1500 yrd range finders

I have done a hell of a lot of testing of all currently available eyesafe laser range finders in a wide range of conditions. I had the advantage of having all these units at the same time, so was able to do real comparisons. The best 1500 yard eyesafe rangefinder on the market is without doubt the Zeiss RF binos. They eat all the others in a wide variety of conditions especially in bright daylight on non reflective targets, the sort we encounter often out hunting.
Second best was the Zeiss PRF monocular, continually besting the Swaro LG and Leica's CRF's and Geovids by 100 yards or so in bright daylight. Next came the Leica's and the Swaro. In really bad conditions, the Leica was better, they were capable of about the same in average conditions, but then in low light the Swaro performs better.
I sent my Swaro back to the factory to be checked out as some seemed to be getting better performance out of theirs, and they sent me another unit - no diiference. Awesome optics, but nowhere near as easy to use as the others. Often takes far longer to get the reading and throws up more erroneous readings. Right on dark, it would give you readings out to 1999 yards, but not with enough light left to be of any use. I have tried 3 Swaro's and they have all been the same. Did I get all duds? I find that hard to believe?
The Zeiss RF bino's will only give you readings out to 1700 yards, but they'll do it in almost any conditions to even poorly reflective targets. The only true 2000 yard plus bright light conditions laser is the likes of my Russion Naval unit, not eyesafe but gives you 35,000 meters in any conditions, to any target, instantly!
I have a full set of results of all my testing, and the idiosyncrasies of the different models, and I'm going to put this all in an article for Len when I get a minute...
Greg
 
I have done a hell of a lot of testing of all currently available eyesafe laser range finders in a wide range of conditions. I had the advantage of having all these units at the same time, so was able to do real comparisons.
I have a full set of results of all my testing, and the idiosyncrasies of the different models, and I'm going to put this all in an article for Len when I get a minute...
Greg

Cool! Looking forward to reading your article.
 
I have done a hell of a lot of testing of all currently available eyesafe laser range finders in a wide range of conditions. I had the advantage of having all these units at the same time, so was able to do real comparisons. The best 1500 yard eyesafe rangefinder on the market is without doubt the Zeiss RF binos. They eat all the others in a wide variety of conditions especially in bright daylight on non reflective targets, the sort we encounter often out hunting.
Second best was the Zeiss PRF monocular, continually besting the Swaro LG and Leica's CRF's and Geovids by 100 yards or so in bright daylight. Next came the Leica's and the Swaro. In really bad conditions, the Leica was better, they were capable of about the same in average conditions, but then in low light the Swaro performs better.
I sent my Swaro back to the factory to be checked out as some seemed to be getting better performance out of theirs, and they sent me another unit - no diiference. Awesome optics, but nowhere near as easy to use as the others. Often takes far longer to get the reading and throws up more erroneous readings. Right on dark, it would give you readings out to 1999 yards, but not with enough light left to be of any use. I have tried 3 Swaro's and they have all been the same. Did I get all duds? I find that hard to believe?
The Zeiss RF bino's will only give you readings out to 1700 yards, but they'll do it in almost any conditions to even poorly reflective targets. The only true 2000 yard plus bright light conditions laser is the likes of my Russion Naval unit, not eyesafe but gives you 35,000 meters in any conditions, to any target, instantly!
I have a full set of results of all my testing, and the idiosyncrasies of the different models, and I'm going to put this all in an article for Len when I get a minute...
Greg

Greg,

I'm very much looking forward to the article. From my reading of a lot of individual posts, most, if not all models of RF's differ from unit to unit. In otherwords, you might get a good one or you might get a bad one, or somewhere in between. Were you able to test a good sampling of the different models?

I already got a Leica 1200 and I know it has its limitations. It seems like the lower the light level, up to about dusk, the better it reads. I may get another RF as a back up, or primary for various hunting condidtions, maybe the Zeiss monocular or the Swaro. The Zeiss binos are a bit out of the budget at this point. I'll be very interested in your experiences. Thanks for taking the time.

-MR
 
I have done a hell of a lot of testing of all currently available eyesafe laser range finders in a wide range of conditions. I had the advantage of having all these units at the same time, so was able to do real comparisons. The best 1500 yard eyesafe rangefinder on the market is without doubt the Zeiss RF binos. They eat all the others in a wide variety of conditions especially in bright daylight on non reflective targets, the sort we encounter often out hunting.
Second best was the Zeiss PRF monocular, continually besting the Swaro LG and Leica's CRF's and Geovids by 100 yards or so in bright daylight. Next came the Leica's and the Swaro. In really bad conditions, the Leica was better, they were capable of about the same in average conditions, but then in low light the Swaro performs better.
I sent my Swaro back to the factory to be checked out as some seemed to be getting better performance out of theirs, and they sent me another unit - no diiference. Awesome optics, but nowhere near as easy to use as the others. Often takes far longer to get the reading and throws up more erroneous readings. Right on dark, it would give you readings out to 1999 yards, but not with enough light left to be of any use. I have tried 3 Swaro's and they have all been the same. Did I get all duds? I find that hard to believe?
The Zeiss RF bino's will only give you readings out to 1700 yards, but they'll do it in almost any conditions to even poorly reflective targets. The only true 2000 yard plus bright light conditions laser is the likes of my Russion Naval unit, not eyesafe but gives you 35,000 meters in any conditions, to any target, instantly!
I have a full set of results of all my testing, and the idiosyncrasies of the different models, and I'm going to put this all in an article for Len when I get a minute...
Greg

That is really interesting. I too would like to see a write up.

The Zeiss RF binoc info shows that it ranges to 1300yds in the Zeiss specs and measuring accuracy is +/- 1 yd to 656 yds and the +/- .5% past 656 yds.

Swarovski rangerfinder manual says:

The typical range is 1,000 m/1,100 yds, under
favourable conditions, distances of up to 1,500 m/​
1,600 yds and more, can be measured (see 3.5.).

and

3.6. Accuracy​
Accuracy is typically ± 1 m/1 yd, both for individual
measurements and also in scan mode. With
large distances and poor targets the measuring​
accuracy increases to ± 2 m/2 yds.

Sounds like you've found differently, however. Sure are alot of guys that swear by that Swarovski... Interesting.

 
Has anyone used the leupod rx-1000. I know its not the same as the others mentioned but I like the Ballistic calculator to make up for the angles. I'm not looking to shoot out to 1000+, just looking for a range finder to be able to shoot out to around 600 and that true ballistic range would be nice, sorry for the hijack but seems there are lots of knowledgable people reviewing this thread. Thanks.
 
I guess to clarify dont want to use the holdover feature just using the tbr feature to get actual yardage to aim for because of the distance due to angle. thanks
 
I used a pair of Zeiss rangefinding binos for a couple of weeks. Of all the rangefinders I have used (Leica 1200, Swaro, and Geovids) the laser in the Zeiss puts everyone of them to shame. Even in extremely bright light with sand backgrounds (desert terrain) the Zeiss would quickly range to the claimed 1300 yards and more. I never did get to a mile, but I got a lot of readings over 1700 on highly reflective targets. The glass is simply incredible.

Unfortunately, I had a great deal of difficulty reading the display. The binos are subject to panoramic tilt and the prisms in my eye glasses (to relieve eye strain from slight double vision) made the numbers on the display hard to make out under some conditions. I exchanged the Zeiss for Geovids. To be honest, the Geovids only range (under most conditions) about 70 per cent as far as the Zeiss, but I can easily read the display. In retrospect, I kind of wish I would have kept the Zeiss binos and learned to work around the problems.
 
Pyroducks,
The RX1000 is what I'd class as a 600 yard range finder. That is, it will only give ranges out to a max of 600 yards in full daylight to medium reflective targets. You can't range deer at 600 yards in bright light with it, not even close. It has far less ranging capabilities than the ones mentioned above. It does have the inclometer which is a great feature and I've been badgering Zeiss, Leica and Swarovski to include one in there's. Steiner have a bino rangerfinder coming soon that may (fingers crossed) have one in it. Huskemaw also have one coming that Len thinks has the inclometer in it too.
Ron,
Yep those Zeiss RF's are an absolute delight to use, so much so I just had to keep them! :)
Greg
 
Well I may finally get to see what all the swaro fans on here are seeing. Last week in WY., hunting antelope, I pulled my Swaro 8x30 Laserguide out to range a goat............ Nothing!! Not even a reticle. So just like last hunting season before I sent it in for repair,,,, I pulled the battery out , then put it back in and it was working again. This is the exact problem I had last season. So this morning I called Swaro repair dept. and they agreed it has a problem that will be a bear to find. They were very cooperative and I will have a NEW unit sent to me next day air. Their service is impecable, I hope this one will work like the ones people brag about on here. We will now see for sure.:cool:


On another note, on this hunting trip I was able to use a Zeiss monocular model and compare it a bit against my Leica CRF and my Swaro (when it was working). The Zeiss showed much promise out to 1350. It has a huge reticle and I don't like that but it was fast with numbers and I feel it is a good unit. But you know me, :rolleyes: I need to field test for days before I draw a conclusion.

more later..... gun)

Jeff
 
Jeff,
They ought to send you two units at this point! Seriously, hope you have better luck with the replacement. Let us know if it lives up the Swaro rep.
 
My experience somewhat mirrors that of Ron and NZ Longranger. I have gone through 4 different range finders and now have the Zeiss binocs/laser combo. I started with the Leica 1200 LRF and was relatively satisfied although I never tried to stretch the distances. I upgraded to the Leica 1200 CRF and loved them as far as portability and ease of use. Again, at that time I was not trying to range past 1000 yds.or so. But when I went on a shooting trip and compared them to both a Leica Geovid and a Swarovski it became apparent that the Swarovski was the "go to" unit. The guys who owned them were regularly ranging in the 1700's...So I traded for the Swaros....
When I went on a pig hunting trip I took them along and was terribly disappointed with my new Swaros! I was able to range once out to the high 1700's but the readout took what seemed like a very long time and seemed to be very "fussy: about the conditions. My friend's Geovid would get repeated ranges and the Swaros were hit and miss. Also the readout would not stay the same brightness but seemed to be constantly adjusting itself first dimmer then brighter even on the same attempt to range! The two guys who were with me both tried them and thought that they didn't perform as well as others they had seen so my unit may be defective...but I was still very disappointed....So then I found a set of the new Zeiss for an excellent price ( still expensive, but I figured I could sell my Swaros and my other zeiss binocs) and be able to afford them....I took them back to the same property for more pig hunting and I thought I had found range finder heaven. They performed exactly as I thought all range finders should perform. They ranged in almost every condition. The failures to range were infrequent and were by far the exception rather than the rule. The speed was perhaps the most impressive feature of all. It seemed that as soon as I pushed the button the range appeared. Almost no delay at all. I just ranged and ranged and ranged to my heart's content. I thought I would wear out the battery but they kept on going! They consistently ranged in the 1700+ distance...I do think that the Swaros will go a bit farther.
Minor Criticism ...The readout is NOT as bright as the others. In very bright conditions I would sometimes have to back off my eye a bit to see it but others with better eyes didn't seem to notice this as much,,,nevertheless I would like to see a brighter readout! I don't know if the stand alone unit has this issue as well.

That's my experience for what it's worth 30-338
 
After being able to use the Leica CRF, Saro Laser Guide and the Zeiss Monocular side by side last weekend I was pretty excited to try the zeiss more in the field. A friend sent me this handy calculator to figure the size of a beam at a given distance.

Here is the link.

pseudonomen137's JScript Diameter Calculator

Using this I computed the size of the beams of all 3 units at 1000 yards in to feet.

Leica 1200 CRF ........1 1/2' tall by 7 1/2' wide

Swarovski Laser guide........... 6' circle

Zeiss monocular.............. 6' tall by 12' wide


Looking at this it is easy to see why some will report longer distances more readily. Also how some may be giving you a range on something other than your quarry. Imagine how much stuff a 6' x12' beam will cast upon on flat ground. Getting those big numbers back is nice to look at. But,,, if you miss and don't know why maybe it was because you had a range on the bush 20 yards in front of the target instead of the actual target.

I am thinking if we are aiming small with the rifle,, we also need a rangefinder that will aim small too.

Just food for thought.

Jeff
 
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