I figure this has been asked but couldnt find too much on it. What tricks or training methods to you guys use to get better. Do you do anything different for uphill/downhill shots? Ive been to 4 3D shoots so far and i havent done terrible but distance judging is well...terrible lol. Any tips or suggestions are welcome.
There's really two levels of judging distance for 3D.......... The first is figuring out how far a distance is based on looking at the ground between you and the target. This is the easiest way to start, but you will see many situations in 3D shoots where they will intentionally hide part of the ground between you and the target, or spots where other things make the distance appear closer or further than it really is. The second way is based on looking at actual 3D targets enough so that you become intimately familiar with them, and what they look like at certain distances. This is what a LOT of the real pros are doing when they judge yardage. They will know for example exactly at what distance they start to lose focus on specific target details like white of the eye, hair detail, etc. When you get on a really tough course that hides the last half of the ground, the top pros will excel because they still know the target detail, etc. I personally don't have enough time to practice judging like I used to. I still shoot open class, but I just can't spend 3-4 days a week judging distance. My process is to initially figure out what 20 yards looks like on the shooting lane. I know 20 yards pretty well and am within + or - a yard about 80% of the time. Then I try and judge how far past 20 yards the target is. I'll break the remaining distance down in 10 yard chunks. If I'm not confident in the number, I'll try and validate it by picking something that's at the halfway point and judging that. If I'm still not confident, I'll usually add a yard or two. There is usually more 10 and 8 ring above the X (both IBO and ASA) than there is below so there is more margin for error if I'm just not sure. If I'm really not sure I might just add a yard but aim at the top of the X ring on an ASA target. If I got the right number I've still got a possible X and if not a solid 10, but if I'm a bit hot I've got a 10, and if I'm really low on the number I've still got about 2.5 yards of error on a 40 yard target before I drop out of the 10 ring. Hope this helps!!
Great advice. I really like that last paragraph on spliting the distance and using 20yds as a start point i think i can judge that pretty well. I will give this a try for sure.
What Rick James said except I taught myself a long time ago what 10 yds was & use that. If you are just learning you need to consider the "size" of the target too. A little Deer at 30 yds looks "far away" compared to a larger 3-D target the exact same distance. So, look at the size of the target & start stacking the distance you have become comfortable determining (5yds, 10yds or whatever). Target size can "fool" many..
