[Dang]

I have never been able to just tell how far away something was by just eyeballing it. Some people amaze me at how they can look at a target and tell you it is 300' away. Are there any here that can judge distance well and if so what is your secret?

For me, I figured out my pace (which is about 65 paces tor 100 meters) and by putting this information together with a trick I have learned for judging distance, I am able to pretty consistently tell the distance in feet/meters/paces to a particular target. Here is the technique I have learned Measuring Angle and Distance with your Thumb though I have had to "look at it a bit different" in my mind to eliminate remembering most of the math. Now it is pretty natural for me and I am surprised at how well it works.

Just another tool in my toolbox

[George]

Quite handy method to have confidence in estimated distances.

Remember somebody told me that fist is roughly equivalent to 10 degrees to determine angle of the star.

[stairman]

I get my ability from many years of spotting the power pole from the house under construction and estimating how far it is, and which cords I should roll out to reach it. In bowhunting distance estimation is critical but luckily within 40 yards. One trick for the bowhunter is to stand 40 yards[paced] from a lifesized 3-D deer target. Hold the bow at arms length and visualize the size of the deer. Then draw a rough sketched deer in magic marker on the inside limb of the bow the same size as the deer looks from that distance. It can be followed by 30 and 20 yards but 40 is by far my maximum distance to shoot so if the deer is smaller than my icon on the bow then its too far. A deer sticker, made to be the size of a normal adult deer[height and length] as veiwed from different distances could be stuck to the inside limb and someone who could mass produce them might could sell them to bowhunters as rangefinders. A nother one of my inventions that will never get invented but would be very useful.

[Omegaman]

I shoot a lot of 3-D archery so I own a laser range finder which you can't use while competing. I use it as a training tool as do many other archers. What I do is carry it around with me and I will look at an object and judge the distance then I will check it with the range finder to see how close I was. I do this with different sized objects and at all different distances. This has helped me to become pretty good jude of distance but in the hunter class in which I shoot we only go out to 35 - 40 yards. My range finder goes out to 1000 yards and for shooting with a rifle I practice judging distances out to 1000 yards. I am sure that others on here will have ways of training yourself that do not involve a laser range finder.

[Ron Fontaine]

I got very good at this by taking a million measurements while land surveying. Could judge a hundred feet within a foot or so just by looking.

For quickly judging distances under about 100-yards the best method might be practice and more practice.

[AlpineZone]

I can judge distance and height really good from years of rock/ice climbing and laying out the rope on flat ground to check for sheath damage, fraying, slicing, etc. Your standard rope length is 165 feet and in the climbing world that distance on a cliff wall or ice wall is called a pitch. So if your climbing a cliff thats say 500 feet tall you would call it a 3 pitch climb (giving and taking feet away of course but you get a good eyeball for it after awhile). So if I am looking across a field I think of pitches of rope being layed out acrossed it and then take the footage and divide by 3 in my head to convert it to yards.

[Celticwarrior]

I don't know why I have that ability. I have always been very good at spacial relationships. I can tell distances or heights within a very narrow margin of error. I can tell you to the millimeter whether an object will fit into a tight space. I can even (weirdly) tell you to the sheet how many pieces of paper are in a stack. If I could make a living out of ANY of those skills, it would be great. Otherwise they are just in the category of "useless superpowers".

[scorch]

Originally Posted by Celticwarrior

I don't know why I have that ability. I have always been very good at spacial relationships. I can tell distances or heights within a very narrow margin of error. I can tell you to the millimeter whether an object will fit into a tight space. I can even (weirdly) tell you to the sheet how many pieces of paper are in a stack. If I could make a living out of ANY of those skills, it would be great. Otherwise they are just in the category of "useless superpowers".

The paper company wouldn't need a machine to count anymore

[vthompson]

I have always been good at judging distance. I think that it was from my years of bowhunting.

[CuriousGeorge]

My "trick" was to pace off 10 yards in various settings and then visually study them. Once that was mastered, I found I was more accurate when the "target" is closer. So, I now pick a spot halfway in between, estimate the distance to that, then double it. Gets me within a yard or so (out to fifty yards).