Leica 1600 v. Swaro side my side

[eddybo]

I took a few minutes to acquaint myself with my new leica 1600 today. My first impression was that it was a piece of junk. I could not even get a reading on my 800 yard 4x4' target. So I got to wondering was it me or the range finder. To determine what the problem was I went and got my Swaro and also my wife's Swaro rangefinders to compare.

The conditions were pretty overcast but not too bad. To start I tried all three range finders while sitting in a chair on my back porch. I was able to get readings at 600, 715, and 774 yards with both Swaro range finders. Nothing with the Leica.

At this point I still had not gotten a readiing further than 455 yards out of the leica and was having doubts about the unit. So I advanced the test a little. I moved the party over to my reloading/shooting room and took a seat at my cement shooting bench. I then started re-ranging items of know distance on my range using my rifle rest as a prop. All range finders were held as dead still as possible. that is where the Leica started to shine. It seemed more consistand and quicker than the swaros out to 800 yards.

I then abandoned the rifle rest and tried using just my elbows resting on the table. The Leicas worked pretty well out to 600 but I never got a range on my 800 yard target this way. No problems with the Swaros.

Then I tested the other features against the swaro.......wait a minute the swaro has no other features. Leica wins that hands down. The real test will start tomorrow morning. I entered the closest matching ballitics table to my wife's new rifle. tomorrow I am going to take my shooting matt and do some testing from a prone position and even do a little shooting to test the ballistic abilities of the Leica.

Does anyone know if this thing will even give data beyond 300? So far I am not all that impressed with the Leica and am regretting that one of the swaro units I was using today are actually sold pending funds to a local buddy. I have range past a mile using the Swaros using a knee to rest LRF. I do not see me ever getting a reading past 1K with the leicas. We will see tomorrow since I am probably going to ride over where we shoot longer ranges for some of my testing.

Right now it looks like the wife has a new range finder and I am sticking with my Swaros.

 

[bigngreen]

I kinda wondering about both units, I was using a co workers Leica 1600 the other day and was of hand hitting 1995yrd and it did it consistently with very few misses 1600-1800yrds on small elk size trees were easy and off hand with a little elbow bracing, out to 1200yrds it never missed. I have yet to get a Swaro that far or even near it with any accuracy at all. Looking forward to further testing!!

 

[eddybo]

I kinda wondering about both units, I was using a co workers Leica 1600 the other day and was of hand hitting 1995yrd and it did it consistently with very few misses 1600-1800yrds on small elk size trees were easy and off hand with a little elbow bracing, out to 1200yrds it never missed. I have yet to get a Swaro that far or even near it with any accuracy at all. Looking forward to further testing!!

If that is the case, I must have a bad one......this thing is way too picky. I could bracket my 600 yard 16 inch steel and could never get a reading. I might need to take mine back for customer service.

 

[mike33]

had both of them and sold the swaro. i have had some trying moments with the leica but over all i feel it is the best. just got back from co. last week and had a hunting buddy that is still waiting for his. i told him that one hill side was 1910 yards, he was amazed.
mike

 

[MSLRHunter]

I have the new leica and it will range out to 1100 yards offhand with no real support. If supported on a rest it will do over 1500

 

[eddybo]

That does it this thing must be bad and is going back.

 

[Merlin]

I would think it may need looked at too. On Friday morning l took both my Swaro and new Leica out to do some testing. Conditions were bright sun from my 2 o'clock and not too high in the sky yet. (It was around 9:00 am).

The test "subjects" were black and brown cows, pine trees, a hay field, and a goldenrod field.

On the black cows, it seemed very dependent with both units on the angle they were standing. If perpendicular, it was no problem to get readings out to 1150 yds. (that was the farthest the were away). When they quartered it cut that down to right around a 1000 yds give or take a few. The Swaro gave these readings also, BUT it was much harder to range the cow and not the ground beside or in front of them. Advantage Leica.

Now for the brown cattle. 1365 was the best it would do. But once again cows are not that cooperative! Didn't seem to matter as much, what angle they were standing at. Swaro would not reach this far. Still got readings at 1226, and 1250. Once again was easier to range the actual cow.

On to the pine tree. Got consistent readings off 1652, 1652, 1653, 1652, and 1651 with the Leica. Swaro would not range it at all. Pine tree was a little bit bigger than the cows.

The hay and goldenrod fields came out about even, with maybe a slight advantage going to the Swaro. Was getting readings of 50-100 yrds more with it.
Leica got me to 1300 (average), and Swaro out to about 1375.

I know these aren't real scientific tests but is what l could do with what l had available. Ranging to 1000 was done off hand, then confirmed with resting units on 2 sandbags on hood off truck. Anything past 1000 was done off the bags.

l still need to do some more testing to see which l like better. This will be a tough decision!

 

[eddybo]

Sitting in the docs office, but just had to make this admission. I am an idiot. But maybe my stupiditywill help someone else. I picked up the leica just on the off chance that my doc cancelled or I got out early. On my way I pass by a piece of property I own. I stopped to make sure everything was okay there. I grabbed the led just to play around a second. After a couple minutes of very poor results it hit me. Maybe there is a sticker over the little eye on the led. I turned the led around to check and immediately saw a big problem. The heel of my palm was cupping the sensor pretty much blocking it. Gave myself a head slap and repositioned my hand and gave it a try. Everything was much better. I am thinking that what I thought was a stability issue cured by resting the lrf on my rifle rest was actually just because I was no longer blocking the sensor.

 

[eddybo]

I can't edit my post on my phone but where "led" appears above it should read "lrf" darn auto complete

 

[bigngreen]

That might be a solution for a couple others out there!!!

 

[helidriver72]

I'd say 80% of the people that use my Leica for the first time do that exact same thing. I wonder how many times the Leica customer service people have said "Make sure your finger is not in front of the lens!"

 

[Broz]

I'd say 80% of the people that use my Leica for the first time do that exact same thing. I wonder how many times the Leica customer service people have said "Make sure your finger is not in front of the lens!"

I have done it and seen others do it too. This is the disadvantage to the very small pocket size. I have joked that they need a longer barrel on the laser.

Jeff