Re: Inconceivable?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: HasgunWilltravel</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">See what happens when you have no practical experience doing something... you end up playing with calculators and looking stupid on the internet.-Lowlight</div></div></div></div>
That was funny!
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Redmanss</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Your hypothetical situations and scenarios are laughable. Can it get you within 1/2 mile, sure, and maybe even within 300yds sometimes, but your margin of error and potential accuracy is so limited that it's not worth it. There are far better methods to use.
You already proved in your OP that a lot use a less than accurate formula for moa ranging and the associated 3rd grade math. It's the simplified version that is used by shooters in the field to make faster calculations, and is in the same category as shooters using 1moa = 1"/100yds. You should multiply by 95.5, not 100. Getting out to the ranges you're talking about, the error really stacks up.
Look here for the details behind the math:
http://www.mil-dot.com/media/1027/the_derivation_of_the_range_estimation_equations.pdf
Or here for a nicely compiled listing of all the formulas compliments of Lindy:
http://www.arcanamavens.com/LBSFiles/Shooting/Downloads/Ranging/
But hey, I'll play your perfect atmospheric conditions and equipment game.
Lets bounce some figures around showing how little room for error there really is. For this I will use your example of a 70" target.
0.90 moa: 7428yds
0.95 moa: 7037yds
1.00 moa: 6685yds
1.05 moa: 6367yds
1.10 moa: 6077yds
In the span of 0.2 moa the range shifted over 1300yds and in 0.1 moa it shifted nearly 700yds. Hardly what I would consider accurate, but hey, if you're inside .05moa you're almost within 300yds.
Try this exercise out. Cut out a bunch of pieces of paper in random lengths, then tape them to your target board at 100yds. Make a map of them, measure them out with your reticle and note this on your map, then go back and measure them with your ruler converting them to moa. Any deviation greater than .05moa is unacceptable, and keep in mind that if you're more than 1/16" off you're wrong. You can put yourself exactly 104.7yds if you don't feel like converting.
Now lets play with a varying target size but measuring precisely 1 moa:
69.0": 6589yds
70.0": 6685yds
71.0": 6780yds
95yds variation per inch. That's easily within the pair of boots or having a bad hair day range of heights, and that's also assuming said target is standing full upright with princess perfect posture and you're viewing it at a direct square angle.
These are both commonly made errors that are good enough for us to shoot with inside 1000yds, but once you start playing with the distances you're talking about they compound to a level of inaccuracy that it isn't worth it. Coming back to reality and compounding these errors with atmospheric conditions, position stability, equipment accuracy and so on, you realize again why we break out the map or laser instead of using the reticle for these types of distances and still use a combination of range estimation methods.
It may be good enough for you to impress your friends that you can ballpark within 1/2 mile, but it's hardly what I would consider accurate and certainly less accurate than I can plot off a basic topo map. For you it may very well be good enough.</div></div>
My point about your numbers tirade is <span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-weight: bold">IF</span></span> everything was <span style="text-decoration: underline">perfect</span>, the light, the mirage, the color of the target, your elevation in relation to the target, no wind, no frost, out West where it gets really clear, {cause I never saw that well when I was in Georgia}...
When does that ever happen? Often enough out West, but still not overly common.
Fast forward to the afternoon when mirage is boiling and running and trying to get an estimate of a deers antlers (yes, I trophy hunt) wasn't very easy. At far less than what would be considered a very doable distance.
All it takes is one pebble in the pool, and you can't see the bottom any more.
Yes, someone that height looks to be about <span style="text-decoration: line-through">1/2 of an</span> 1 moa, give or take a large margin of error. You're not going to see it every time by a longshot. On a lucky day you could...
And yes, for smart long range estimating, you'd use the tools you brought to range that far, topos and gps.
