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Range Finders

ironwood

ironwood

Active Member
I am in the market to upgrade or buy my wife a new range finder. With all of the changes over the last couple of years I was hoping to get some input from you whitetailers. I thought a finder with the angle compensation or true shooting distance might be a great upgrade. Tell me what you are seeing out there.
 
I have a Nikon Prostaff and it works good for varmit hunting up to 500 yards. This will be my first year using it bow hunting. I was looking at the new Leupold RX-II and it has the true ballistic range to calculate the range more accurate when shooting up or down angles. They are around $300 or so. I have heard the Leica range finders work well too.
 
I had a pair of leupold 10x42 windriver cascades as well as a bushnell scout rangefinder.I have since sold both and now use the leupold 8x32 windriver rangefinding binoculars on a bino system strap which truly keeps them away from my bowstring when bending at the waist.For me these are the best of both worlds,especially the bright red led readout.I paid $800.00 for mine yet see that cabelas now sells them for $500.00- go figure.I have no regrets since switching and it combines both into one easy to use unit.Give em a try.
 
Unless I really was sleeping during high school geometry class, I don't see the need for an angle compensation rangefinder with bowhunting. I will try to explain....

The concept is based on a right triangle... the tree trunk forms the right angle with the ground and the distance from the shooter to the target on the ground is the long side of the triangle (denoted as side C)... so according to geometry...

Side A x Side A + Side B x Side B = Side C x Side C

So if you are hunting 20ft off the ground and shooting 40 yards the compensated range would go like this...

120ft x 120ft + 20ft x 20ft = Side C x Side C (or the dist. in ft to your target predicted by the rangefinder)... so in this case the answer would be 121.65 feet....

So in other words.... the rangefinder would over estimate the range by 1.65 ft!!! ..... not too significant. The only way I see it becoming significant is if you are hunting at nosebleed heights which most bowhunters do not....

Am I missing something here ?
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I was asleep during geometry class but I still tend to agree with Cornfed. I dont think the angle is a huge factor unless you are really high and the target is very close, in which case you dont need a range finder anyway. If hunting with a rifle in mountainous terrain I can see where it might be valuable on long shots, but in the timber I dont think its a big deal.
I typically range a few trees as yardage markers before the hunt. An easy way to cheat is to simply range that tree at the same hieght you are at rather than at the base, thus eliminating the angle. The distance is usually about a yard difference.
My trusty Bushnell compact 600 finally died after about 7 seasons. I was tempted to get a Leupold with the fancy TBR gizmo but opted for the Bushnell Scout for $100 less. Should arrive from Cabelas before the end of the week.
 
Have the Leica 1200 and love it. Accurate and easy to read. With great optics.

I agree with others that the angle isn't a factor in bowhunting.
 
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