Latest greatest rangefinder?

204 AR

204 AR

Well-known member
I'm in the market for a new rangefinder. The last one I bought was about 2008? Maybe 2010? The Swarovski 8-30, it was a 1k unit and pretty good at the time but it isn't cutting it now. I see all these 3k units for a couple hundred bucks and wonder how good they are.

Ranging binos? How much does it wreck the image quality to have the rangefinder in them?

Thanks for your opinions.
 
I've had such good luck with Burris I might try their little 2k unit. The price is certainly attractive.
 
The ranging binos are sweet for situations where you can have a spotter with you or where you have some time to scan with them. That said, they tend to be a bit bulkier than regular binos and in many cases I find the bino plus a separate range finding unit to be more versatile.

I currently run the Vortex Ranger 1800 I got probably 6 years ago and its been great. I dont think ive even had to replace the battery yet. Its accurate and for about $250 its a good value.

I will say that if you shoot prairie dogs a lot, the rf binos are awesome cause you can scan and immediately range. I lose the dogs when I scan with regular binos and then switch to a rf.
 
I went ahead and ordered the 2k Burris 7x rangefinder. It seemed to get good reviews online and it was $194 on Midway. Then I figured out my Swaros still work, it's just that the aiming point is so huge you have to know which part of it to use. It looks like a giant orange donut and the bottom part of the circle is where it's accurate.
 
204 AR said:
I went ahead and ordered the 2k Burris 7x rangefinder. It seemed to get good reviews online and it was $194 on Midway. Then I figured out my Swaros still work, it's just that the aiming point is so huge you have to know which part of it to use. It looks like a giant orange donut and the bottom part of the circle is where it's accurate.
Click to expand...
I also test every rangefinder to see if the aiming point is collimated to the sensor or whatever it's called.

A telephone pole or tree trunk for the horizontal, and a roof line or horizontal tree limb for the vertical test.

A rangefinding binocular is the cat's ass for prairie dogging, I can't believe it took so long for me to make the switch.
 
I got the Burris and tried it out the last couple of days, today I took it prairie dogging as a coincidence lol. It ranges fine, the aiming point is larger than expected and the image is pretty dark. 7x is not much magnification in a dog town.

They'll work for what I want, which is to range targets for plinking with my Burris Veracity PH on a 6.5 Creed Ruger American in an MDT field stock. Holy crap is that thing accurate. Only issue is the cold bore shot is between 1/2 and 1 moa high. After that it pounds them through the same hole almost, with blem 123 amax and varget. That PH is a fun new toy, I got it for a steal at Cabelas on club member Monday. It won't replace my Eliminators for coyote hunting though, but it will be great for deer hunting out of a blind and prairie doggin.
 
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