Thread: A Poor Man's Rangefinder

Greetings All,
The title of this thread is a little misleading as it does include those that can't be bothered with a range finder.
@mickyDuck regularly informs us of the benefits of zeroing our rifles to achieve a maximum point blank range and I must say that I am with him on that one. The difficulty is how we know when that far is too far. As mentioned in @Taco thread most of my rifles are zeroed at 200 metre. Additionally most scopes are fixed power and have some sort of hold over reticle. My recent hunting has been extremely limited so the need for any shots at range, any range has been non existent so when a friend dropped by yesterday it was a good time to put some thoughts to the test.
The rifle is his Ruger 6.5 x 55 with a short barrel and a Leupold 3-9 scope with the standard duplex reticle zeroed dead on at 200 metres. I had mentioned the possibility of using the scope reticule as a rough guide to range previously so after the usual cuppa and a catch up we dragged the deer target (chest depth 450mm) out of the shed and leant it against a gate in the main paddock. My friend usually carries his rifle with the scope set on 4 power the deer's chest filled the reticule point to point at 100 metres and also at 200 metres with the scope set on 9 power. Snap. A quick check showed that the deer's chest took up the cross hair to point at 100 metres with the scope set on 9 power.
So there we have it a simple way to tell if that far is too far without a range finder. This is not new. The pamphlet that came with my old Tasco (printed 1973) had similar suggestions using the length of a Whitetail deer body. Deer in NZ however don't stand broadside on in the open much so body depth is a better measure. I also hear you say deer do not come in standard sizes. True but a smaller deer will be closer and a bigger deer will have more margin for error.
Out of interest I crunched the numbers for my old Tasco and a standard deer chest will fit between the points of its reticle at a little under 200 metres.
Your reticule may differ and remember that second focal plane scopes must be set on the same power to get the same results. Dead easy with my fixed power scopes.
Regards Grandpamac.