Using A GPS For Setting Range

Good to go!

GPS devices are more affordable alternatives to laser rangefinders, especially that every smartphone has integrate GPS receiver and tons of free apps on the market that help you measure distances. (google maps, orux maps, etc)

We use both laser rangefinder and Garmin GPSMAP.

Cheers,
 
I have a DGPS capable unit - it "usually" gives me a calculated accuracy of 4 meters (typical) - not bad for a unit that cost about 200 bucks.

The average range finder is accurate to within a yard - the high end stuff (like a Leupold GX4i) will make it within 1/2 yard, but that's a 600 dollar plus piece of kit.
 
Waypoint your target and waypoint when you get to your shooting spot.

You know what... hold on a second, I am sure there got to be a youtube video on this.


EDIT:

There it is;


Published on Jun 8, 2011

In this video, I'll quickly show you how to measure the distance between 2 waypoint, points of interest or geocaches using your GPS or by using pad & paper.

The easy way is to use the measure distance function on your GPS (in this example I'm using a garmin gps map 62s). Use the cursor/rocker and select a waypoint. Hit menu and select measure distance from the menu options.

From there, you can move the cursor to your next waypoint. You will see that the screen will now display the distance. You can hit enter to measure a second point. And so on...

Once done, hit menu to stop measuring.

The second way is to use pad & paper. In order to do this, you need to change the position format of your GPS to display the coordinates in UTM format.

Go to the main menu | system | position format. and select UTM from the list.

From here you are ready to measure the distance. Here we simply recall back from our days in math class and try to solve the distance of a right angle triangle. This is because the UTM format contains a Northing & Easting and the system allows us to use this without having to do correction based on the curvature of the earth.

So we substract each Easting & Northing and get the positive value, then go ahead to solve the math.

P1: E 346497 N 5048648
P2: E 347595 N 5051734

E
P2-P1
(347595-346497)= 1098
(1098x1098) = 1205604

N
P2-P1
(5048648-5051734)= 3086
(3086x3086) = 9523396

sqrt(1205604+9523396)= 3275.5m

Answer
3275.5m (from above)
3270m (from google earth ruler tool)

Cheers,
 
What, we're not pacing it out anymore? Kidding.

My ballistic's app is saying the drop difference between 750m and 755m with my 223 is 4". That's enough to cause a miss, which is too bad. I like the GPS idea.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom