range finding bino experience ?
i have seen that bushnell and leupold are offering binoculars that are capable of ranging...i have always carried binoculars hunting, but never wanted to go to the bother of having an extra gadget to lug around, hence , no rangefinder...has anyone used one of these binoculars, and if so, do they work well from the binocular aspect of it...i assume the ranging part to be fine...specifically interested in clarity, brightness and field of view as you would be when purchasing a normal binocular...thank for the input
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Hey Scott have you found anything out on your question since you posted it? I am in the market and really like the looks of the leupold bino/range finder.
Thanks,
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scott:
I know nothing about Bushnell or Leupold rangefinders. However, I do use rangefinder binoculars, have for about 12 years.
The rangefinder I use is a reticle placed in the right binocular barrel. These "mil scale" reticles have been common in military binoculars for many years.
I have used Zeiss-Jena 7 x 40 EDF binocular with a difficult to use reticle. Presently, I use Zeiss-Wetzlar F2 reticle in Zeiss 8 x 30 B/GA IF Olive binocular. This is, essentially, a crosshair with horizontal and vertical hashmarks that is superimposed on what you are looking at. It does not interfere with normal viewing in any way.
It works by have specific amounts of space separating hashmarks. Since mil scales tend to be used at long distances (artillery spotting) the baseline distance is 1000 meters. Zeiss furnished me with formulae to quickly calculate either distance from known height/width or height/width from known distance.
You might think this is useless because animals' sizes are not the same. Unh-unh. A given gender of a given species will have an average size, just like people. You will not -- cannot -- use mil scale rangefinder to identify distance perfectly. You use it for estimating.
Since I hunt with flintlocks, I have zero interest in something that enables me to target shoot at live targets rather than hunt. Shooting an animal at several hundred yards is not really hunting. The animal has no chance to detect you or to evade you. It's like a metallic silhouette target, waiting to be knocked down.
So what purpose would a rangefinder like mine have? When you sight something, say across a valley, how long will it take you to move into shooting range? Will you still have legal shooting time? How long will it take you to get the animal to camp? The mil scale can save tremendous aggravation from making shooting mistakes such as these.
Zeiss still has these reticles available for several of their ClassiC binocular models. Many excellent quality military surplus binoculars have mil scale reticles. Steiner makes binoculars for the US armed forces. I see regular advertisements for overruns of 6 x 30, 7 x 50, and 10 x 50 binoculars.0 -
Since you are not getting any experienced responses, I will offer this:
No experience with these, but I have a Bushnell rangefinder (4x) that works very well. With some targets it is hard to get a good reading, but the accuracy is good with a good return. At 400 yards you get a much better return and greater accuracy from a billboard or a pickup than from a jackrabbit. Deer can be hard to hit with the infrared at some distance in the trees, pronghorn are easy on the open prairie. I would presume the newer models are even better. Bushnell optics are not the equal of some of the German stuff or high end US and Japanese stuff, but for the price they are a real buy.0
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