distance

[paaiyan]

My longest distance I'd estimate at about 80 yards. Yeah yeah, pitiful I know. I only ever made one cannon then got into paintball and other projects.

I once nailed a guy between the eyes at 120 yards with a paintball gun though! Had to walk it in a little, but I got him. Was the between the eyes hit luck? Oh yeah. But it put him in his place. Little bugger waved at me taunting when he realized I was gunning for him.

[saefroch]

I could use GGDT to estimate range with shooting my ball bearings I have, but unfortunately due to the rather small bore diameter of all my builds, it is almost impossible to find any ammo after shooting, since it has a tendency to pass through everything except sheet metal and dig itself very far into the ground.

GGDT prediction with 11/32" BB: 1,298ft

[CDHraider]

ive been really wanting to measure the distance my propane tennis ball gun can shoot. just wondering what you fellas think is the best technique for measure the long distances.

[Gun Freak]

If you know the launch point and landing point you can use google earth to find the distance.

[Crna Legija]

yea google earth or the good old walk and count method

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Or a cheap rangefinder.

[Technician1002]

Many of that type of "digital Rangefinder" do nothing but scale the height of the flag and display distance based on the flag. Unless you have someone to go out to your projectile and hold up a regulation golf marker, then the rangefinder has no reference and gives no valid reading.

Note the sales literature mentions this required alignment to get a "reading" and gives no detail of what that looks like to do the "alignment" on the marker. The alignment is two horizontal reticle lines that are aligned to the top and bottom of the flag. Useless if you don't have a flag or can not see the bottom of the flag due to a hill.

Here is the fine print that shows the entire flag must show for this to work.

With a full view of the flag stick , just align the digital Range marks with the pin , press a button and the distance in yards the distance in yards will display automatically

Most of the "digital reaout is not electronic on some of these, but a scribe on a light up reticle containing numbers.

Edit, more info. Flag is 6.5 feet above the ground. A 7 foot pole extends 6 inches into the hole.

The rod that holds the flag 6-1/2
feet above the ground.

The USGA recommend that flag sticks be no less than 7 feet in height.
But in practice, we see flag sticks that are 7 feet long and are
submerged into the hole about 6 inches.?

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Many of that type of "digital Rangefinder" do nothing but scale the height of the flag and display distance based on the flag. Unless you have someone to go out to your projectile and hold up a regulation golf marker, then the rangefinder has no reference and gives no valid reading.

True, personally I have access to one of these but I assumed a very low budget

Another low budget option is a GPS receiver for your laptop if there are no prominent landmarks for google earth.

[Technician1002]

If you get a GPS be sure it does output the NMEA data strings and not one of the propritory formats. With standard NMEA output, your choice of software for mapping opens wide. I personally enjoy exploring the back country. I use a Topo map program with my GPS.

The one JSR linked to does have this. Don't buy one without it.

NMEA-0183 Baud Rate 9600

Even without a fancy map program, the locations can be recorded and entered into Google maps. I have used this to measure distances on a field and on a lake.

[irisher]

I am going to bump this thread because I have just bumped up my max distance achieved. I created discarding sabot round using foam and a modified arrow and got ~.40 miles.

[D_Hall]

Never really went for a max range shot... At least, when I did so I never managed to find the results. I will say, however, that at 550 feet (measured) I hit a target hard enough that the golf ball split.

[Scrambles622467]

My best with a potato is 1400 feet. Using google earth