It typically doesn’t happen as seen on T.V., where you have 5 minutes to range a deer before getting a shot. Most of the time that footage is taken after the shot and the hunter never ranged the deer at all (trust me, I have spent a few hours behind a camera). In most of my experiences, deer pop out of nowhere and are quickly closing the distance, preventing any extra movement. This is when you have to be able to accurately judge distance on the fly.
A good way to prevent total guess work is to range several unique landmarks from your stand like a stump, stake, or tree during downtime. Quiz yourself on the distance of each object during the slow times and double check your estimate with the range finder. It’s harder in wide open areas, so if there isn’t something unique that sticks out to you, try putting up a few range sticks (a.k.a. broken branches) at determined distances.
