Rangefinders....??

SteveOh

Well-Known Member
Ello.....

A few questions regarding rangefinders...

  • Are they practical in the field?
    How do I tell what is a good rangefinder?

I ask this second question because I read that the effective range is against a reflective surface.

Is 300 yards a good maximum required distance for the rangefinder to operate at? Obviously I wont be shoting out to that distance but its still nice to be able to range things....

Any comments appreciated.
 
Hi SteveOh

If your going to go down the route of range finders my advice would be keep it simple and go for a pair of bino`s with built in RF.

What you want to try and avoid is a lot of up and down movement with your hands as I`m sure you already know, up and down with bino`s spot deer, up and down with range finder, up with rifle, down with rifle cos deer has p---ed off !!

I know you can fasten the RF to your binos as the yanks do, but why suffer the bulk?

I bought a pair of 8x56 Leica Geovid BRF when they first came onto the market, They are in my opinion up there with the best. The only thing I can say against them is that they are BLOODY EXPENSIVE and mine being the early ones are in meters not yards.

They DO NOT need a reflective surface to work, and they`re effective out to 800mtrs I believe, please don`t quote me on that, I just seem to remember reading it in the bumf that comes with all new toys.

Why use a range finder ?

Cos it makes life a whole lot easier, especially if your with a client or a novice, try it on your mates and see how good they are at judging distances, you`ll be very suprised.

I`m sure there are lots of good RF`s out there I can only tell you that I have no complaints with the Leica Geovids the glass is as clear as gin and they are FANTASTIC in poor light, they even works in the dark, but not too clever in the mist

Choz
 
Hi There

I have a leica 1200 RF with the 7x monocular. I tend to keep it in my roe sack and use it to spy out the ranges from various high seats and vantage points. These can be noted on a range card for future reference.
A great bit of kit and reference tool

Mark
 
i think mark has the best idea, use them to make a range card from you favourite hides / high seats.
I have been putting off getting one for some time as i think all we really need to know is is it too far and if it looks that way then it probebly is
I do exept that Deer often look further away than they are and they might be usefull for planning waypoints to a shot
for example
If i can make it to that cover over there how near will i be to take the shot?
 
If you have a German N04 or Duplex type reticle you have a reasonable range finder already built into your rifle scope.

For example with my Meopta measures 70cm from end of thick piece to the vertical wire at 100yds.-

Most Roe are about 70cm long and most Hinds are a bit over 70cm high or 140cm long, so if the Roe covers the distance from the thick wire to the central vertical it is approx 100meters away. If it is less than half filling the space, then it is over 200m and thus probably too far.

I know that the rifle shoots 1 inch high at 100yds and thus is bang at 200 yds I am pretty confident that provided the beast fills more than half the distance between the thick and the vertical (for Roe) or for Hinds the body length covers from the thick to the vericle, if I hold about 1/3 of the way up the body for a heart shot I should be within an inch or so of my aiming point.

Once you know how to use the above, it is in fact very quick to use, but you do need to take into account that deer to change in size, thus it is by no means as accurate as a rnage finder, but with a flat shooting rifle how accurate do you need to be.
 
Heym,
You have a point about the reticule i have used this and similar indeed this is why mildot was developed. My Nightforce has a quick reference also. However the Deer being different sizes thing is critical at distances beyond 200yds not that i think we should take such shots.

200yds and under with no real wind to worry about and a good proven flat shooting round from a well practised stable posision - do we need a rangefinder to take the shot if required ? I think not.

I do wonder how many people rely on what it says on the back of the cartridge box for drop, do not understand wind, use the rangefinder on a beast and think 200yds yes i can do that when in reality they cannot - comes down to the same thing time and again " i can do 1 1/2" at 100 yds so i must be able to do 3" at 200" - no wrong
 
i think i posted do we need one for 200mtrs, with a good load, the extra come up on the reticule would be difficult to judge at 6x mag for instance as regards to anatomy. We are only looking at the upper section of our kill zone anyway with such a round.

my critisim of 200yds is only in the context of the less experianced thinking they can shoot that far without testing the theory in practice 1st.
As you are no doubt aware accuraccy decreases expodentially with range ie. Someone who can only do consistant 1 1/2" at 100 cannot indeed do 3" consistant at 200yds. I fear the tecnology might lull those people into a false scence of security.

I have posted before that i will shoot at 200yds if required personally, however i shoot about 300- 400 rounds a month and practice and compete out to 1000yds. It is suprising how few top shots can 100% garantee a 1st round v bull at 300yds when you take into acount wind!
 
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