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G7 BR2 Ballistic Rangefinder Review – Len's First Impressions
My son, Andy, and I returned from Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains yesterday after a wonderful archery hunt (compound bow) for him. Andy took no shots at deer but we did each kill some long range rocks with a 6.5x284 rifle made by my company -- Long Range Rifles, LLC.
On our last day in the Big Horns we set up on a hill at over 8,000 feet with a cross-canyon in front of us. Using the G7 BR2 Ballistic Rangefinder that I purchased recently, I ranged a rock across the canyon. I had previously enabled the built in ballistics software and had inputted the BC and velocity for my load after having validated the rifle's trajectory back home.
There are 5 custom "Profiles" available for inputting the data for various loads. Or you can use its simple "Range Only" setting. You also can set it up with a Profile that outputs the "Shoot To" distance to be used with a custom ballistics turret (Huskemaw or similar) if your scope has one. On this trip I was using a plain vanilla MOA turret on my scope. My Huskemaw Blue Diamond scope's zero had not been changed since I last checked it at 1,000 feet in Wisconsin -- one thousand miles away, including many miles of very bumpy back roads in the mountains.
Upon pressing the G7 BR2 Ballistic Rangefinder's "FIRE" button, it almost instantly told me the range was 993 yards. It said to dial up 20.7 MOA on my Huskemaw Blue Diamond scope and that wind drift would be about 4 MOA per 10 mph if at a full value direction. The wind was in our face at the shooter position but I knew we must also have a cross wind due to the nearly 90 degree angle of the canyon in front of us. So I held 1.0 MOA of right wind.
My first shot at 993 yards impacted 1 inch high and 1 inch right. My second bullet divot touched the first divot. Then I turned over the Long Range Rifles bolt action gun to Andy. He proceeded to nearly touch the 2nd bullet's divot with his own first shot. He then took 2 last shots for a total 5 shot group (by 2 different shooters) measuring 4 inches of vertical and about 7 inches of horizontal.
A pretty good group in the slight wind but the real story here is the fact that the first shot (and the next 4) were all in the kill zone due to the help of the ballistic software built into the G7 BR2 Ballistic Rangefinder. It ranged the nominal distance, calculated the slight downward shooting angle, sampled the air density as evidenced by the barometric "station" pressure and spit out the corrected MOA.
This G7 BR2 Ballistic Rangefinder is a long range hunter's dream come true. I have waited over 2 years for Aaron Davidson to bring it to market. It ranges out past 2,000 yards easily in bright sun. And it outputs a nearly instant ballistic solution. Its size is slightly larger than my Swarovski and I prefer this meatier feel. After a couple days of using the menu I feel that it is quite intuitive to use its various features.
Its beam divergence size is larger than some. But I have easily ranged just the butt end of a 400 pound heifer back home at 900 yards. I have not yet compared its ability to accurately range deer or antelope standing in sage brush – a tough job for any unit. I have seen some disappointment verbalized by some who have read of its beam divergence size. But I had an extensive discussion a while ago with Aaron about this and based on what he said I am optimistic in this regard.
At some point I'm sure he'll make a comment on why this beam size will function quite competitively in the sage brush conditions mentioned above and that the rangefinder's superior ranging algorithms are more important than beam size anyway.
In any case I am thrilled to be taking my G7 BR2 Ballistic Rangefinder back out to WY next week on a rifle mule deer hunt in another part of the state.
More to follow after my trip!
My son, Andy, and I returned from Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains yesterday after a wonderful archery hunt (compound bow) for him. Andy took no shots at deer but we did each kill some long range rocks with a 6.5x284 rifle made by my company -- Long Range Rifles, LLC.
On our last day in the Big Horns we set up on a hill at over 8,000 feet with a cross-canyon in front of us. Using the G7 BR2 Ballistic Rangefinder that I purchased recently, I ranged a rock across the canyon. I had previously enabled the built in ballistics software and had inputted the BC and velocity for my load after having validated the rifle's trajectory back home.
There are 5 custom "Profiles" available for inputting the data for various loads. Or you can use its simple "Range Only" setting. You also can set it up with a Profile that outputs the "Shoot To" distance to be used with a custom ballistics turret (Huskemaw or similar) if your scope has one. On this trip I was using a plain vanilla MOA turret on my scope. My Huskemaw Blue Diamond scope's zero had not been changed since I last checked it at 1,000 feet in Wisconsin -- one thousand miles away, including many miles of very bumpy back roads in the mountains.
Upon pressing the G7 BR2 Ballistic Rangefinder's "FIRE" button, it almost instantly told me the range was 993 yards. It said to dial up 20.7 MOA on my Huskemaw Blue Diamond scope and that wind drift would be about 4 MOA per 10 mph if at a full value direction. The wind was in our face at the shooter position but I knew we must also have a cross wind due to the nearly 90 degree angle of the canyon in front of us. So I held 1.0 MOA of right wind.
My first shot at 993 yards impacted 1 inch high and 1 inch right. My second bullet divot touched the first divot. Then I turned over the Long Range Rifles bolt action gun to Andy. He proceeded to nearly touch the 2nd bullet's divot with his own first shot. He then took 2 last shots for a total 5 shot group (by 2 different shooters) measuring 4 inches of vertical and about 7 inches of horizontal.
A pretty good group in the slight wind but the real story here is the fact that the first shot (and the next 4) were all in the kill zone due to the help of the ballistic software built into the G7 BR2 Ballistic Rangefinder. It ranged the nominal distance, calculated the slight downward shooting angle, sampled the air density as evidenced by the barometric "station" pressure and spit out the corrected MOA.
This G7 BR2 Ballistic Rangefinder is a long range hunter's dream come true. I have waited over 2 years for Aaron Davidson to bring it to market. It ranges out past 2,000 yards easily in bright sun. And it outputs a nearly instant ballistic solution. Its size is slightly larger than my Swarovski and I prefer this meatier feel. After a couple days of using the menu I feel that it is quite intuitive to use its various features.
Its beam divergence size is larger than some. But I have easily ranged just the butt end of a 400 pound heifer back home at 900 yards. I have not yet compared its ability to accurately range deer or antelope standing in sage brush – a tough job for any unit. I have seen some disappointment verbalized by some who have read of its beam divergence size. But I had an extensive discussion a while ago with Aaron about this and based on what he said I am optimistic in this regard.
At some point I'm sure he'll make a comment on why this beam size will function quite competitively in the sage brush conditions mentioned above and that the rangefinder's superior ranging algorithms are more important than beam size anyway.
In any case I am thrilled to be taking my G7 BR2 Ballistic Rangefinder back out to WY next week on a rifle mule deer hunt in another part of the state.
More to follow after my trip!
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