When I hunt deer, I always use my ranger finder and creep to a prescribed distance from the deer before I shoot. I feel it is vitally important to get to one of the distances defined in the loading tables so I know how fast that bullet is traveling when if smashes into the deer. I have often wondered what happens in the distances in between the steps on the tables. On occasion I have found it better to back up a few paces if the terrain going forward is prohibitive. This is particularly the case since I have jumped up to a little lighter weight bullet in the old 38-55...the added velocity affords a much flatter shooting rifle(the deer seem to prefer the higher velocities also). One of the biggest challenges in hunting is to get them dammb deers to hold still long enough for me to get into place. I just get the ballistics calculated and they invariably move...dammb their hides. I recall 4 years ago down in the Book Cliffs, Bobby Lacque, Frank Seez and myself had been chasing a true monster for almost 6 days, a real game of cat-in-mouse. He'd move, my spotter(frank) would re-calc, and he'd move again...dammb his Roman nose...and we'd start all over again. Well, to make a long story short, after days of this foolishness, I finally had him at an exact known distance, broadside for perfect shot placement...and click...Bobby had handed me an empty gun. Off he ran, never to be seen again.
