desertloper

Alright guys,
I went to Cabelas today to buy a rangefinder, and decided to ask you all for some help after looking at a few.
I want an angle compensating rangefinder for under $300
Which do you use/like?
I am thinking either the Bushnell 1000ARC $299
or the Nikon Rifle Hunter 550 $279

jacob_april

nikon all the way. the glass ie clear and the picture that you see is not full ov usless info. oh i may be partial to nikon it is all i hunt with.

Planter

I loved my Nikon 440 but it sh$t the bed after less than a year. I had NOT sent in the warrantee card and they wanted $180 to fix it. I love their scopes but I sure hated their customer service

I (sigh) will probably buy a Nikon again, but I sure wish I could tell the difference between the 440 and the 550. The prices are very close!

Ps.. Don't pay the premium for a camo one. The black is fine and they are easier to find if you happen to put it down on the ground.[:-]

gutshotem

I also liked the Nikon over the Bushnell.
The glass seemed a lot clearer and brighter when compared side by side with the Bushnell.
I ended up getting the 440 also. It went out on me after 2 seasons though.
Just recieved an email with the estimate from Nikon. 150 to have it fixed. What a joke!
I think the warranty only lasts a year, but $150 for a $189 rangefinder.
I don't know what i'll get next, but it won't be another Nikon.

leadoperator

I just bought a nikon monarch 1200 (399.00) from cabelas last week. Works great! But after i got to thinking i may have paid too much i looked around on ebay and bought a nikon monarch 800 for 240.00 brand new. Just buy from a seller with a good reputation. Im sure you can find 1 with ARC cheaper there.

nksmfamjp

Why angle compensating? I have posted the answert here mathmatically before, but, in a nut shell. . .unless you are shooting over 500 yards with a rifle or 50 yards with a bow at extreme angles(>20 degrees), this is an unused feature.

I have a Nikon Monarch Gold 1200. It will range to 1200 and I can guess the angles well enough to hit what I will shoot at.

desertloper

thanks for the info everyone--I have $100 cash card I have to use at cabelas by Jan, and I just figured I may as well use it now for deer season. I do not archery hunt-yet, but hunt in the mountains-I understand your point on using a traditional rangefinder, I just figured that it may be handy to have the option.

Is it a common occurrence to have your rangefinders take a dump on you so soon?

nksmfamjp

Mine is about 2 years old. I bought it used off Ebay. While I don't use it everyday, I do bring it target shooting sometimes and all hunting trips. In the end though, they are built around a PCB with soldered components, I'll bet. PCB based circuits are notoriously fragile.

Power

I have had similar bad luck with customer support from Nikon (scopes and binos) so I stopped buying any of their gear a few years back. So when it came time for a laser, I went Bushnell. At the time it was the only 1k+ model that was also waterproof. I really liked the Leica (the red LED is WAY better display) but my Bushnell 1500 works very well. It's about 2-3 years old now, wish I'd got the one with ARC but it works just great. Reason I went with the 1k+ yard model is ranging deer/elk out to 500 yards is hard for a rangefinder that only goes up to 600-800. Not that I shoot them that far but I want to know if the animal is 500 yards away so I know if I can close that last 100-150 yards I can take the shot. Plus where I hunt it's wide open sage brush country so long shots are the norm. I also insisted on waterproof as most hunts have a day or two of snow/rain it seems and I'm not going to lose another $300 or so trying to use an expensive piece of glass in the rain that's not waterproof.