Question for optics gurus

[Hellbender]

Couldn't a spotter with an extremely shallow depth of view be used for an ad hoc rangefinder?

My S&B scope gets me pretty close, when focused sharply, the distance marks on the parallax knob will be really close to the true distance.

If a focus knob was marked in yards on the aforementioned spotter, would this be a fairly reliable means to range distance, I'd think it would be as close, or closer, than milling small targets at distance.

 

[Yippeekiay]

Re: Question for optics gurus

Hardly a guru but Minox has bino's configured to do what you're asking. Plus, if I remember correctly, Field target (air gun) shooters use something along these lines to determine their ranges.
So, in a nutshell, it'd take some doing but it's very possible.

http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/minox.pl?page=62159

 

[Force_Multiplier]

Re: Question for optics gurus

think about this a little more