Help buying a Rangefinder
 

Saw a lot of "way out there" shooters here and was wondering what kind of range finders you guys were using?

I've seen the Bushnell that cabelas sells for 250ish with some crappy scope. Actually messed with a Leupold ??1000 and a Leica. The Leopold was nice no suprise, the Leica only has a tiny little square on the inside kinda hard to see...any suggestions?

How far are you shooting? Don't really think you need a range finder until you start shooting past 300 yards.

Tom

I have a Nikon 800 and I've maxed it out, so I'll be upgrading to a Swaro, Zeiss or Leica pretty soon...

I figure that 500 yards would be the maximum. I have a place to shoot up to 1000. In a hunting situation maybe 500 max, but only if I've practiced enough to have the confidence for the shot. Probably be mostly punching holes in paper. It looks like the price difference between 500 and 1000 range finders isn't much, I figure spending a little extra would be ok.

The difference is what they will actually range...a bright house or an animal...

I've owned the Bushnell and Leica (currently). Range finders can be used for a bunch of things. I bought mine after I shot a Calif mulie that looked to be standing with a bunch of does. After shooting him, I discovered he was actually about 100 yds BEHIND the does and after looking for blood, I found that bowl was loaded with red obsidian and EVERYTHING was red and shiny! I found the deer (finally) but bought a range finder shortly thereafter. I've also played with the Leupold which is cheaper than the Leica and Swarovski but still nice.

animal at 1000 yards?

Leica 1200 CRF. You will not be dissapointed with this unit. It will range an animal at 1000 yards. It's a great unit for both long range and archery. The nice thing about using it for archery is how easy it is to use one handed compared to the LRF models. The CRF is simply a sweet set up:wink:

im not really one of the way out there hunters but i have good success to 500 yardw with my old bushnell yardagepro 1000. it wont range deer sized targets out to 700 but it seems fine out to about 625. when i need more range i borrow a friends leica 1200. its not the very best out there but it can read coyotes out to about 900 and deer out to 1100 with +/- 5 yard accuracy. the very best ive used was a elcan marine model. it could range shorelines out to 10 miles with about a 20 yard accuracy and it could read boats out to about 1 mile with what i think is spot on accuracy

Woof, that puppy is pricey. So non reflective to 500 yards would probably be best then reflective to 1000. That would allow for deer to 500 and a target up to 1000????

If I'm correct on this, then that would be the type I'm after....

Suggestions on that deal??