Mil Ranging story

[Ian M]

We were practicing mildot ranging on some of my full-sized decoys this weekend and damned if four mulie does didn't walk over to one of the decoys. Distance was 730 in to 550 yards. The guys spent about twenty minutes milranging real deer and also dry-firing on them to get the feel for the upcoming hunting season.
We compared accuracy of mildot calculatons vs my Leica 1200 and the dots were surprisingly good. Easily good enough for first shot hits out past 800 the way these guys read dots.
Accubonds flew perfectly with Match Kings out to 1000 from a nice shooting .300 Win. Match Kings went through my steel plate at 700 and 800, Accubonds dented it and the base was in the crater for some shots.

 

[Len Backus]

Ian

I've never tried ranging like that but I've always wondered what happens when the deer's dimension is say...1 or 2 inches more or less than you thought? Wouldn't that affect the estimated range by about 30 to 50 yards at 800?

 

[Ian M]

Len,
No doubt variables have effects on the estimation but the misses yesterday were mostly from wind moreso than elevation. We went out a long distance with the steel plates and decoys, usually we just practice out to 500-600.

We set up 13x16 inch steel free-standing plates at one location, the guys mil'd them out to 580 yards, then we moved to a hilltop and started over, this time they were a lot farther out. When they did the second mil ranging they applied their elevations and wind and started working on the plates. Very good job, as I mentioned most misses were wind related and they were nearly 900 yards for the farthest plate.

i will use a laser anyday but feel that midots are going to be better than my guesstimation of distance IF there is time to use them.