The first time I saw a range finder used was in a PD town. The unit was a Leica. The problem was it would not alway range on the dog. You would get inconsistant readings or ones that you knew were wrong. I thought they were pretty useless.

I knew I could find an optical unit if I looked long enough. I found an optical unit where you must focus on the object and read out the range on a dial. It was reasonably priced and works well enough. I say that because it will not tell you the object is 377 yards away. It will tell you it is between 350 and 400 yards. The unit is larger than the pocket size laser units but at $147.00 I thought I could live with it's relative bulk.


longwalker

What range were you using the Leica at? What model was it? I have had trouble ranging off small targets at longer ranges but great results picking something big right next to them whether its a tree, rock or in the case of a prarie dog, the mound.

My brother bought a different model range finder and we compared accuracy by zapping different objects with both. Mighty close. I use mine mostly to range landmarks in areas for a general use (ie: the rock across the canyon is 380 yards... putting anything inbetween within pbr ).

One thing to note though about laser range finders is that the effective "soft body" range is about half of what the rangefinder yardage is. If its a 600 yard finder you can range deer and stuff out to 300... etc etc. Hard objects usually range out to the rated range and beyond (I've ranged over 800 yards off a stopsign with my 600 yard rangefinder). Depends on the reflectivity of the target.

Fun and very useful toys IMO, expecially for archery or ML hunting where distance is much more critical.


-DallanC

DallanC wrote:

I use mine mostly to range landmarks in areas for a general use (ie: the rock across the canyon is 380 yards... putting anything inbetween within pbr ). One thing to note though about laser range finders is that the effective "soft body" range is about half of what the rangefinder yardage is. If its a 600 yard finder you can range deer and stuff out to 300... etc etc. Hard objects usually range out to the rated range and beyond (I've ranged over 800 yards off a stopsign with my 600 yard rangefinder). Depends on the reflectivity of the target. Fun and very useful toys IMO, expecially for archery or ML hunting where distance is much more critical.-DallanC

I use my bushnell rangefinder the same way Dallan uses his. Sometimes it will not range on a deer or whatever but it will on the hill/tree next to it. I love mine and wonder why I was so long without one.

Leica when used was I think a 700 yard model. The problem was picking out the prairiedog and ranging on it. If there was a big enough feature to range on I think it would not have been a problem. Prairie dog towns around here, don't have a lot of large rocks or trees to range on.

My rangefinder is a RANGEMATIC MK5 I searched the web today and found two on ebay each under 20.00 bucks. ouch that hurt.
Still not a bad thing to have even if you do have to turn the dial.

longwalker

There were a batch of the first Leica 800 models that had a defective chip- Leica would take them back and replace them.
The current 800 and 1200 model are fine.
I think what you may have run into is this: the laser on a rangefinder is very narrow- it has to be to range what you're trying to range, rather than picking up everything. So, with that little bitty narrow laser beam, any movement you might induce holding it gets magnified as the range gets longer....and what happens is you have the laser on several things, not just 1 thing.
I had a Leica 800, and now have a 1200. Either one gave me the distance to the nearest yard. I have discovered that mounting the rangefinder on a tripod increased the distance I could accurately range- a lot. Becuase the laser stayed on the object I put it on.
With the 800, I could depend on it ranging a woodchuck to 450 or so- and a deer to 650. The 1200 will range a woodchuck to at least 650, and that's the farthest I've tried it so far.

I have a Bushnell Legend. Waterproof and will range cattle at 485 yards and trees past 850.