I ordered my Elite 1500 from The Optic Zone for $329US and although they were out of stock at the time i ordered, I received it in Australia in less than two weeks and any questions i had were promptly answered by Jon by e-mail. I have no problem fully recommending them.
The elite come boxed with a semi-hard, zip up carry case that can be hung from the strap provided, like a handbag, or it can be put on a belt with the two loops on its back, There is also a divider inside the case where you could put a couple of spare batteries or a notebook, although batteries are a tight fit and put pressure on the lens end when you zip it up. Once i checked out the accessories i slipped a 9volt battery in and sat out on my deck to range everything in sight. I could consistently get reading off a telephone pole at 563y, a 4ft high, 2ft wide stump at 850y and a group of young gum trees out to 1197y when the sun was behind the clouds although in the midday sun i couldn't read much over 1050y. The furthest reading i could get was 1362y on a group of 2 or 3 large blackwood trees although 2 out of 5 trys wouldn't register. The three that did, showed 1352y, 1361y, 1362y. Battery life seems to be pretty good, I ranged probably 300 'targets' mainly in 'scan' mode before the first 9volt gave a 'Low Batt' reading, However when i put the same battery back in a couple of hours later I was able to range another 10-15 targets between 400y and 850y before i got another "low batt" reading. I also tryed it while it was pouring with rain (Visability was around 1200m) and the furthest i could get a reading from a tree was 700y.
The optics are good of a day but it gets harder to see in the last half hour or so of light, But given that the objective is only 26mm it has to be expected. The only fault I can see with the bushnell 1500 is the LED made for low/no light usage....It just doesn't work! you can see a green glow at the bottom of the FOV but it does absolutely nothing to illuminate the range reading or cross-hair. The good news is that it doesn't really matter because you can see the bold black read out fine at dawn and dusk and Night use isn't really an issue because you can't see more than ~100m of a night without a light and it you have a light on the target the reticule/read-out would be clearly visible. The body of the bushnell is plastic with rubber panels and is stated as being 100% water proof although I'm not dropping it in a bucket of water to see if it's true!
Although I've never been a bushnell fan in the past, I would recommend the Elite 1500 for anyone who wants an relatively inexpensive range finder for LR hunting. At the time of writing this is the cheapest 1000y+ range finder i could find anywhere and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and the fact i could range trees out to 1350y which is 350y past the stated max!!!
I wish now I had paid the extra $40-$50 and got the new model that reads the slope as well. But this should cover my needs for a while.
Hope this helps some of you guys looking for a LRF /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif .
BTW if you live in Australia, ORDER OVERSEAS the cheapest price i could find in Australia was $750!!!
The elite come boxed with a semi-hard, zip up carry case that can be hung from the strap provided, like a handbag, or it can be put on a belt with the two loops on its back, There is also a divider inside the case where you could put a couple of spare batteries or a notebook, although batteries are a tight fit and put pressure on the lens end when you zip it up. Once i checked out the accessories i slipped a 9volt battery in and sat out on my deck to range everything in sight. I could consistently get reading off a telephone pole at 563y, a 4ft high, 2ft wide stump at 850y and a group of young gum trees out to 1197y when the sun was behind the clouds although in the midday sun i couldn't read much over 1050y. The furthest reading i could get was 1362y on a group of 2 or 3 large blackwood trees although 2 out of 5 trys wouldn't register. The three that did, showed 1352y, 1361y, 1362y. Battery life seems to be pretty good, I ranged probably 300 'targets' mainly in 'scan' mode before the first 9volt gave a 'Low Batt' reading, However when i put the same battery back in a couple of hours later I was able to range another 10-15 targets between 400y and 850y before i got another "low batt" reading. I also tryed it while it was pouring with rain (Visability was around 1200m) and the furthest i could get a reading from a tree was 700y.
The optics are good of a day but it gets harder to see in the last half hour or so of light, But given that the objective is only 26mm it has to be expected. The only fault I can see with the bushnell 1500 is the LED made for low/no light usage....It just doesn't work! you can see a green glow at the bottom of the FOV but it does absolutely nothing to illuminate the range reading or cross-hair. The good news is that it doesn't really matter because you can see the bold black read out fine at dawn and dusk and Night use isn't really an issue because you can't see more than ~100m of a night without a light and it you have a light on the target the reticule/read-out would be clearly visible. The body of the bushnell is plastic with rubber panels and is stated as being 100% water proof although I'm not dropping it in a bucket of water to see if it's true!
Although I've never been a bushnell fan in the past, I would recommend the Elite 1500 for anyone who wants an relatively inexpensive range finder for LR hunting. At the time of writing this is the cheapest 1000y+ range finder i could find anywhere and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and the fact i could range trees out to 1350y which is 350y past the stated max!!!
I wish now I had paid the extra $40-$50 and got the new model that reads the slope as well. But this should cover my needs for a while.
Hope this helps some of you guys looking for a LRF /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif .
BTW if you live in Australia, ORDER OVERSEAS the cheapest price i could find in Australia was $750!!!
