Hi Ripp.
Well I always try to get close but there are times when I have to fire at 200-400 yards. So that's why I carry the range finder. I have done a LOT of long range shooting in the last 1/2 century and I got fairly good at it, but I don't get any thrill from killing game at longer ranges. The farther they are away the less hunting I have to do. So I enjoy sneaking up on them.

But.......... I don't get close shot every time. With a 270 I only need to know the game is 400 or less. So that not too much of a trick.

But I also often hunt with less flat shooting guns, including handguns, so hanging the range finder is just something I do when I get out of the truck.

The one I killed at 20 yards in August was a thrill. I saw the heard at about 1/2 mile and I trotted a few hundred yards in a gully until I was maybe 500 yards away. I saw the direction they were going so I belly crawled over a low ridge and into the next gully. Then I ran about 250 yards more and went back to the ground and slunk up to the brow of the next ridge. I expected them to come out about 100 yards over and I was all set. But the one I got walked up the other side of the ridge and peeked over at only 20 yards from me. So I re-positioned myself a bit,to a new angle and shot from a low prone, to stay behind the brush, which was only about 10" high. I hit the neck because the head and neck were the only thing I could see. Didn't matter however. One bullet and it was over. I used a 1903 Mannlicher in 6.5X54. If I had needed to take a longer shot the range finder may have been nice. 156 grain round nose bullet at only 2233 FPS. Very accurate but not very flat shooting.

Tomorrow I and my wife Anna are going out to try to get 3 more. 2 for her and one more for me. I will possibly carry a scoped rifle if the clouds are thick because my old eyes have problems with irons if I don't have good light. But if the skies are clear I will probably take an iron sighted 9.3X57 or a 300 Savage M99 with a peep sight. But if the skies are dark in the morning I may take one of my 9.3X57s (one has irons only, the other has scope and irons both) or maybe I'll just grab a scoped 308 or scoped 270. We'll see....

Anna is a hunter, but not as much a "gun enthusiast". She likes to keep things simple. She said 4 years ago she wanted a "one gun for everything". So I made her a Mauser in 30-06 with a heavy sporter barrel and zeroed it for 165 grain bullets. There really is not such a thing as "one size fits all rifle" but the 30-06 with 165s is probably as close as we can get. She has 4 other rifles, a shotgun and 10 hand guns, but after I made the 30-06 for her she seldom shoots anything else. Deer, antelope, elk, bear, prairie dogs, coyotes, foxes, skunks ---------- and about anything else except rattle snakes, ---- she grabs her Mauser.

I can't say she is a bit wrong either.