Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Best bang for the buck rangefinder?

Looking for one that can range a deer at least 600 yards, what say you?

Tracy

Sig Kilo 2000 for under $400 if you shop around.

Vortex rangefinders are the only ones guaranteed for life... electronics, too. They are not the best, but very serviceable, and forever...

The Sig Kilo had everyone bragging on them early on, but they have turned out to have a very high failure rate.

Tough to beat this for the money.
Vortex at Cameraland

I gust read that the Sig Kilo has a 5 YEAR WARRANTY
(Electronic Component Limited 5 Year Warranty) Covers any defects in materials and workmanship in the electronic and Tritium components of illuminated riflescopes/sights, pistol sights, electronic sights, flashlights, lasers, binoculars, spotting scopes and rangefinders for five years from date of manufacture.

Also: INFINITE GUARANTEE
SIG SAUER Electro-Optics are guaranteed forever. It's an unlimited lifetime guarantee.

-Unlimited Lifetime Guarantee
-Fully Transferable
-No Warranty Card Required
-No Receipt Required
-No Time Limit Applies
-No Charge

To be clear... what I tried to say is Vortex is the only company with a lifetime warranty on the electronics in their rangefinder...

Vortex Rangefinder does better than many of the others in inclement ranging conditions. It will range when leica and zeiss will not in spin drift conditions north side of the Brooks Range when caribou hunting in pipeline corridor.

Lifetime warranty and the quality of the durability of the Ranger construction make it imho the solid choice.

I am curious as the the "high failure rate" of the Sig...we have several in our circle of shooters, and not a one has had an issue. Its performance is so far above the Vortex offerings, even with the poorer warranty, its worth it. My Bushnell 1 Mile struggle to keep up with the Kilo...but holds its own. Had the Kilo been out when I bought my Bushnell, it would have easily gotten the nod.

As for the Vortex, I have not had a chance to use one of the newest ones...but every one I have used was largely unimpressive. When my Bushnell 1 Mile gives up the ghost..the Vortex would not get a chance to replace it.

I have a Leica crf1000r and love it. I've seen a few in various classifieds for nice deals. One on certain site for $360

5 year warranty on the electronics is not bad, by then there will be something better with a lower price point. Every thing I read about the Vortex is that there slow

My son has one and several friends have them... they are not noticeably slower than other glass when comparing them to Geovids and the Leica 1200 pre-scan models in terms of getting a quick range number...

Not saying they are as good, just that they are fully-functional at getting the job done. You can buy better now, but you will not buy better at the price point any time soon.

In five years they will still be worth something because of the warranty.

The Ranger 1500 is fast. I have a pair of 10X42 Geovids. SW had a special on them and I got a pair and I talked Randy in to getting a pair too. They are great for sheep/goat hunting but they don't work as well as the Vortex in spindrift such as found on North side of Brooks Range.

They must've updated the Ranger 1000 too. When I tested one out in the store a few years ago it was really slow and I hated the 3 button presses required to range. Before I bought mine I tested it out again in the store and the newer version is just as fast or faster than the [bleep] Leupold Rx800 I mistakenly bought and returned. 2 buttons to get a reading, 1 to turn it on and 1 to range. The optics between the Vortex & Leupold aren't even comparable, granted the Leupold is at a different pricepoint.

I bought a Leupold 1000 about 4 years ago and recently got a 1200. They work very well for me.

I remember testing the RX1200 out in the store a couple years ago and actually liked it better than the Vortex at the time. I only chose the Vortex for 2 reasons over the RX1200, it was on sale for about $50 less, and it has a lifetime no questions asked warranty including the electronics.

The return rate was so great this spring/summer Sig plumb ran out of replacements and some guys were wating 4-8 weeks for a new one.

Was at the range two weekends ago. Guy next to me had received his replacement kilo 2000 in late August (said he waited 7 weeks), and said he helped his son kill a Sept early season buck with it. It quit working while he was showing me how it worked. First it wouldn't range beyond 300yds, then it quit working all together, then it wouldn't even turn on. Not even a new battery would get it running. Needless to say he was pizzed, because he was headed out for an elk hunt in a few days.

I was just about to buy one when I started reading about failures early this summer.

Casey

I just got a Sig Kilo 850 for under $150 from Cabelas. For the price I'm very impressed with it so far. I ranged a deer at over 600 last week. The farthest I've gotten so far was over 950 yards on a pretty reflective target.

Same thing I have been hearing... incredible when they work...

Double entendre intended.

Took the Sig 2000 leap today for $399 and no wait- no SWFA Backorder Bull either Can be had a bit cheaper lately but I definately wanted a fresh NIB unit form a high volume retailer...

Tried it side by side with a Vortex 1500 and went with the one that worked the best with much less eye fatigue. But longest target available was a blue building at 850 and they both did it. The Sig is very fast and I like the auto brightness feature. Do like the cross reticle in the Vortex better, but it is what it is.

Did a little drive, mid-day fairly bright out. Hit single mule deer at 650 easy. 750 not too bad... At 900+ hitting deer was spotty. Didn't have any at 800ish. Brush at 1200-1300 wham bamm... 1500 fairly ok... 1600 to 1700 spotty. Reflective, well if I am ever out hunting silver horse trailers - 2400 is doable. House hunting at 1900-2100... Main thing I learned today - I am much better off with the gadget than my guesses!

Summer 2015 I had a Ranger 1000 side by side with a Bushnell Elite 1-mile and the Bushnell stomped it. Except for the extreme long ranges I think, if my memory serves, the Bushnell is very competitive with the Sig under 1300 on brush... It never got over 1650 on anything with the 1-mile. Maybe a steadier style too but I did not like how big it was for field use.

Fingers crossed the funky Sigs have made it through the system LOL.

I know, it is sooo tempting.

I considered the Bushnell Elite, Leup RX 1200, the Vortex 1500, and the Sig 2000.

I had the money, was ready to buy the Sig. But As I have learned with optics, warranty service is very important. Add in electronics and it may be even more so. Sig seems to be honoring their warranty though.

But that Vortex lifetime no fault warranty is looking mighty good.

Casey