Bushnell G-Force 1300 ARC rangefinder

[Bigeclipse]

Anyone use this yet? I think I saw a thread about it somewhere but cant find it. I was hoping to hear some feedback as im looking to buy this or the leupold rx1000 tbr. Do not have enough money for leica.

 

[Mike027]

I just bought one and have been testing it out the last few days. Today I will see how far I can get it to range. I will submit some review comments tomorrow. So far I like it. The farthest deer I have been able to find I ranged at 489. Mike

 

[Bigeclipse]

I just bought one and have been testing it out the last few days. Today I will see how far I can get it to range. I will submit some review comments tomorrow. So far I like it. The farthest deer I have been able to find I ranged at 489. Mike

Mike,
Any news on the rangefinder? Im definitely looking to buy it soon!

 

[BenY 2013]

I would also be very interested in the review on this item thanks.

 

[Mike027]

Sorry I took so long to get back to you guys on this. I have had a chance to try it out over the last few days.

First off I ordered it from Optics Planet and it arrived very fast. I had never ordered from them before so Im pretty happy with their service. The price was right too.

The rangefinder is nice and compact and appears to be solidly built. It comes with a battery and a decent canvas case that uses magnets instead of snaps for keeping the flap closed.

The glass is very nice and clear. The only issue I have with the glass is that when I adjust the focus on the diopter the red display may not be as focused as the background view (what Im looking at). However I wear progressive bifocals and that could be part of the problem. All in all it is certainly not a deal breaker for me.

The display brightness adjusts to 4 different brightness levels. Brightness level #1 (the lowest setting ) is required during dawn and dusk, Anything higher and it fills the viewfinder with a lot of red oversplash (for lack of a better term). During the day I found it best to simply leave it at #4. In fact I wish the display could could even brighter because against a lighter colored background it does not stand out as well. You might also find that you have to move the viewfinder around just ever so slightly for you to see all of the numbers in the display if you wear glasses like I do. But again this is just a minor convenience for me. Without glasses you get the nice full field view.

The set up is pretty easy. The manual walks you through the steps to set it up for rifle or bow, unit of measure, display brightness, etc. The manual doesnt explain it very well but the mode button is the Bushnell emblem located on the side of the rangefinder.

One of the big marketing features on this is the angle range compensation. It seems to work just fine. I wish I had a way to validate the readings. You can also set it up to use line of sight distance only. You set up the ARC rifle mode using one of several different ballistic group settings. There is over 2,000 different caliber and load combinations that fall into the different groups. However since I reload I had to just select a ballistic group based on estimated bullet drop at 300 yards with a 100 yard zero. I then ran my particular load through a ballistics program to compare to the readings I was getting on the range finder. They are within an inch at 500 yrds. I still need to check it at the range of course to validate it further.

I have not been able to test it out on deer except for one day. I ranged a deer at almost 500 yards before it went out of site. On trees, building, etc, I am ranging to 900 + yards without much trouble. I have ranged a couple of buildings out over 1200 yards but I have not yet hit the magic 1300 mark.

Today I compared the accuracy to a friends older Leica Rangemaster 1200 LRF. The farthest I tested was a large bulletin board at a public park. The Leica measured it at 478 yards while the Bushnell read 479. Im pretty satisfied with that.

From the short time I have had it I would say that this is a great model for people looking for an all purpose rangefinder for bow and rifle hunting as long as you dont ask it to do more that it is capable of. I will be taking it to Idaho in October for deer/elk. I will will be shooting a 30-06 and will look at limiting myself to under 425 yards and would much prefer to keep it under 350.

Im going out in the morning to test it on deer again. I will post more results tomorrow.

Please let me know if anyone has any questions and I will try to answer them. Mike

 

[Bigeclipse]

Mike thanks for the review! Definitely makes me feel more confident in buying it now.

 

[Mike027]

I went out with the Bushnell again this morning. All the deer I had seen were under 300 yards so it was not a good test. The deer were in a field as I looked to the east so the sun was just coming up. Even with the bright sunlight it was ranging them ok. Also like I said previously in the bright sun the red display is dimmer than I would like but I could see the numbers ok looking towards the sun.

Along the Saginaw River I was able to range a navigational buoy at 1,353 yards. I was surprised that it would pick up them up at such a distance. No problems on several over a thousand yards away. The bouys are big but not that big. Maybe because they are lone objects with no clutter around them it was easier to range. ?? The buoys are painted light green and that could have something to do with it too.

Trees at 900+ yards would take from 2 to 4 seconds to get the distance reading. Trees at 700 yards or less are ranged quickly and consistently.

It seems to work as advertised. I hope this helps. Mike

 

[dragman]

Just picked mine up and have been playing with it for the last hour and I have to agree with Mike I haven't had that much time with it but so far very satisfied and for the price you aren't gonna beat them.
Blake

 

[Bigeclipse]

I went out with the Bushnell again this morning. All the deer I had seen were under 300 yards so it was not a good test. The deer were in a field as I looked to the east so the sun was just coming up. Even with the bright sunlight it was ranging them ok. Also like I said previously in the bright sun the red display is dimmer than I would like but I could see the numbers ok looking towards the sun.

Along the Saginaw River I was able to range a navigational buoy at 1,353 yards. I was surprised that it would pick up them up at such a distance. No problems on several over a thousand yards away. The bouys are big but not that big. Maybe because they are lone objects with no clutter around them it was easier to range. ?? The buoys are painted light green and that could have something to do with it too.

Trees at 900+ yards would take from 2 to 4 seconds to get the distance reading. Trees at 700 yards or less are ranged quickly and consistently.

It seems to work as advertised. I hope this helps. Mike

Mike,

Mike when you say the brightest setting is hard to read during bright days...are you talking bright sunny day no cloud cover or just really any day with sun? Not sure if that makes sense haha. Is it nearly impossible to read or can you still see it but its just not bright? If it is that bad....would it make sense to range something and then tilt the rangefinder towards the ground or something dark to see what it says?
Just trying to determine if you would rather have the red display in the G-force or if it is a deal breaker and you would rather have gone with a higher end Nikon rangefinder with black display?

 

[Mike027]

I notice it more on really sunny days but looking at a lighter color background. The display is readable but you just have to look for it a bit more. If the background is darker the display shows up great. I can also tilt the rangefinder down as you suggest and the display is very readable. Not a deal breaker for sure. Im pretty happy with it overall. A hunting partner up north has a Redfield Rangefinder with a black display. He now wishes he had red. If you can test them in real hunting situations that is best it seems. Mike

 

[Bigeclipse]

I notice it more on really sunny days but looking at a lighter color background. The display is readable but you just have to look for it a bit more. If the background is darker the display shows up great. I can also tilt the rangefinder down as you suggest and the display is very readable. Not a deal breaker for sure. Im pretty happy with it overall. A hunting partner up north has a Redfield Rangefinder with a black display. He now wishes he had red. If you can test them in real hunting situations that is best it seems. Mike

Mike sorry to bother you again. One more question. I read somewhere that the Gforce will only give you holdover readings for angle compensation and not yardage. Is this true? What I mean is, if im in a stand 40 feet up and use the range finder at a downward angle....will the rangefinder give me the true horizontal yardage (angle compensated yardage) and line of sight yardage or will it just give me some hold over reading based on what rifle/bow im using?

 

[Mike027]

Im happy to answer any questions that I can.

It gives the lines of sight yardage and adjusted yardage for the angle. It will give you the angle in percentage. It can also be set for line of site distance only if you choose to do so.

I have it set for ballistic group letter "F". According to the manual that is the group to use if you have a 10-12"drop at 300 yards and/or 47 - 54" drop at 500 yard with a 100 yard zero.

Im shooting a Weatherby Accumark 30-06 with handloads. My load is a 180 grain Speer Deep Curl with a .483 BC at 2805 fps (57 grains H4350). My sight height is 1.75". A free ballistic calculator on the internet gives me a drop of -12.72" at 300 yds and -53.23 at 500 yds. This is with a 100 yd zero at 600 ft altitude with an air temperature of 45 degrees. I did this to verify the proper ballistic group to use (F).

Now you can also set the rangefinder for a sight-in range of 4 different ranges I set it for a 200 yd zero.

Earlier this week I ranged a building at 525 yds and the Gforce gave a drop of -51" (at 0% muzzle elevation). This matches up closely with the -51.82" drop shown on the ballistic calculator for the same yardage (set for a 200 yd zero). So on paper it looks good but it needs to be validated in the field.

The one problem of course is that the rangefinder does not take into consideration the altitude. Even at the modest range of 525 yds, high mountain altitudes may change that drop by 4 or 5 inches.

With the no questions asked warranty for a full year it will give me a good opportunity to really test it out.

Im glad fall is almost here. : ) Mike

 

[JackinSD]

Just ordered mine. Thanks for the review Mike.

 

[Bigeclipse]

Mike,

I ended up buying this rangefinder and so far it seems great. I have only used it one day though. Farthest I have ranged something, which was a smaller sign, maybe 3 foot square... was 605 yards. Havent been able to find anything farther with a direct line of sight. The brightness of the reticle is exactly what you said, actually a little better than what I expected. On the brightest setting, today, in really bright sunny weather...it was a little hard to see but definitely not bad and not a deal breaker. The only issue I am having is it gives the true horizontal distance in bow mode, up to 100 yards but not in rifle mode. In rifle mode it only displays the angle you are aiming at, then makes a correction for either hold over in inches or mil. Am I missing something? Is there a way to get it to show the true horizontal distance in rifle mode? It does seem to display the correct hold over value for my caliber gun at the appropriate distances but I have not tried it in the field. On paper it looks to be very close with ballistics programs.