Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics What's the Scoop on the Sig Kilo 2000?

It seemed a while back as if this rangefinder was raved to be the THE game changer in rangefinder pricing and performance and then negative reviews started creeping in slowly. Sounds like several have had to be sent back for repairs and some guys saying they don't have confidence in it. Any updates in reliability or QC issues?

Tagged for interest!

AlaskaCub,

Maybe I got a good one. Never fails and reads animals out to 1410 so far. One interesting experience was a thick cloud blew in when I was up on a hill. I ranged the cloud at 35 yards. At another time I was able to range through light fog and get a reading at about 1300 yards.

Was fantastic until it quit on the third outing.

Glad I kept my Swaro, which is years old and still is working perfectly.

Mine is still going strong

Loving mine. Got it last fall I think. Took it ground squirrel shooting in March and ranged squirrels/mounds past 450yds. It rode in the golf bag starting in May, bouncing around in the cart no problems. Could range the pin or flag without the reflectors some have out to 350. Deer hunting this fall ranged deer out to 645 yds and landscape/buildings to 1650. A few folks have had failures but that is the nature of any electro-optical beast. There are going to be failures, guaranteed. How the company treats you makes a difference and I haven't heard any bad news there.

Mine is at Sig right now...

Well out of 5 sampled in this thread 2 went tits up......those aren't great odds.

Took them 4 months to replace mine......

Mine is incredible. Best rangefinder I've ever used

Mine is still running strong. I've had zero issues so far....

Mine ranges fine but I can't totally focus the blur out of it. Its ability to range overrides the bluritude though.

Damn near running a 42% failure rate here so far, I'd call that something more than the normal electro-optical glitch. If it's taking them months to repair each one that's not exactly encouraging on the CS/warranty side either.

Mine is good. Sold the Leica.

I'm going to try out a buddies next week. He loves his.

I'm going to try one next October during Antelope season

If it will range ANYTHING on the Eastern plains of Colorado it'll be a keeper

My Leoplold 1000 is pure junk 50% of the time

So did I.

I bought one Thursday on sale for $339. I'll open it Christmas Day.





P

Mine's been working good. I like the fast start up and the small form factor. Sure better than a lot of them.

mine and my hunting partners are still working fine

Wonder if the 2200 thats coming out will resolve those issues???

They need to resolve the issues with the 2000 before they try to add 200 yards of range.

That is discouraging news. Glad I kept the Swaro.

Did they send you back your same unit or a replacement?

I really was impressed with the Sig before it quit, but reliability is critical.

I have had one since they came out and sold near 2 dozen of them and have yet to get any negative feedback. Everything on this end has been positive and lots of guys reporting up to 3400 yard readings on man made objects. On terrain 2400 yards in good conditions depending on how dry the trees are. The key to getting repeatable long range readings is to range from a good steady rest. Off hand it's hard to read much over 1500 yards.

They discontinued it. That is why it has been on sale everywhere.

The big hill above the trees on the right is around 1750.

My Sig couldn't range that, nor any deer at/around the 1K mark either.

Please cite your source.

That dry grass is about the hardest thing you can try to range. My Swarovski would be struggling to get 600 yards in that stuff.

Mine's been a bit buggy now. Maybe it's the winter colors, brightness, snow and such but it was struggling to get junipers at 700 yesterday. Cold too, 10F. Lower sun and dimmer lighting, it was acting good again this evening nailing brush at 1300 and buildings etc beyond 1600. Dry grass and bare trees, not good. It would not get a herd of mule deer at what I think was 1200 or so today mid-day. Just thought I'd throw some caution out there as I jumped knowing the bad reports and think waiting it out may have been a better approach. Going to try some testing by keeping it warm. Not sure what to make of it.

I'm sticking with my Leica lrf 1200.
Ranged a coues deer at 1k.
Put a shoe for my tripod on it, and I think holding it steady helped get good readings.

My Kilo won't range a Woof much past the 1694yd line. 2.25Mils below center and 1 Mil right. Though admittedly,atmospherics were far from perfect.



Couldn't get my Leica out the door quick enough.



The Kilo will read a single Goose flying by,at distances the Leica couldn't grab a mountain.

Hint.

That does not look like Wisconsin.




Travis

Ordered 3, 2 are headed back to Sig....

The one that's a keeper is impressive. Other 2 don't do half as well as an old Nikon 1200 they were supposed to replace.

Man the reviews on these things are all over the place. Seems like they have a really high failure rate. On multiple forums you either read that it rocks and is impressive from the git go or it came in [bleep] from the git go. Then there are some that said it rocked from the git go and a month later it took a [bleep] and it's being sent back. Then there are the guys that sent theirs back that rocked before it took a chit and then the replacement was [bleep] from the git go. Now they are replacing the 2000 with a 2400 or something and no one can confirm if they fixed the bugs in the 2000. Kind of hard to dive into that one.

Kinda like Chinese QC on other products. Or Kimbers...

This. Mine smoked my buddy's Leica.

If I could get a deer or coyote to stand next to a big ass pine tree or barn, I'd give them a better review too.....

Silver horse trailers are excellent...

Water towers, pole sheds, two story houses.....

The two schitters I ran over a period of 3 days, in different conditions/ times of day. When the Nikon would pick rocks and cutouts up at 1100-1150, the Sigs were struggling to get me to 650.

Took Sticks advice and changed the battery outta the box, but that didn't seem to help any.

Pictures like aalf took will take a range finder from hero to zero in the blink of an eye.




Dave

Or sooner.....

+1

By late spring there were a ton of posts about Kilo 2000's going tits up. Sig allegedly had so many returns they ran low on inventory and some folks were waiting a long time for replacements. I have been told by one guy who has sent two back it appears in many cases an interminent battery connection is frying the electronics.

Casey

Have had mine for almost a year, still working great. I'm able to free hand range terrain to 1600+ yds.

David

Did you change the stock battery? when I replaced the battery it worked much better.

Still showing 3/4 battery. Not about to put a new battery in every time I want to use it.

Lot of post just like this where a guy says his works great and then there's the follow up post where it no worky so good anymore. I had my hands on one today, wanted to buy it, but gonna wait a little longer since I really don't need it right now.

I've run mine for the past 4 months hunting Wyoming, Colorado, and Oregon. No issues so far.

Can make you a deal. LOL

All kidding aside.

Today, take the Sig Kilo that's been sitting in the rig for several days at 0-15F roughly. About 12F air temp.

All in meters...

Battery at one bar. It struggled with junipers at 450. Absolutely would not get a steel ram at 511 known distance... Change to fresh Duracell UltraLithium, also been cold. Zero improvement. Tried LOS instead of AMR, no change.

I stuck it in my front pant's pocket for several minutes. Bamm, nails the ram at 511, and is working on junipers, dirt berms etc out to 650 or so...

Several minutes later it nails rocks and dark colored slope at 850+.

Set it on the defroster in the rig for awhile. Starts to nail stuff over 1000.


Several more minutes and I'm getting 1600 on buildings and 1200 or so on brush and junipers. Also gives me numbers on grass, whatever I aim it at over 700.

Home for 1/2 hour. Take it out and nail a building at 2600, just freehand. Moving cars at 1300. Pretty much like it did when I first got it...

It definitely still works. Maybe just gotta keep it stuffed in the shorts?

Now that there's gonna be a problem....ain't got no mo room....

Good to know, but not surprising at those temps. My old bushnell won't even turn on below 0 .

I got a bit rude with the Sig CSR on the phone. Guess where he suggested storing the spare batteries?

I had basically identical results today at 10F, snow on the ground, and bright sun. Wouldn't range trees beyond about 300 meters. Stuck the RF in my pocket for a while, and then I was able to hit 0.2Mil sized rocks out at 800m+. My Bushnell Fusion 1600 ranges just as well at -30 as it does at +30, but it looks like the SK2000 is very temperature sensitive...

Is that a range finder in your pocket or are you happy to see me.....

Are skinny jeans even in style anymore?

I did call up Sig today and got the skinny on the new 2200 & 2400 models coming out.

Small change to the housings and they added a screw mount on the bottom for tripod use. The 2200 is basically the same as the 2000. Same size aiming circle, same distance limits, with a possible 5% increase in yardage. Bottom line, don't trade your 2K for a 2200.

The 2400 has all the bells and whistles, blue tooth, wind meter, smart phone hookup, elevation, etc, & spits out come-ups. Should reliably add some yardage over the other two models.

No prices set yet, but might be by Shot Show time. Availability/delivery sometime this summer.

Sheeeeet......loose fit, Duluth Trading Co ball room jeans are filled to the brim.....

Ouch!.......


Casey

I had a Leupold RX 1000iTBR. It would range trees out to just under a thousand yards regularly. I thought it was great, but when I heard the Sig could go twice that, I wanted one.

Then I read the bad reviews and decided to hold off. But then Cabelas had them for $350. And I had a $45 off coupon for a purchase over 300, plus I had points. So I decided to try it.

I sold my Leupold here in the classifieds two days ago. I stopped by Cabelas and got the Sig. On the way home at dusk I stopped to try it. Even at dusk when it should be working well, I wasn't impressed at all. I ran out of light and went home after a few minutes.

Yesterday I went across the street and tried it out again. It was sunny out. I stopped to range some black angus. I know the feeder is 506 yards from where I parked.(Ranged it with the Leupold before.) The Sig would get a range maybe once out of ten. It did get a hereford (red and white) every time. So I thought maybe it doesn't like the black cows, but since I might range bears or moose, that doesn't make me happy.

I did get some cottonwoods at 1164, but it wouldn't do any pines over 800. I got a house at 1700 once out of about ten tries.

I was in the car, so the laser wasn't cold. I'll order a new batter, but the laser says this batter is good.

I'll give it one more try, but this will in no way range an outhouse at over 2K like in the picture above. Right now I'm really let down. I'll give it one more try, then take it back to Cabelas and swithc it for another if they have any left.

And yes, I'm bracing my arms and holding still. Not ranging a huge black cow at 500 yards is really bad performance.

Bummer.

I got an official email response from Sig today. I paraphrase. Lithium battery chemistry no good at 0F. There can be no fault in the RF that would account for poor performance in the cold, other than the cold battery. Just so the facts are straight, they did not tell me to keep the battery in my wallet...

Also heard to make sure battery cap is screwed down tight.

FWIW, it's half way dark outside and I just tried my (old)Zeiss PRF.


Stepped out the front door and it instantly zapped grass/snow out to 500-600 yards(which is as far as there is grass/snow)....


Gave quick readings on houses at 1000-1200 yards.



Of course the unit is at balmy 6F ambient, I'm sure it wouldn't work at all when it is 0F.....
(1-2 year old CR2 Energizer lithium photo battery)


What battery does the Sig take?

My Sig came with a Panasonic CR2. I ordered two Energizers from Amazon today and they should be here in two days. However, the battery it came with checks out as "good" and at 3 volts on the voltage meter.

Elk hunting this year west of Dillon it was 10 degrees out at 9100 feet. The howling wind made it feel extra nice. My Leupold ranged the elk first try at 560. Then again at 510 when they came out of a draw. A rangefinder that can't take a little cold is a very poor tool.

I'll keep messing with mine with the new battery and then see what it does in the cold.

These things look like hit and miss. I ranged a black Angus bull at 1,350 on a sunny day with mine.

Quit bringing real world experience of how a rangefinder is actually used to the conversation. Ranging black angus on a sunny, warm day is a much better real world test...

I wanted a new sig, but decided I'd wait.
I'm keeping my old Leica lrf 1200.
Mounted it on a tripod this year on my coues hunt, and it worked perfectly.

How 'bout if it was sunny very cold day? Is that real world experience? Just checking.

No, cause' you and I both know you pulled it out of your warm truck and used it.



Aside, I'd love to know what passes for "very cold" in Grant's Pass... because I guarantee it's not what passes for "very cold" here.

The question is, what are you going to buy when the Leica lrf 1200 quits working and Leica refuses to warranty it or service it at your expense? BTDT. Mt solution was to get a Vortex Ranger 1000. No issues so far.

Brad, you got me there. It did come out of the warm truck, my gaymoble Honda Ridgeline, and 28* is a very cold day here. On the east side of the Cascades a very cold day is zero.

Wasn't trying to pick on you Ring, just that we all hunt different geography, and that creates "our reality." Of course, that reality is not everyone's, and I've used my Leica on all-day elk hunts well south of -20F and it worked. But a guy in the northern Yukon might laugh at -20*F!

And so on...

Mine's still at Sig...

That's my concern with Leica, and why I'm leaning towards a Vortex 1500.


Casey

I had the Sig for a very short time. It wouldn't come close to a Leica 1600b, so the Sig went down the road and the Leica stayed home.

I've had my Leica 1200 for going on 13 years. Warranty not needed yet.

Mine doesn't work worth a schitt in 0 degree weather. Great at 30+ schitt at 0.

Yikes, put me in the lucky camp then. I have used my Kilo side by side with the trusty Swaro LRF for the last 6 months and the sig crushed it.

Cold, hot, sunny, rainy, the Kilo outperformed the Swaro.

I hope that it continues to impress.