Archers Look to the Leupold Vendetta to Resolve Problems With Range Estimation

Most bow hunting enthusiasts know that greater distance shooting opportunities will be affected by increased arrow fall. High tech compound bows provide fast arrow velocity, and there is typically very small degrees of fall associated with shots inside 20 yards.

The effect of gravity results in a greater toll on an arrow as the distance approaches 30 and 40 yards. The arrow fall will result in a poor shot if an archer does not correctly approximate the distance and adjust for it. If the range estimation is flawed by plus or minus 5 yards on a true 40 yard shot, a bow hunter can over shoot or under shoot the deer. This possibly could result in a total miss or wounded game that may never be located. For this reason, reproducible arrow positioning closely correlates to exact approximation of range.

Every hunter should be well-informed of their bow, and know the amount of arrow drop at various distances. Some hunters employ an adjustable single pin sight, but multi-pin sights are most common. These sights will have pins set at various ranges in 10 yard increments.

Try this easy test after your bow sights are tuned for various distances. It will be easy to see how you can miss if you don't accurately estimate your range. Position a paper plate on the target. This is give or take the dimensions of the kill zone of an average whitetail deer. Then go backwards to 40 yards, and put your 30 yard sight pin in the center of that target. Now, take note of where that 40 yard sight pin comes to rest on the target, and you will probably visualize that you would have a clean miss. A slight mistake in distance at longer ranges will either conclude in a bad shot or an injured deer.

I've consistently encountered good results when attempting shots on game within 25 yards. Missed shots or poorly placed arrows that resulted in an unsuccessful attempt all occurred on shots nearer to 30 yards and longer. Shooting chances with game in the 30 to 40 yard range were not attempted without some reservation, and I had no self-assurance beyond of 40 yards. Even though I would practice at that distance confidently on the range, that confidence just wasn't with me in the stand. This was the difference of shooting from marked ranges and guessing distances. Little miscalculations in range from the stand yielded missed shots and dashed confidence.

A bunch of that lack of confidence was gone when I obtained my first archery laser range finder. By the time I would be able to get a distance reading the deer, bring my Matthews Switchback to full draw, and release my arrow, the deer would have often moved and changed their position.

There are some hi-tech and low tech products that can aid in the issues with distance approximation. The Leupold Vendetta is an electronic bow mounted range finder, and the Dead-on rangefinder is a non-electronic version. You can confidently pull the trigger on your release once you know the exact range to your game.

By Greg Moore