Range finder with BDC

[Woodman]

What are your favorite range finders and do the ARC and bullet drop compensator features work well. Thanks, George ???

 

[bozo699]

I don't have the bullet compensator one's I have a 1200 Lica and a swarovski and like both very much the swarovski is slower in reading but will read much further and the glass is the best I have looked through I have a friend with the leupold compensator ( He hates it)
Wayne.

 

[6BRinNZ]

hey Woodman,

I have the Leupold RXIII and I now have the Leica 10x42 Geovid. I am actually quite happy with the RXIII. I use it for ranging on varmints out to 600 + yrds. I bought the RXIII for the BDC but since using it I have found the angles I am shooting at typically aren't steep enough to worry about. The bag for the RXIII is quite handy as it clips onto my belt nicely and has another clip I use to hang my earmuffs off, it also has a useful little pouch for an extra battery. Optically the RXIII is pretty average.

I bought the Leicas simply to save time as by the time I use my binos to find a target, then find it and range it, then dial up the drop on my scope and find it in my scope, it has often disappeared (boredom probably ;-) ). I am hoping the extra clarity of the Leica will help me determine if I have a legit target (rabbit) or just a piece of wood at the longer distances (400+ yrds) as well.

 

[clannagael]

I have the Bushnell Scout Arc 1000. At that price point, I don't think you can beat it. I got it at Cabela's from the bargain cave for $259 with the bino's and knife. The knife makes a great finger nail cleaner-outer but the H2O 10x42 binoculars are actually quite nice.

Now, as far as 1000 yards? At a barn or something totally unobstructed like a backstop at a rifle range. Forget ranging anything animal size over 600 yards or so. As with any range finder, throw in trees and brush and the accuracy drops. The Bushnell has a brush mode that seems to work pretty well, but it's no panacea.

The one negative about it, in my opinion, is the reticule is quite large, so the further away the target, the less steady I'm able to hold and the less accurate it is. It's not a huge issue since when bow hunting the ranges are 40 yards or less. Otherwise when I'm deer hunting my max effective range where I usually hunt (either old strip mines or Wayne national forest) is almost always under 150 yards, and in that case it works quite well.

The ARC feature works great when bow hunting or shooting up/down hill as I do in Ohio. My method is to enter the woods, then when it gets daylight I pick out some landmarks and make a simple range card. So basically I range out a bunch of identifiable things such as trees, rocks, creeks, whatever, all the way around me at varying distances because a lot of times, despite being polite, the deer just refuse to pose while I range them. All I have to do then is remember or glance at my range card and I know within a couple of yards how to shoot.

I also use it at the range when setting up targets at unmarked distances - 250, 350, etc. I've checked my range finder against the marked ranges at our club and (assuming the marked ranges are accurate) so far it's exact across the flat open range.

My $.02 USD