into the junk bin. Some years later you may get laser eye surgery and no longer require glasses for distance and your range estimation takes another big hit. Despite decades of practice I never trust my long distance range estimation enough to shoot. For me it is either surely within range or I don't shoot, yards are just a number.
 
Ashcroft said:
OP, you refer to a 11 inch and a 17 inch yard. Are you sure you didn't mean foot, a yard is three feet, 36 inces and not easily confused with a foot. The standard military pace is 30", 2 1/2 feet. This is fairly easy to use for checking your estimated range. An elongated or stretched pace will approximate a yard on even level ground but not in the mountains or across a logging slash.
Large bore target shooters get good at range estimation, so do frequent hunters, it's mostly practice, practice and then checking for accuracy. Then you get older and suddenly need glasses, they magnify making everything seem closer that it actually is throwing everything you learned about range estimation into the junk bin. Some years later you may get laser eye surgery and no longer require glasses for distance and your range estimation takes another big hit. Despite decades of practice I never trust my long distance range estimation enough to shoot. For me it is either surely within range or I don't shoot, yards are just a number.
Click to expand...

What he means by 11 inch yard is that when the hunter estimated the distance (say at 350 yds) it was actually 11/36 of 350 yards or about 107 yards.
Same for 17 inch yards (so 350 was really 165)

Plainly stated, they grossly overestimated to distance

Which is not surprising to me at all.

A couple weeks ago a guy asked me to cut him 2 pieces 39” and then 5 pieces 11”
He was holding a 2x4x8.
I said this isn’t going to work out....eye roll....
I asked him how long he thought the board was?
He said 12 feet....I said (I’m 6’2”) I should be in the NBA then because that makes me 10 feet tall.....
 
My FIL took a "120 yards" off-hand shot that was 60 yards in reality. How do I know? I took the very same shot a month earlier during the ML season...

You always hear those 400 yards, off-hand, running coyote shots that was a headshot... A lot hunters are either liars or can't judge distances for shyte!!!
 
I use to be good but lost some of it, use to hunt lots in the barren and you get good at estimating distance cause there is very little references. But I’m not as good, need to practice more! I do carry à range finder and that make me lazy!!
 
Ashcroft said:
OP, you refer to a 11 inch and a 17 inch yard. Are you sure you didn't mean foot, a yard is three feet, 36 inces and not easily confused with a foot. The standard military pace is 30", 2 1/2 feet. This is fairly easy to use for checking your estimated range. An elongated or stretched pace will approximate a yard on even level ground but not in the mountains or across a logging slash.
Large bore target shooters get good at range estimation, so do frequent hunters, it's mostly practice, practice and then checking for accuracy. Then you get older and suddenly need glasses, they magnify making everything seem closer that it actually is throwing everything you learned about range estimation into the junk bin. Some years later you may get laser eye surgery and no longer require glasses for distance and your range estimation takes another big hit. Despite decades of practice I never trust my long distance range estimation enough to shoot. For me it is either surely within range or I don't shoot, yards are just a number.
Click to expand...

What about height? Surely my short ass at 5'6" is going to pace a lot shorter than my 6'8" friend. And even people who are close to the same height will have different leg lengths, and not to mention different gaits.

In fact, we had to measure our stride length in University as part of my Geography Field Study course. To get a reasonably accurate average we were instructed to head over to the running track, and pace out 100m while counting how many times you stepped. The differences from one person to the next were sometimes quite significant, even among people who are the same height. I say all this to simply point out that unless you've actually measured it you're not going to really know what your stride length is and you're pretty much destined to be off on your ranges if you're basing them on a guess of what your stride length is.

Myself, I carry a rangefinder. Its a 1300yd model, which means its actually useful for ~500. Which is fine, I wouldn't take a shot that long anyways.
 
This are the figures used in the article. The estimators were obvious liars.
When someone claimed a whitetail deer was 100 yards away it was closer to 30.
The estimate of 100 yards on a mule deer would probably be close to 46-47 yards actually.

As a side note, I paced 36 paces and gave evidence my pace was 37 inches.
The suspect claimed he paced it too at 37 paces and his pace was 36 inches.

Varmint shooters are the best at estimating.

Ashcroft said:
OP, you refer to a 11 inch and a 17 inch yard. Are you sure you didn't mean foot, a yard is three feet, 36 inces and not easily confused with a foot. The standard military pace is 30", 2 1/2 feet. This is fairly easy to use for checking your estimated range. An elongated or stretched pace will approximate a yard on even level ground but not in the mountains or across a logging slash.
Large bore target shooters get good at range estimation, so do frequent hunters, it's mostly practice, practice and then checking for accuracy. Then you get older and suddenly need glasses, they magnify making everything seem closer that it actually is throwing everything you learned about range estimation into the junk bin. Some years later you may get laser eye surgery and no longer require glasses for distance and your range estimation takes another big hit. Despite decades of practice I never trust my long distance range estimation enough to shoot. For me it is either surely within range or I don't shoot, yards are just a number.
Click to expand...
 
TrollGRG said:
I've found that with most hunters the estimate varies. When taking the shot, they usually underestimate the distance. When telling about the shot afterwards they usually overestimate the distance.
Click to expand...

Bingo!

There are some VERY brushy woods over here in NB and we it seems like every time I hear soemeone telling a story about bagging a moose or a deer it a 200 or 300 yards away. Bull####. Unless you’re dropping something in a cut it is very unlikely that you’re shooting at something over 50m out. The there’s literally no point in dialing dope or putting any Kentucky wind age into the equation in the woods that I’ve hunted in. 200, even 300m is FAR for a hunting shot.
 
53Izzy744 said:
I cant see anyone honestly mistaking 30yrds for 100yrs
Click to expand...

You’d be surprised. Add some brush, varying sizes of trees, some clouds and voila, super hard to give a legit guess on distance between you and that buck you suddenly have in tunnel vision with a heart pumping adrenaline through your body.
 
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