Best budget rangefinder

[12ptdroptine]

Looking at the post and thinking it over.. I come up to this conclusion... A rangefinder needs to be very accurate.... in telling distance. It also has to have adequate optics out to the yardage you are going to use it. Therefore Budget and rangefinder just dont seem to fit well together. I have a 8 year lod Leica 7 power rf 900.... not exactly budget..but not 24000 dollare either
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[rossman40]

Mechanically, even shooting the laser in a vacum you will have divergence, the spot getting larger, just the mechanics. The emitter diodes are graded just like lenses and diamonds. Lesser quality with large amount of divergence and frequency shift, then you couple that to cheap electronics and then cheap optics, you have a cheap rangefinder. Then you add less then perfect atmospheric conditions and you end up cussing and ready to throw it. Personally I would avoid the less the $100 model unless you were just using it for bowhunting. A newer Bushnell Elite 1500 or 1600 is perhaps just slightly optically less then a Leica but hardware wise pretty close to equal. Same way with the new Fusion line.

I used probly a 15 year old Nikon 450 over the holiday weekend and thought it was a crude POS, but it was top of the Nikon line 15yrs ago.

Just a side note while you have to deal with divergence in some laser applications. In medical and industrial applications they use convergence or focused lasers. You can cut steel with a laser at a certain distance but still be able to stick your hand between the emitter and the steel and block the beam without harm. That is why a surgical laser doesn't burn straight thru you like Obi-wans light saber.

[rangeball]

Thanks.

And I can't wait until we can hunt deer with light sabers

[esshup]

rossman40, I have a Swarovski 1500 that I bought new in 2008. It seems to have a larger aiming point, and larger beam than the Leica, but it seems to range further too. I've noticed that it ranges better in low light than in bright sunlight. In Wyoming, 2 days in a row, sitting on the same rock I ranged the same pine tree, and the reading came back identical 1902 yds. But, I've found in bright sunlight at times it won't range anything over 1,300 yds.

The Leica seemed to have a smaller, more precise cone, but it wouldn't range much past 1,100 yds, when my Swaro would. The same guy that had the Leica also had a Swaro 1500 that wouldn't range as far as mine. Maybe I got one that was made in the middle of the week. It will range down to 16 yds too.

Tar, even with a rangefinding scope, I rely on the laser rangefinder.

rossman, can you elaborate a bit on beam divergence and how it makes or breaks using one at a longer distance?

I've found that when using them at longer distances, putting them on a tripod increases their accuracy (or at least they will give me more consistent readings).

[rossman40]

What gets you out in the field with a Laser RangeFinder (LRF) is atmospheric conditions. Besides junk in the air like dust and pollen that absorb or reflect, you also have pockets/bubbles of air that are different density which acts as a lens to cause divergence. Mirage is an example that we can see easily, you can have the sun heating a pile of rocks so the air is hotter above them. You could even have the wind blowing air up the valley off a lake, stream or even a damp field that has a different humidity therefore a different density. A Air Force guy told me it was easier to shoot a laser from 30,000ft down to the ground then to shoot one across 10,000ft of ground.

Sunlight gives you a problem of heating up the pockets of air but it also provides a big wideband InfraRed (IR) source that can confuse the LRF. One of the things that allowed more power to the “eye safe” lasers is they shifted the operating range now even higher into the IR range. Most operate now in the 1550nm range (light visible to the human eye is like from 400 to 700nm) and to comply more they use a shorter pulse. So once you “fire” the LRF the receiving side starts looking for the return pulse and it has to come back stronger then the background IR.

It is still a matter of energy. The more energy you can put on target the more is reflected back. The less divergence to spread the beam the better. From the LRF to the target, then reflect off the target back to the LRF. It seems darker colors reflect IR better. Green plants seem to reflect IR pretty good. I have had the opportunity to play with the high tech survey “stations” and while the LRF in those by itself would not range much over 200yds, when used with a 3” prism to reflect the laser back it was good for 2 miles (of course the accuracy of those systems are down to 10mm). The thing is to be prepared to range things close to the target that may reflect better then the intended target if due to conditions you can’t get a range.

Using a tripod to steady yourself and the LRF is a good trick, even more so at the real long ranges

The LRF makers are quick to say what their stuff can do but they will not be there to tell you what the LRF will do in the conditions your using it in at the time. So you have to know the limitations/weakness of the machine and as always have a back-up. One of the things I use from my military days is a terrain sketch when shooting from a stand where I have a large area. I then have reference points that I already have ranged. I have found once I draw them I have them pretty much memorized. Then of course being able to use your reticle to range with always comes in handy.

[esshup]

rossman, thanks. That clarifies some things that I didn't know.

[500cadillac]

I bought a Zeiss rangefinder from Cameraland. Made in Japan

The Glass is way brighter than buddies Bushnell 1500. The Bushnell struggles to range a hill at 600 yards, the zeiss easily ranges tree-lines at 1000+ yards. I like it.

[timinator]

I'd suggest a used Leica LRF1200 on eBay or similar. Excellent optics and it will range prairie dogs out past 600 yards! Always works and always give's you a reading. It's not a good "one hand" ranger for bowhunting though. Unless you have very large hands it's tough to look through the ranger and operate the ranging button with just one hand.