Rangefinders Remove Yardage Guesswork While Bowhunting

You've been there haven't you? Sitting in your tree stand, enjoying the beauty of the morning sun slowly rising in the east and casually a monster buck comes traipsing into one of your shooting lanes. Quietly you stand, simultaneously raising your bow and drawing back your string. Placing the thirty yard pin slightly below the kill zone, you're estimating he's just shy of thirty away. He stops perfectly broadside, you release smoothly and a millisecond later you watch in dismay as your dream rack white flags it out of the woods without so much as a glitch in his giddy up.

Hmm, apparently you guessed the distance wrong. And, now you're kicking yourself for not picking up that rangefinder you were eyeing the last time you were in the sporting section. With advances in technology the price of rangefinders continues to drop and the accuracy continues to rise. In today's bowhunting world, there is almost no reason not to own a rangefinder.

So, how in the world are you suppose to use your rangefinder, then pick up your bow and make an accurate shot? Simple really, since you know your time frame to bag a deer in your shooting lane is short, you do all of your yardage work beforehand. As important as pre-season scouting is for bowhunting, so having knowledge of the ranges you will be shooting at.

If you're a tree stand or ground blind hunter it's easy to use your rangefinder and have preset locations that you know the exact distance to. In each of your shooting lanes select something as a landmark, this can be a tree or a rock or anything that is going to permanently be in that location. Get yourself in your most likely hunting position and range each of the landmarks you have chosen. You can either remember the distances, or use a small notebook or index card to jot them down so you don't forget.