Chapter 5: Preparation Before the Hunt
Learning to Judge Distances

Judging distances is an acquired skill that you must practice continually. Optical illusions, perceptual expectations, “buck fever,” and weather conditions can affect your ability to judge distances correctly.

Judging distance without using accessories, such as range finders, is a matter of vision, preference, and practice.

• An Oregon study showed that adult hunters, especially men, suffered from a high percentage of vision problems, ranging from color blindness to visual acuity. These conditions affect a hunter’s ability to judge distances and can hamper the performance of other hunting techniques, such as following a blood trail.

• Be sure to have your vision checked and corrected to prevent problems in the field.

Judging distances is critical for correct shot placement in bowhunting because arrows have a short trajectory. A responsible bowhunter learns to correctly to judge distances to a variety of game animals correctly to within 90 to 95 percent of the actual distance.