Rangefinders

[pushbush]

What's the best Rangefinder, looking for opinions and preference, quality and Accuracy.

Thanks

[KodiakHntr]

Zeiss, then Leica, then Swaro, then way far back, everything else.

[mfarrally]

my buddy has a leica and it is awesome

[.330 Dakota]

I have a Leica and it is awesome

[Singleshotneeded]

Hey Pushbush, Here's the bottom line, all four of these rangefinders will work beautifully at ranging trees up to 1500 yards away, and deer/moose up to 8-900 yards. I'll list them in order of price(current/Cabelas), and you can figure out which gives you the best bang for the buck, okay?
1. Bushnell Elite 1500- $350
2. Zeiss Victory PRF- $700
3. Leica Rangemaster- $800
4. Swaro Laser Guide- $1,000

Heck, if you desperately want to spend money you can buy the Bushnell Fusion 1600, which combines an excellent binocular(10X42) with a 1600 yard-on-trees rangefinder for $859 at Wholesale Sports. At least for the sizeable expense you'll have your binos and rangefinder in one piece of equipment, saving you time on an animal at long range. The Germans also have rangefinder binos, LOL, for about $2,500...hahaha!

[todbartell]

recent thread

http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=61319&highlight=range+finder

[BlacktailStalker]

My Leica 1200 is crappy.
Doesnt work worth a damn in the slightest bit of fog and often takes multiple trys to range past a few hundred yards.
Then on perfect clear days it will sometimes range 1000yds :mad:

My friends has the same problems.

[BCsniper]

Been using the Bushnell 1500 ARC. Works great for archery and rifle. Haven't had any complaints. My friends have borrowed it and that lead to them buying their own.

Have had other bushnell's and they weren't as good or as powerful, but then again they the economy models.

[Triggerman]

Leica all the way.

Hey BlackTail. If I may suggest, change the battery or send them back for repair. I've owned the older model and I have new one now. Simply Awesome. I've ranged coyotes at 800+yds and other larger objects over 1300 with never a problem. $600+/- at Fisher's Hardware in Vernon. The new one is light and super compact.

[BlacktailStalker]

I'm going to send it back.
Both ours are brand new, thanks for the suggestion though.

[pushbush]

Okay, TBR true ballistic range, can someone explain this do you need it for rifle hunting. I've noticed all the top of the line rangefinders don't have it. I just wanna make sure if I'm shooting 500 yards that it really is 500 yards.

[todbartell]

TBR/ARC can make a difference if you do any shooting in the mountains where you may have a steep angle shot at longer range. For most situations you wont be needing it, however they do give long range bullet drop so that can be helpful for you

[Matty_ola]

So I got my Leica 1600 And I am IMPRESSED. I owned the 1200 before this and it was a good unit but I had a few problems getting it to range past 1000 meters in real hunting situations. Fog, rain.

I took the 1600 out for the first time last weekend (cloudy little fog, typical looking day you'd see in oct or nov) doing some scouting and came across 8-10 deer just on the other side of a ridge grazing on the grasslands, Ranged them at 774 Meters from my position. I carried on further up the trail turning around and ranging them every so often, 880M, 920M, 1077M, 1255M(Two tries), 1325M(first try), 1444M(Two tries) 1565M(four tries) I figures this was far enough for testing purpose as it's only rated for 1500Meters and it did the job so I'm happy...

Nah, Lets see what this thing can do for real. I climbed to the top of a hill pretty much as far as I could get away from these deer and got down prone put the rangefinder on my pack and hit the button. Nothing... Nothing... Then on the third push of the button I got 1883Meters. WOW.

I then hit the second button for shot angle, Temp and Pressure, Being as I had my Kestrel I compared Station pressure and sure enough it was bang on. Nice. The temp, Not so good Kestrel said -1.4C Leica said +11C I think the temp get messed up when you hold it for any lenth of time as it takes the temp from around where your hand is. The angle I checked with a golf angle finder and it was darn close enough for me.

Overall I'd say I'm very pleased with the purchase, I have other units I use to measure my environment so I only use it to range however I'm sure it would work very well for those looking to get into the long range game and are looking for one unit to do many tasks.

I did play around a bit with the ballistic software installed but found that it was never exact and was much easier to use holdovers in the reticle than to try and dial it in to your turrets.

Cheers, Matt

[wlbc]

Swaro, Leica and Zeiss are all pretty good. I had a Bushnell, I can't recall the model but it was alleged to be good for over 1000 yards. The Bushnell was good on things with hair out to around 300 yards and seemed to be more erratic in function.

For three or four hundred bucks it's fine but it is not the same. From my own actual experience with owning both, for ranging at distance. for optical clarity, for consistent function and repeatability, the Bushnell is not in the same class as Swaro, Zeiss, or Leica.

I looked fairly carefully at the top three and got a Swaro. At the time of purchase I felt it was best suited for me. I think that there is a degree of subjectivity involved between those three because the quality of all three is very good. It probably comes down to the subjective value you place on certain specific features.

[.330 Dakota]

Hey Pushbush, Here's the bottom line, all four of these rangefinders will work beautifully at ranging trees up to 1500 yards away, and deer/moose up to 8-900 yards. I'll list them in order of price(current/Cabelas), and you can figure out which gives you the best bang for the buck, okay?
1. Bushnell Elite 1500- $350
2. Zeiss Victory PRF- $700
3. Leica Rangemaster- $800
4. Swaro Laser Guide- $1,000

Heck, if you desperately want to spend money you can buy the Bushnell Fusion 1600, which combines an excellent binocular(10X42) with a 1600 yard-on-trees rangefinder for $859 at Wholesale Sports. At least for the sizeable expense you'll have your binos and rangefinder in one piece of equipment, saving you time on an animal at long range. The Germans also have rangefinder binos, LOL, for about $2,500...hahaha!

I have the Lieca 1200 and have ranged on hair (cattle) at 1187 yards and it seems about the same on houses and trees etc. I tried the Bushnell 1500 Elite and never got past 600 on rocks and buildings.
The Lieca can be bought for around $650.00 at Cabella's Canada.
Thats where I got mine and thats what I paid.

[Singleshotneeded]

Hey .330 Dakota, I've got a friend with the 1500 Elite and he ranges on trees to well over 1,000 yards, which is plenty for hunting, and that's what I based my post on. The $800 price for the Leica Rangemaster came from the US Cabelas site just before posting, it was for the CRF 1600, not 1200. I'm comparing units stating the same range capability. Could it have been drizzling when you only got 600 yard ranging from the Elite 1500 you tried?
My point was that it's not necessary to spend close to a grand on a rangefinder, when you can get one that works for $350. And if you do want to spend $850 or so, you can get a quality pair of binos combined with a rangefinder, and save a step when you run into a distant animal.
By the way, the cabelas.com U.S. site has lots of customer reviews from folks that own each of those rangefinders, and a couple of them talked about ranging animals at 1200 yards and trees over 1300 yards with the Bushnell Elite 1500.

[Matty_ola]

Swaro, Leica and Zeiss are all pretty good. I had a Bushnell, I can't recall the model but it was alleged to be good for over 1000 yards. The Bushnell was good on things with hair out to around 300 yards and seemed to be more erratic in function.

For three or four hundred bucks it's fine but it is not the same. From my own actual experience with owning both, for ranging at distance. for optical clarity, for consistent function and repeatability, the Bushnell is not in the same class as Swaro, Zeiss, or Leica.

I looked fairly carefully at the top three and got a Swaro. At the time of purchase I felt it was best suited for me. I think that there is a degree of subjectivity involved between those three because the quality of all three is very good. It probably comes down to the subjective value you place on certain specific features.

Do you find the reticle too large for long distance ranging? That was pretty much the only reason I didn't go for the Swaro RF. Other than the reticle I think the Swaro are a superior unit to the leica.

Either way you go don't buy anything without checking out Gunnutz first, You can save yourself a ton of money being as most times you won't pay the tax and shipping is usually included. Cabelas has the 1600 for 849.99 and by the time it hits your door it's $973.21 A leica dealer on gunnutz had them BNIB for 830.00 shipped and taxes in:-o. The same guy also had the Swaro for 1080.00 BNIB shipped.

I don't mind supporting local business and all but if I can save over 100 bucks thats more money towards keeping the Mrs happy and that is all that matters in my book:wink:

[wlbc]

Do you find the reticle too large for long distance ranging? That was pretty much the only reason I didn't go for the Swaro RF. Other than the reticle I think the Swaro are a superior unit to the leica.


I found the size of the Swaro made it easier, for me, to hold steadier hence making the larger reticle work.

Potato, potato, it works and the optics are amazing.

Here in Williams Lake the local guy Al will generally match Wholesale or come close enough where it does not matter on big ticket items. Nice to have a good shop in town.

[MattW]

I don't know about best, I have little experience with others, but I can say I've been extremely pleased with my Leica.