Acquiring targets at short range in timber, w/ Range-Finder

[MaybeLostNeverStuck]

I have a Sig Kilo-3k ....love it, but I've noticed that I have a really hard time acquiring targets that i can see fine with my naked eye (say inside of 50 yards) in relatively thick timber/brush. Basically, I'm struggling to get the animal in my field of view with all the trees and branches cluttering the scene. Do y'all have any tips you can share to help me accelerate target acquisition in these situations?

 

[Macintosh]

Why are you ranging stuff at all in timber thats so thick you have an issue—is this for archery? If its for gun hunting just forget the rangefinder and shoot, you cant see far enough to bother ranging, unless maybe youre talking about squirrels with a .22lr.

Ime theres two issues with this—depth of field, and maintaining eye contact with the animal before you start looking thru an optic. Your natural eye/hand coordination can usually point almost anything at the animal IF you are looking at it…ie watch the animal with your eyes, while you point the optic at the animal, and only then look through the optic—do not look thru the optic and then start looking for the animal. This will make it much easier by allowing your natural eye-hand coordination to function.
Shallow depth of field on a noisy background makes it hard to focus too, as you dont have a reference for when its in focus, if thats an issue. Make sure the lens on your rangefinder is focused properly, try the above and see if it makes a difference?
For archery, I also rarely (never?) range the animal itself, I pretty much get set up and range objects around me I can use for reference. BUT I also only take short shots so if you are potentially shooting a wide range of distances maybe its helpful to range “in the moment”.

 

[MaybeLostNeverStuck]

Why are you ranging stuff at all in timber thats so thick you have an issue—is this for archery? If its for gun hunting just forget the rangefinder and shoot, you cant see far enough to bother ranging, unless maybe youre talking about squirrels with a .22lr.

Ime theres two issues with this—depth of field, and maintaining eye contact with the animal before you start looking thru an optic. Your natural eye/hand coordination can usually point almost anything at the animal IF you are looking at it…ie watch the animal with your eyes, while you point the optic at the animal, and only then look through the optic—do not look thru the optic and then start looking for the animal. This will make it much easier by allowing your natural eye-hand coordination to function.
Shallow depth of field on a noisy background makes it hard to focus too, as you dont have a reference for when its in focus, if thats an issue. Make sure the lens on your rangefinder is focused properly, try the above and see if it makes a difference?
For archery, I also rarely (never?) range the animal itself, I pretty much get set up and range objects around me I can use for reference. BUT I also only take short shots so if you are potentially shooting a wide range of distances maybe its helpful to range “in the moment”.

Yes, archery.

When i have time to "spot up", i definitely range objects in the area i expect the animal to walk in, and dont really have trouble there. Its more on pop-up targets (i.e walking through the woods and spooked something), or if the animal went somewhere unexpected that i'm having a bit of trouble. I'll give your suggestions a try.

Thank you for the response!

 

[hereinaz]

Been a while, but the way I do it is look at the target and hold the position firmly, keep eyes open and focused. Then, bring your rangefinder up to your eye and with practice you can see it with the non rangefinder eye until the rangefinder is in place then switch to the rangefinder eye.

That’s a trick photographers use with zoom lenses.

Basically, think of it as slipping a magnifying lens between the eye and target. If you move your head and then hunt around, it is nigh impossible.