Arkansas Sportsman

Knowing range essential to successful deer hunting

This is why a rangefinder is a permanent part of my deer hunting kit.

A friend recently showed me upland habitat restoration he and his family are doing on their property. Their objective is to provide habitat for bobwhite quail, which are flourishing on the restoration areas.

Their efforts have been good for a host of other upland species, especially songbirds, which filled the morning air with song.

Wouldn't it be great if neighboring landowners restored enough habitat on the Grand Prairie to someday enable the reintroduction of prairie chickens? They once teemed in the region, and their return would be triumphant.

That's a dream for another day, and for another generation, because it won't happen in my lifetime.

Part of our tour brought us to a familiar field where the family has occasionally allowed me to hunt deer.

"How far is it from the barn to the far corner over there?" I asked.

"Four-Twenty-Five, 450 tops," my friend replied.

"Well, that explains a lot!" I said, laughing.

Another friend that frequently hunts that field speculated years ago that it was about 325 yards, and so I banked that number in my mental ballistics calculator.

In 2009, a massive 10-point buck appeared in that corner. At that distance, across a flat, featureless expanse that rises, crowns and falls, you can't tell determine a deer's distance without a rangefinder. When you calculate to shoot 325 yards at a deer that's probably 100 yards farther, you're going to miss.

My rifle that day was chambered for .257 Roberts. The Roberts is a fine round within limits, and while my hosts didn't vocalize their objections, they also didn't mask their disapproval. They believe in big guns for big deer in big spaces.

"We use bigger stuff out here, 7mm STW (Shooting Times Westerner) and things like that," my host said. "You don't want to be undergunned with the kind of deer we're accustomed to shooting."

My friend that estimated the distance at 325 yards uses a 300 Weatherby Magnum that is zeroed for 300 yards.

"Anything farther, I just hold an inch or two high, and I'm good," he said.

The 7 STW and 300 Weatherby aren't undergunned for anything, but the Roberts is what I had that day. I used it that morning for a hunt in Grant County where shots were limited to less than 100 yards. The invitation for the second hunt came late, giving me no time to go home and upgrade. I didn't foresee it being a liability because I anticipated deer appearing inside 200 yards, which was about where I had zeroed the rifle.

The buck appeared late and trailed a doe around the edge of the field. It vanished into the woods for a long while, but then reappeared alone in the deep pocket. It faced away, and every step increased the distance. With no does in the field, I knew it would get to the end of the pocket and enter the woods for good.

Near the far end of the pocket, the buck turned broadside for an instant. I estimated my holdover for 325 yards. I fired and cleanly missed.

I lamented my choice of rifles in a subsequent column, causing a great tumult among message board hecklers.

"Don't blame the gun for your incompetence," pretty much summarized their rebukes, ignoring the fact that history is rife with episodes where obsolete or underpowered firearms failed at the tasks they were assigned.

I had, however, neglected a cardinal rule of hunting, which is to be fully aware of the hunting arena and all of its possibilities. A hunter must know the distances from his stand to every corner of the arena, and to identify yardages to midpoints. This is gospel for bowhunters, but it applies equally to rifle hunters.

You can miss a deer for many reasons. Stiff wind can alter a bullet's path. An unstable rest might compromise your ability to properly engage a target. Heck, a sudden case of buck fever might cause you to miss, but you should never miss because you don't know the distance to the target.

That's why I carry a laser rangefinder to every new field that I hunt, and to those I hunt infrequently. As soon as I'm situated in a stand, I "range" every major point or landmark in the field.

And, I match my firearms to the arena.

Together, they eliminate guesswork and make me confident.

Sports on 06/24/2018

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