How did shooters get by without range finders?

[Pathfinder76]

How did they do it?

They got close enough to know. Seemed to work for me.

[elkhunter11]

They missed a lot at long ranges. Even Quigley.

A lot of people still miss at long ranges, because many are not nearly as well prepared, as they thought they were.

[Grizzly Adams]

Originally Posted by sheephunter

They missed a lot at long ranges. Even Quigley....

They knew their limitations, better than some of us. It is an art and surprising what you can do with practice. Couple of mile long shots made during the Civil war with black powder muzzleloaders.

Grizz

Originally Posted by Grizzly Adams

They knew their limitations, better than some of us. It is an art and surprising what you can do with practice. Couple of mile long shots made during the Civil war with black powder muzzleloaders.

Grizz

Either that or they had more bullets.....lol

I think you are confusing cannons with muzzleloaders...lmao....couple miles....come on

[bigdeal]

Originally Posted by Whiskey Wish

I agree with the "missed a lot" comment.

I was taught to look ahead and estimate a distance anytime I was walking somewhere then count my paces to that spot. Constantly.....

Over time you get better and your estimates get closer. After a while it becomes almost second nature and you can do it without much conscious thought.

However I never did do it over any significant long distances...maybe out to 400 yards tops but much more often out to 250 yards. Like any skill you get better with practice and also like any skill you get rusty from no practice.
Regards,
Dave.

Golf. I got pretty good at judging ranges from playing golf. Very similar concept they have markers midway through the course for 150 and 100yards...etc. The pin on hole three at Terra Nova was 167....Count your paces from tee off and so forth

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by gopher

More like 300 feet

about 306 total drop according to my charts for the 1,538 yard shot ( surveyed afterwards by the Army), but Dixon was not using a 45/70, he was using a 50/90 apparantly, which would add a whole bunch more I would think.
I have an article downstairs somewhere about a crew that replicated the shot, and they hit the full sized horse and native quite a few times - missed a bunch as well!!
Cat

[sullijr]

You are close CAT the 1000 yd blackpowder shooters at Connaught are on the paper at 48 ft'

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by sullijr

You are close CAT the 1000 yd blackpowder shooters at Connaught are on the paper at 48 ft'

48 is what Oldbadger and I started with as well, but after we were on, Ii simply logged my settings for 400, 600, and 1,000 on my sight.
Cat

[gopher]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

about 306 total drop according to my charts for the 1,538 yard shot ( surveyed afterwards by the Army), but Dixon was not using a 45/70, he was using a 50/90 apparantly, which would add a whole bunch more I would think.
I have an article downstairs somewhere about a crew that replicated the shot, and they hit the full sized horse and native quite a few times - missed a bunch as well!!
Cat

There black powder is better then today's no BS that's why I said 300.

[bdub]

Originally Posted by greylynx

As an extension to a comment from Nekred on another thread I was wondering how skilled shooters judged long ranges in the the days before rangefinders.

I use my scope reticles as a reference to estimate range. It is not perfect but can keep me pretty close to the ballpark whether it is under or over 400 yards. Never hold over is also a good rule. More people overestimate the range than underestimate it in my experience, especially when looking across basins or draws.

[backcountryjlaf]

mil ranging with reticle is outstanding accurate as long as you have a pretty good estimate of the actual size of the object you are among at or something close by. Some pretty good software out there that allows you to practice ranging. I have a friend who is an extremely skilled shooter, makes his living doing it, and he can often range with his reticle faster than I can get a good reading on my range finder past 600m.

[lmak]

Training your eyes and knowing your equipment well works for me.

-Go to the range with targets (any easily visible material) cut to approx these sizes:
deer are approx 18" back- brisket
bull elk approx 30" back- brisket
cow elk approx 24" back - brisket

-Set each target up in 100 yard intervals (or smaller) from 100-whatever you want yards
-Spend time learning what each animal looks like at each distance with your bare eyes, binos and reticle

Aha! No range finder needed!

[lmak]

*woops double clicked post*

[C Taylor]

Terrain makes a huge differance when just looking. I can guess pretty close in the farm land where theres a fence every 800m. On a cut line is not to bad but there was a few of us went for caribou and without a rangefinder we couldn't come close to guessing right. After a few days it got better but not comparable to farm land ranging. Same thing with sheep hunting. It's kinda hard to pick a rock and count the steps to it with a ravine between ya.

[Grizzly Adams]

From what I read when I started out in Noah' s day, Divide the distance mentally into football fields, 100 yd segments. Trick is first 100 yds are easy and then then becomes more difficult as the distance increases. 1/2 mile in developed country is usually fairly well defined by fence lines, power poles spaced 100 yds.


Grizz

[ctd]

Teaching a Basic Artillery course one year. We were practicing anti tank drills. Part of that is how to judge distance. We had one Gunner who swore up and down that the radio tower was only 1km away at most. (it was a tall tower). We bet him the courses weekend off, if it was within 1km. But he had to pace it off. He got cocky and said he would run the whole way and be back in half hour.
He found out that the tower was actually 5km as the crow flys and closer to 6km away as man runs. We called him back after going 2km. (the course never had the weekend off anyways we were in the field).

That covered our estimating ranges out to two kms using the height of a man in the retical of your sights.

A good laugh was had by all.