RE: What is you choice in rangefinders
Well I bought mine because I can't judge yardarge to save my own life. I'm getting better, I can pretty much guess at 20 yards off the ground, but in a tree it's a different story. The difference between 20 and 30 yards out of a stand is very hard for me to distinguish. I use my range finder for all sorts of things. Like sighting in and setting my pins. If I set my pins at 20, 30 and 40, I would kind of like to be sure they are really set at those distances, not what I think are those distances. And using a tape measure is a major pain in the butt. I also use it when sighting in a rifle and target shooting. If I want my rifle to be zeroed at 130 yards the range finder comes in pretty handy for that.
I don't really use it when gun hunting, since my gun is set up to shoot effectively at the longest shot I have. From 25 yards to 150 yards all I have to do is put cross hairs on the vitals and it will kill the deer. I don't really use it while I'm bowhunting either. There is no time to whip out a range finder and use it when a deer is near your stand. I range a perimeter around my stand at 20 or 25 yards keeping a mental note of what objects are what distances. If a deer walks into that circle I know where to shoot.
For me the difference between 20 and 30 yards is the difference between missing or wounding a deer, so guessing doesn't cut it in my book. I only have a 26 inch draw with 60 lbs of pull, and I shoot heavy arrows. I may have a "fast" bow, but that doesn't mean my set up is fast. I'm sure I could learn to judge yardage, I get better at it every year and playing with the range finder helps. However I decided I wanted to hunt instead of waiting until I was 45 and could judge yardage dead on. The range finder lets me do this. Would it be better if I went out and guessed at it and wounded deer instead? I prefere to kill what I aim at, not hope I do before I release the arrow. If I don't think I can make the shot, I don't take it.
I could do the same thing by pacing it off on the ground when I set the stand up though, and put markers around my stand. The rangefinder is much easier though. In all honesty I bought it to practice with, not to hunt with.
Do you have to have one, no not all. Is it a help, for some it sure is, and I'm one of them.
Paul