goose142004

Just curious about what kind of range finder you use? I am looking into buying one but dont know what one i want. i want one for oklahoma deer and colorado elk hunting. i also want it to reach 800 yards or so and it work in the rain. please tell me what you think!! thanks yall.

txhunter58

I don't buy anything busnell EXCEPT their rangefinders. Most of us in our group own one and they have served us well.

Unless you want to pay through the nose, you won't get one to read at 800 yards in the rain, but I have had luck out to shootable ranges (400 yards) with the bushnell and it has been reliable.

Cabelas has a deal going right now where you get the Scout 1000 ARC (tells ballistic range if shooting uphill/downhill), a knife and a binocular. The binocular is ok to give a kid (not for serious hunting) but the combo is the same price as the Scout 1000 ARC by itself:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0059756713069a&type=product&cm Cat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=bushne ll+rangefinder&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N =0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas% 2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

Or you can just get the regular scout 1000 (without the ARC) for $250 at Cabelas (probably less other places)

spaniel

Remember that the range advertised is not what you can expect to get.

I own a Bushnell 1500 ARC. I can get 1100 yds on reflective (metal building) targets, a max of 950 on terrain features (rocks/hills), 850-900 on trees, and 650-750 on actual animals. In the rain it is much shorter and that will be true of ALL rangefinders.

In the mountains, the Bushnell will serve you fine. But if you want to be ranging 800 on the plains (ie antelope) save up and get the Leica 1200, Leicas range much closer to their rating than Bushnell or Nikon (and you'll pay for that).

goose142004

how important is the arc?

spaniel

It depends how steep your shots could be, and how long. I shot a mule deer at 438 yds at a 15 degree angle this year.I had to reduce my elevation adjustment by about 2" at that range and angle, so not very significant. I shot an elk at 683 yards and a 15 degree angle, I think I had to reduce my elevation adjustment by 4" for that shot.

The error introduced my the angle accelerates rapidly once the angle is over 25 degrees. It also accelerates rapidly at increased ranges (but the effect of the angle is overriding).

So how important is it? If you take 500+ yd shots in areas where the angle could be 20+ degrees, then it could be very important. For example if you were hunting mtn goats or sheep it could be vital. Otherwise, not so much.

I also did not use the full offering of the ARC function. You are supposed to set it to a "rifle group" that includes your caliber --- it is NOT customized to the actual ballistics of your rifle. So the way I see it, the ARC is useless as designed because the error introduced by simplifying from accurate reflection of a specific load's performance to a whole grouping of cartidges could be much greater than the error introduced by shooting at an angle!!

I would range the animal in regular mode (actual range), then turn on the ARC rifle group mode so it would display the angle. I then had a chart that gave an accurate adjustment to make for the angle based on the performance of my specific load and rifle.

txhunter58

I think the arc would be very useful if you bow hunted from a tree stand.

However, only one of us in our group has the arc and he has yet to really need it rifle hunting.

For any normal person shooting reasonable distances (less than 400 yards), if the angle is severe, you just hold a little lower (both up or downhill).

From his post, you can tell that Spaniel must be an exceptional shooter who practices a lot and knows what his guns can/will do at long distances. For me and 99% of other hunters, taking a 683 yrd shot at an elk would be irresponsible with any rangefinder.

A11en

I went with the Leupold RXII with TBR (True Ballistic Range = ARC equivelant). It is a great product! I really like and use TBR when Bowhunting. In some cases, actual range verses aim range was 5 - 8 yards different. I also use it when shooting my rifle up or down steep terrian at longer distances (300+ yards)

I prefer the Leuplod to Bushnell for quality reasons

txhunter58

As a general rule, Leupold cleans bushnells clock on optics (I have leupold scopes on all my rifles) but I have had good luck with the bushnell rangefinder.

Also, they may have improved it, but there were a lot of complaints on the Leupold rangefinder with ballisctic range because it was very complicated to use. Again that was when they first came out and they may be easier to use now. If so, I would give them the nod on quality

spaniel

Yeah, the local I was hunting with had a chuckle when I pulled out the chart and started calculating and turret twisting. He wasn't laughing anymore when the elk dropped.

Yep, I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to shooting...or anything else for that matter. I hope I make it sound every bit as complex as it really is so everyone doesn't go out and try it thinking it is simple.

A11en

txhunter58 - The Leupold is as easy or as complex as you want it to be. It does require a brain to operate, but I can change from bow to rifle or the reverse in a matter of seconds.