Rangefinder: Do you need one? Beware Manufacturers claims
Daemo,
I'm probably to new to this site myself to welcome you, but I'll still say welcome! Sorry about the confusion caused by forum reading. I will refrain from making any comment on rifle, calibre and moderator at all. About scopes my advice is simple: Spend as much as you can possibly afford! You normally get what you pay for.
Now a range finder? Why and for what use? Yes, I know it is about improving the accuracy of range estimation so you can adjust your aiming with the proper hold-over to compensate for bullet drop. Now I'll just give you my experience with range finders, and then you decide for yourself if you should not rather spend that money on an even better telescope.
Unfortunately it takes quite a bit of explaining for anyone to fully understand what I mean and why it is said. But here goes......
I live and mostly hunt in the western Free State. Here it is true "grassveldt" or wide open slightly undulating grass covered plains as far as the eye can see. It is also springbuck country! Now springbuck have what I consider as phenomenal eyesight! They can see a person walking for about three or so miles. Far too far to even think of taking a shot. Where I do most of my springbuck hunting the animals are known, in the Afrikaans language, as "trekbokke". It can be literally translated to "moving springbuck", with the moving having the same meaning as in moving from one house to another. These trekbokke have learnt the trick of crawling through any ordinary cattle and sheep fence. It means that they may be in one paddock, or as we call it here a camp, and simply move to the next area by crawling through the fence, maybe into a neighbour’s property. They have then "moved" their area from one owner's farm to the next owner's farm: they have "trekked" away. Now you must also know that in South Africa game is owned by no-one in particular, or are regarded as res nillius[*i] , but any farmer on whose property any game is found has some claim to that game. This habit of trekking from one property or camp to the next means that they belong to any farmer on whose land they are at any moment. Now, in this area many or most farmers drive around doing their day to day chores and stock and fences checking with a loaded rifle in their bakkie – or pickup or whatever you know such a vehicle as. Whenever any springbuck is seen, the farmer would stop and try a shot at one. As this behaviour has been ongoing for many generations of springbuck the remainder have developed an accurate distance estimation of what is safe. It is more or less like this. A herd of springbuck will ignore a vehicle and a walking man at about 3 kilometres. They start running from a moving vehicle or walking man if it approaches any closer than about 2 kilometres. The moment any vehicle closer than 4 kilometres stop, they immediately start running and they keep on running until they are about 6 kilometres from the vehicle. They then stop and look back at the vehicle. There is simply no way that any hunter can shoot at these trekbokke from a vehicle. You have to be more clever than most to get one of them. You walk and watch very far ahead of you, and sometimes when you are lucky you see the springbuck from about 4 or so kilometres before they have seen you. Then you plan your stalk. Using the natural undulations in the terrain it may be possible to walk upright up to something like 1500 metres from them, but only if they are a small group or a single territorial ram. Then you have to start crawling on hands and knees up to shooting distance. Now If I just want to have fun and don’t urgently need meat I hunt them with a muzzleloader for which my limit is 100 meters. But if I really want some meat I use a .308 for which my self imposed limit is that distance at which I can still aim at the body and not have the bullet drop so much that it will likely be a miss or the possibility of just wounding it becomes unacceptable. Practically about 300 or so meters, or yards. With a rifle, like the .243 win and a faster bullet and one better ballistic coefficient bullet, one can stretch this distance a bit, but not really very much. Fact is I need a range finder that can tell if I'm are closer than about 300 to 400 yards from a springbuck that I'm are stalking. If you are a very good shot and know the bullet drop at further distances for your rifle & bullet combination and you are prepared to take such long shots, well then you may need a rangefinder that can measure those further distances! I have a higher quality model of one of the makes that you are considering. Can I use it to measure the distance to a springbuck in the 300 to 400 yards range? No. Most definately not. A range finder may work very well up to 800 or some models up to 1200 yards, as the manufacturers claim, if you want to know how far you are from a white painted house or a barn. But on animals under hunting conditions these claims are just that: Unsubstantiated claims.
I have just gone outside and did a quick testing of my rangefinder. I slowly walked towards a herd of grazing beefmaster cattle. The herd consists of fully mature cows, heifers and some 1 to 3 months old calves. I took along my shooting rest; a very steady tripod that is height-adjustable with a padded rifle rest. I rested the rangefinder in the rifle rest and tried to get distance readings every few yards as I walked closer to the herd. After literally hundreds of attempts I eventually got a reading of 453 yards on a big cow standing broadside on. But that was only one reading, walking closer I got a few, say 10% of all carefully aimed & clicked attempts at around 425 yards resulted in readings. The % of attempts that resulted in readings started getting around 50% readings at about 375 yards. Only at about 350 yards could I get reliable results from a well-rested rangefinder on mature cows. All the while I concentrated my efforts to get readings from the calves. The furthest ever reading on a calf was at 253 yards! Calves can only be reliably ranged from closer than 200 yards. Incidentally I got a reading at 91 yards on a guinea fowl! I would dare to say that there is simply no way you will ever get a reading on a springbuck that is further than 250 yards with my rangefinder. I will at this stage not disclose in public which make my rangefinder is, but it is a well-known brand and one of the higher priced models of the make. It was also a gift. from a hunting client!
So you are going to use your rangefinder to estimate hold-over on pests like foxes? Unless you get a very high quality model that can “see” a fox at the ranges where you need some hold-over with a .243 win, you must just forget about a range finder.
I wish someone who really knows about range finders will chip in and enlighten us all about which size “target” some models can reliably “see” at what ranges. Do your research very well and don’t buy a “600 yards” model without making very sure that it actually can work on the main target animal that you want to shoot at such long ranges.
In good hunting.
Andrew McLaren
