Judging Distance

Methods:

1. The Unit of Measure Method:

Take 100m, or any smaller recognised distance as your ‘Unit Of Measure’ and see how many ‘units’ you can fit between yourself and the target.

This method is no good unless you can see ALL the ground between yourself and the target is not effective over 400.

2. The Appearance Method:

The amount of detail visible of the human form at various ranges gives a good indication as to it’s distance from you.

At 100m - Clear in all detail.

At 200m - Clear in all detail but colour of skin and equipment only just identifiable.

At 300m - Clear body outline, face colour good, remaining detail blurred.

At 400m - Only Body outline clear, remaining detail blurred.

At 500m - Body begins to taper, head becomes indistinct.

At 600m - Body now wedge shaped, no head apparent.

Other factors:

Things seem closer than they are when :

-The light is bright or the sun is shining behind you.

-They are bigger than other things around them.

-There is dead ground between you and them.

-They are higher up than you.

Things seem further away than they are when :

- The light is bad or the sun is in your eyes.

- They are smaller than other things around them.

- You are looking across a valley, down a street or a ride in a wood.

- You are lying down. Aids to Judging Distance:

Halving:

Choose a point that you think is halfway to your target , estimate the distance to that point and double it.

Bracketing:

Say to yourself, "The target could not be more than x metres nor less than y metres away." Add x to y and halve the result, the answer is the estimated range. e.g. If x is 300 and y is 100, the range is 200m.

The further away the target is the wider should be the bracket that you use.

Key Ranges:

If you know the range to any point in your arcs you can estimate the distance to other objects from this.