Quick Drop vs Danger Space

[Lawnboi]

Ranging targets/animals is a skill most shooters would benefit from some serious practice in. That’s where a lot of this matters, both ways.

How many times have you ranged an animal only to knock off an estimate of the traveled distance you thought it made while in the scope. Understanding drop and having decent danger space helps with this.

On top of that, for me shooting mainly at farily close range, I prefer not to be shooting animals with 3000 plus fps match bullets. I want everything and the ability to make a decent shot from close to far. I like the 2800ish fps range.

And again I greatly prefer just shooting the same thing, or similar. When you shoot one combination all year it makes it easy to understand without thinking. If you shoot a 223 as a 4mph gun all summer and expect to pull stuff out of your head in the moment with you 3300 fps 6um your going to be placing a lot of reliance on danger space and electronics.

 

[nate907]

Quick drop and it’s efficacy has nothing to do with whether your range finder fails or not.

It’s about reducing mental load.

Can you expand on this? Why would I use quick drop if my range finder works? I found it to be useful in competition with known ranges, but not so much with the unknown. Maybe I’m missing something here

 

[schmidty3]

How is quick drop a major mental load benefit when you still need a rangefinder to use it, and that same rangefinder can give you the exact necessary dial up from 0’ to 13,000’ elevation (with no additional mental math for the changes) within .5 seconds after obtaining the range with no mental effort at all?

I understand it for sure if you’re not using a ballistic rangefinder of course.

But with a ballistic rangefinder I can’t really comprehend the benefit of it.

I only use NRL as an example because it decently close to hunting. Moderate ranges, timed event, mental duress. No one is using quick drop to hit more targets and come out on top. If it genuinely led to increased hit rates, it would be being utilized.

Are ballistic rangefinders making it obsolete in those circumstances?

Mirrors my opinion exactly.

In the absence of ballistic rangefinders it's perfect.

Ballistic RF's make it just a good sanity check on your outputs.

I recognize that im not great at mental math on the clock. Ive outsourced my ballistics and windcalls to my electronics and it works pretty good. Ive still got a lot of work to do on understanding windcalls and recognizing subtle shifts, features blocking or accelerating wind etc. But I manage to hold my own out there.

A little extra speed helps reduce the magnitude of any ranging or wind call errors.

All that said. I just look at my Ballistic table and figure out the correction factor. -2 mils off the range is easy. But 2.2 or 2.5 or 3 or whatever isnt much harder. So you can still quick drop with faster stuff to a decent proficiency.

Shot my mule deer at 430. My 25 prc is a -3. Ballistic output was 1.3, perfectly matched my "quick drop".

 

[hereinaz]

Bottom line up front—pick something and get proficient executing your chosen method under timed and field positions. The entire shooting process needs to be like driving a car, where you can also read a map and road signs, and dodge traffic. A new driver can’t even manage to change the radio without driving off the road. Watching the animal is like reading a map and signs and dodging traffic. Building the position and shooting needs to be as automatic as the vehicle operation.

QD works, and if your load is too fast, load it slower. Give it a try and if you like it build a new gun.

If you like your rifle and fast load, there are other solutions with low mental load if your rifle doesn’t match up easily or it doesn’t work for you.

If you want quick without any mental load except remembering the yardage, burn a turret, use tape, or mark yardage out to 500.

For me, Rangefinder linked with Garmin on my wrist, range, set up for the shot, look at dope on my wrist, dial or hold, and shoot. If the animal moves far enough, I range again.

Quick drop is more handy if you are not ranging for yourself or your spotter uses it too.

 

[Castle Rock]

100yds.

If you are comfortable using metres, zeroing at 100 metres makes a faster gun work better with quickdrop

 

[Kjc103]

How is quick drop a major mental load benefit when you still need a rangefinder to use it, and that same rangefinder can give you the exact necessary dial up from 0’ to 13,000’ elevation (with no additional mental math for the changes) within .5 seconds after obtaining the range with no mental effort at all?

I understand it for sure if you’re not using a ballistic rangefinder of course.

But with a ballistic rangefinder I can’t really comprehend the benefit of it.

I only use NRL as an example because it decently close to hunting. Moderate ranges, timed event, mental duress. No one is using quick drop to hit more targets and come out on top. If it genuinely led to increased hit rates, it would be being utilized.

Are ballistic rangefinders making it obsolete in those circumstances?

I can only speak for myself here…..

1. For me, getting two factors….like…..643 yards and 4.4 mils……in my binos…..I’m always going back to ranging to get the drop calculation again. It’s silly, for sure, but I still do it.

This is way compounded if it is in MOA.

2. I realize it’s not EXACTlY perfect, but knowing 500 yards is 3 mils, 550 is 3.5 mils…..600 is 4 mils etc etc…….makes the hash marks in my mil reticle quick and reliable for, let’s say, a 12 inch plate. Which is essentially the vital zone of a game animal.

Anything inside 400 yards I don’t even mess with dialing.

If you go to distance measured in meters, 2,800 gos works about the same way.
The magic is how simple and easy it is to remember. With practice, it means 600-650 yards is cake.

It just works…..and like shit that works and doesn’t have me chasing velocity and math.