Re: LRF for Bowhunting
Just throwing out 2 cents... If you get your range finder, cool. If your hunting from a tree stand, you can mark out key spots to quickly judge distance when you get a deer to wander into your spot and make for a quick shot. If your not in a stand, it's sort of 50/50 that you'll have the time to range the deer, then ready an arrow without the deer seeing your movement. There are ways around all that and I'm sure technology will persevere as it always has. But don't let yourself skimp out on Instinctive shooting. If your sites get knocked loose or off on the hike, if your range finder breaks, if you don't have the time... your going to have some problems. Modern archery with glow sights and the peep, you learn to shoot a bow much like a rifle. Once the sights are dead on, it's a pretty simple point and shoot (so long as you keep proper form.) Even if your sights were to break on your rifle, iron sighting with the gun isn't all that different from the scope, so long as the target is fairly close. But with a bow, it's very different.
I used to throw a hatchet a lot when I was a kid. I spent a lot of time marking out "1 turn, 2 turn" marks as I threw at a stump. I got to the point where I was able to make it stick every time, out to 3 turns. Then the aim came over time. 2 turns (about 18 feet with the hatchets I was using) I could keep it in a cigarette pack sized area. At 3 turns, around a dinner plate. Thing was, if I walked out into the woods with my hatchet, my marks didn't come with me. I had to best-guess my range at trees as I wander around and spent a lot of time chasing the hatchet. Over time, it got to the point where I could just look at a tree, and *know* that it's 2 turns away, or maybe a little more than 2, but not 3. So I'd either need to hike back on the handle a bit or step back a little. I got pretty good with it, and was comfortable sinking it in pretty much every throw, at unfamiliar targets from unfamiliar ranges.
Archery can be somewhat the same. Learn instinctive shooting, and you'll be able to sink the stick wherever you want, whenever you want. I'm not saying to not go out and get a range finder. Just... don't sell your own God-givin skills to use a tool thats been around for 30,000 years before it was ever given sights.
Never heard of a bowhunter talking about a ranger finder, so felt compelled to throw me 2 cents out. Hope it helps, hope it doesn't offend.
