Range Finders

[Desert Rat]

I have recently gotten back into hunting, a buddy has a range finder that he takes along. What are your thoughts on them?
I have never felt that confident in my ability to judge distances further out.
I think it would be nice to have to help get an idea of the range.
What are your thoughts on model, brand?

 

[Ballistic Therapy]

I use a range finder every time I go hunting.
There are lots of choices. Even the cheap ones seem to work good.
I have a Leica. It was close to $1000 new about 10 years ago.
A friend of mine bought a Redfield last year for around $200 and it works just about as good as mine , it just doesn't go the distance and is not quite as clear as mine at longer distances.

 

[Harrier]

I've had a few over the years, current one is a Bushnell (maybe 10 years old) and it seems to still be right on the money. Try to get as compact as you can as you may have it and binocs and whatever else slung around your neck..
When you get one, test it against known objects at various distances out to/past its rating. That way you'll know if it is on the money at distances you will be shooting. The as you use it, estimate the distance yourself first- in time you'll be able to call it pretty good.

 

[shooter444]

I could never get comfortable swapping out from scope to range finder and then back to scope, or range finder to scope, or bino's to range finder to scope, when I had an animal in my sights.

So,... many years ago I went with a new generation Redfield 3-9x52mm (by Leupold) with a manual Accu-Ranger Hunter reticle. It's only good out to 600 yards, but, I like to stalk my prey to 150 yds or less. I use its ranging ability more for letting me know when my target is outside of my comfort zone.

Burris came out with a new age computerized range finding, auto ballistic drop, scope, you may want to check out. I didn't study it in depth, but, I was impressed with one of their promo videos.

Desert rat, here is a video with better info, imo.

https://www4.bing.com/videos/search?q=Burris+4-16x50mm+Eliminator+III++range+review+youtube&view=detail&mid=69DDF2F080C958CADF9469DDF2F080C958CADF94&FORM=VIRE

https://www4.bing.com/videos/search?q=Burris+4-16x50mm+Eliminator+III+&view=detail&mid=1EA82F384347E4C014A21EA82F384347E4C014A2&FORM=VIRE

 

[XJThrottle]

I have a Nikon ProStaff 3 that ranges out to 550+ yards.

Good enough for me.

 

[Flash]

I have a Bushnell 1000 yard model that I've had a long, long time. I practice judging distance around the neighborhood using it from time to time and have gotten fairly accurate over the years.

 

[AZ1]

I picked up a Simmons Volt 600 for $45 after rebate. I've only used it for ranging targets. It's easy to use and it's consistent.

 

[Desert Rat]

@shooter444, I saw the scopes with the integrated range finder, a nice concept. I will have to do some research.

@Flash, I have practiced around the neighborhood as well, it works ok on flat terrain, it is when I have a valley in between me and the object that I get messed up!

Thanks for all the input, I have some reading to do!

 

[samnev]

I have a Nikon real tree 1000 yard range finder like a lot

 

[Flash]

@shooter444, I saw the scopes with the integrated range finder, a nice concept. I will have to do some research.

@Flash, I have practiced around the neighborhood as well, it works ok on flat terrain, it is when I have a valley in between me and the object that I get messed up!

Thanks for all the input, I have some reading to do!

Yeah, that creates an optical illusion that tends to make me misjudge the distance as well.

 

[Ballistic Therapy]

Knowing the distance is only a small part of hunting.
Scopes and bullet drop are also an important part of hunting.
Just a few yards discrepancy can be the difference in a kill and a wounded animal running off.

 

[knockonit]

jesus, the poor critters aint got a chance, range finders, scopes that do the deal, game cameras, what the shiat ever happened to hunting, learning the moves of the critters, scouting, finding their lair, putting the sneak on them,

yeah, not hunters anymore, just shooters.

jmo
Rj

 

[redj]

Let me guess.
All a real hunter needs is a sharp stick and a rock.

 

[knockonit]

Let me guess.
All a real hunter needs is a sharp stick and a rock.

lol, of course not, but some skill should be involved,
Rj

 

[redj]

So enlighten us.
What makes a person not a hunter just because he uses a scope and a range finder ?

 

[XJThrottle]

Must only use bow and arrow kemosabe.

Wood recurve bow, rawhide string, willow arrows w/ hawk feather fletching...

 

[knockonit]

So enlighten us.
What makes a person not a hunter just because he uses a scope and a range finder ?

I said nothing about not being a hunter, just asked what happened to hunting without all the bells and whistles, does one really need all these advantages to bag a game animal, does one want to make it so easy that no effort is put forth to finding, tracking, and dropping the animal.

You evidently think i'm of the mind this stuff is silly, i do not, but its an animal with limited ability, and we on the other hand have a great mind, well some of us, lol,

Hunting is a right of passage as far as i'm concerned, jumping out of the truck, running to the spot where the game camera was sending you info, and quickly dropping the animal or attempting to.

and no problem with a long range shot, whats long range for you, 100 yds, 300 yds, if you can't trust your skill on iron sites in under a few hundred yards, hmmm

You probably haven't ever bow hunted, most bow hunters have some amazing skill, not only masking their scent, but their movement and outline, and one usually has to put the sneak on them.

again not saying hunting with a long gun is not hunting, but making an effort to know the distance, know the animals need to survive, and how it will react on your exposure, and being able to perhaps drop one one the run.

it seems to me hunting by some has become rocket science, with the game locator cameras, the range finders, scopes that do all the basic dope for you, for me there is no skill, its just shooting.

call me an asshole, or whatever, doesn't matter, just my opinion, if you gotta have all the science to bag an animal, so be it, just not for me.


and oh yeah, i'm a long range kinda guy, have a range finder, have a scope that wipes my ass, use it to learn how to dope, how to estimate distances, and how my rifle reacts in the wind, in the heat of the day, cold or hot, so its not that i don't know it, and use it, its a training tool, not something i take in the field with me.

again just my opinion, i've bagged animals all over the world, not one with a scope, not one with a range finder, did have a couple trackers in africa, but did carry my own gun, lol. jmo
Rj

 

[shooter444]

jesus, the poor critters aint got a chance, range finders, scopes that do the deal, game cameras, what the shiat ever happened to hunting, learning the moves of the critters, scouting, finding their lair, putting the sneak on them,

yeah, not hunters anymore, just shooters.

jmo
Rj

Agreed, I have wanted to post this same opinion for YEARS!

I guess I am just an old timer, started hunting small game on my own at the age of nine on my aunts Vermont farm. Some of the happiest summers of my life.

In my late teens, I graduated to deer hunting on my own. Which consisted of scouting a MONTH before season opened. Scouting for buck rutting trails down the side of a two mile high northern Maine mountain that dropped into grazing valleys below, frequented by does in season. Sounds simple, but not really. After finding a well traveled rut trail, I would climb a tree and observe what time of the day and what day of the week a buck would use that trail. This took devoting many hours, for many days a week to scouting. Hunting bucks is like hunting rabbits, they have a circular territory they travel, looking for does. Rabbit runs were only a few hundred yards in circumference, in the thickets of Maine I hunted. Where a buck can travel a circular rut trail for many, many miles.

My first buck was taken with a 16 gauge single shot shotgun zeroed at 100 yds. with hand loaded Brenneke rifled slugs. From my observation tree, just at sun rise, I could hear a buck coming down from above, headed for the valley below. He had to cross a historic stage coach road, that ran from Poland Springs Inn in middle Maine to Canada, when stage coaches were the mode of transportation. As with just about every acre of Maine forest, mountains and valleys, stone walls are everywhere. The buck came down and jumped the far stone wall into the old stage coach road, and then, everything went DEAD SILENT. He obviously caught my sent. Waiting, waiting, heart pounding and then I just barely saw him actually crawling up the road, hugging the near to me stone wall. I followed him with the 16 gauge single shot bead sight from my tree perch 60 yards away, until he crawled to what was a window in the stone wall, where a boulder had fallen out. All I saw was brown fur in that window when I let the first slug fly. Put another slug in, waiting, waiting, pounding heart halfway up my throat and then I see his rack start to rise on the other side of the stone wall. Just as I put the sight on his rack, down it would go, behind the stone wall. Waiting, waiting, and then the rack started to rise again, put my sight on where expected to see him and down it dropped again. Waiting, waiting, for what seemed forever, until I decide to come down out of the tree and stalk him up close. Creeping up to the stone wall, I hear him thrashing a bit. Coming up and over the wall, barrel first, I find a 280 pound white tail with a slug through his spine, trying to get up. One more behind his ear, and I was left with the task of gutting and dragging him the two mile down the mountain to my truck. Thankfully all the slick autumn broad leaves on the flat stage coach road made the task a lot easier.

Long hunting story, and I apologize, but being my first and successful deer hunt, resulting from careful scouting, makes this hunt live in my memory as if it was yesterday, rather than decades ago. I feel sorry for hunters who are so far removed from their prey that they don't even get their blood racing before the kill is made.

Scouting, stalking, sitting, these seem to be hunting skills on the decline.

Thanks Knockonit, I have wanted an oportunity to tell that hunting story for a long time.

Again, my apology for a long and boring post.

 

[knockonit]

nice story, and well i guess i did elude it was not hunting, went back and re read my privious post, and well i'll stick with it.

again, i grew up a different way, was taught a different way, and well after i did some time working for the government and spent some time hunting 2 legged animals, it just changed how i looked at hunting period.

to each his own,
Rj

 

[shooter444]

After raising my own beef, pork, chicken and lamb for over three decades, I too look at hunting differently as well. I was NEVER a trophy hunter, if I didn't hunt it, kill it and butcher it myself, I didn't eat it. Now, I just enjoy watching wildlife.

Now, if I don't raise it, I don't eat it.

Hunting man, well, that's a whole different bag.