Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics G7 BR2 rangefinder review

I know alot of people just dont understand what this unit is capable of, so I am going to share my experinces. I have owned 2 pairs of Leica Geovids HD and NON so this is what I am comparing it to. I am compareing the rangefinder feature only.

The first thing I noticed when I took this unit out of the box is that is was a little bigger that I had hoped. But I also thought that it might be easier to hold and use for rangeing longer targets and I found this to be true.

The BR2 has a standard threaded hole on the bottom for mounting it to a tripod which reallly aided in ranging long long ways.

After reading over the directions and learning more about this unit, it seams a bit overwhelming but after playing with it and learning it the BR2 is actually very simple.

Setting it up for my ballistic profie was simple. It allows you to store up to 5 ballistic profiles. You can change the unit so it will read in MOA or BDC on you weapon of choice. My gunwerks is set up with a BDC so I began to set up my profile.

1. Load decription. Mine is a 7MM LRM
2. THE drag STD you want to use. G1 or G7 Mine G1
3. Your Bal Coef. Im shooting 180 Gr berger VLD so mine is .659
4. Muzzle VEl mine 3035
5. Scope height 1.7
6. Turret tempature. Mine was set up for 50 degrees
7. Turret ALT mine 5000 ft
8. Zero range 200 yards

After you set your entries you save it. Pretty simple.

Thats all there is to setting it up.

After the setup you are finished. The BR2 has a internal ballistic calculator that automatically compensates for all the varibles which include Elevation, Tempature, Barometric pressure, and incline.

So what dose this mean. Once you have the unit set up whether you are shooting at 200 feet above sea level or 14000 feet chasing sheep all you have to do is press the button, and it will tell to the exact range to the target, and the after a second or 2 it will tell you the calculated shoot to range. So for example if you are hunting at 7500 feet and it is 30 degrees out and you are shooting at a very steep angle the actual distance might be 600 yards but your shoot to range the rangefinder tells you to shoot might be 525. then if you need windage you have 2 small buttons on the top left side of the unit that will give you the corrected windage for the profile you are using at that time from 5 MPH to 50 MPH in 5 MPH increments. Bassically you have a ballistic calculator inside that processes all the varibles without punching them in.

Like I stated eariler all I have been able to compare this to is 2 differnt sets of geovids which I could never get to range past 900 yards and never in the rain or foggy or snowy conditions which actually cost me a nice muley in Wyoming 3 years ago. I didnt shoot because I couldnt get a range in the snow. I have not had a single issue with the BR2 out to 2025. It will range easily in the rain and light fog.

I only have access to a 800 yard range to shoot but so far all the BR2 corrections have been spot on. I am very impressed with the way this unit has performed so far.

I will be sending this unit out today to DennisAZ for a chance to play with is out west and let him add some input..


I have no affiliatin with G7 or Gunwerks. I have bought and paid for all the products I use from them. I did this review so maybe some people will understand what this unit is capable of.

I truely belive this IS the best rangefinder out there for the long range shooters.

If I can answer any more questions Please feel free to ask them. Thanks Joel

hey let me review it too!!! one day out in the high desert and I will tell you how good or bad it is.

It is on its way to Arizona as we speak. Give it a month or two and give me a call maybe we can work something out. If I didnt think this was the REAL DEAL I wouldnt be letting people I know very little test it out.

After watching the video, I feel that this would be a good tool for the long range shooter. The size shouldn't really matter as the shooting would be done from a bench and it wouldn't need to be compact for that application.

Hunting may be a different situation, as size then becomes an issue. If you have ever seen the original Leica rangefinding binoculars, they were quite large too.

I don't shoot long range, so I will stick with the more compact types of rangefinders. I have the Swarovski 10X42 EL rangefinding binoculars and for now will continue to use them. They are a great pair of binoculars, give instant ranges and do automatically allow for elevation.

I believe them to be the best available to date...

Shrapnel I totally agree with your statement. The BR2 is great for long range shooters.

As for a Bino rangefinder combo Ill agree 100% that the swaro is probably the best out. I just wish mine would get here. They have been on order for about 2 months now.

As far as the size of the BR2 it is about the same size as the Swaro laser guide range finder so it not overly big. But its not like the little Leica Units.

you must have ordered them from an obscure dealer. dougs had them in stock and even my local sportsmans wharehouse had them in stock. they are out now though.

He has had plenty in stock but I'm down on the backorder list. Shouldn't be to much longer.

I've been looking hard at this unit, just waiting for more reviews from guys like you who have actually used it. So far what I am hearing is all good. I like to shoot 'chucks, and need to be able to range them out to 1200 yards, at least, and do it fast and accurate, every time. Please keep us updated on your experience with it.

DennisinAZ has my unit right now. Hopefully he will add his 2 cents.

Sent you a PM.

I friend of mine had the new swaro's at the range the other day..Much better than my leica's..The RF actually make leica's look like junk.

Here is a link to the other review for the BR2 here on the campfire.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth..._BR2_rangefinder_first_impre#Post6013296

My 'smith suggested looking at the Swarovski EL Range binos as well. Looks like another $1K, but I'm looking at what is going to work best long term.
Both my smith and Doug, at cameraland, say the EL's will do what I need; marmots on small boulders in full sunlight above timberline out to 1200 yards.

Acording to Dennis the BR2 would have NO problem ranging rockchucks at 1200 and you would have the onboard ballistic calculator.

Shrapnel, could you explain what you mean when you say "automatically allow for elevation", when you are talking about the Swarovski El Range finder? I have heard conflicting information. One source says they only calculate the horizontal distance by using the cosine of the angle when shooting up hill or down hill and another source says they take into account the angle and calculate the required hold over or MOA to hit the target at that angle.

Has anyone else bought one of the rangefinders? I am close to a decisin.

There is another review here. G7 BR2 Rangefinder Review

I have one and I really like it!

I think the rangefinder is awesome but $1500 is pretty darn expensive for a stand alone RF especially when the new leica geovids look like they have similar features.

Go over to longrangehunting.com and do a search on this subject. There have been exhaustive testing and reports done on these units. I bought mine last year. After fine tuning my input data I made nearly a dozen kill shots on rock chucks as far as 1156 yards. One day I made consecutive first shot kills at 987 and 1008 yards, the 1156 yard shot was a second shot kill, but was preceeded by an 1106 yard first shot kill. These were made with a custom long range rifle made for this purpose.
Another example; ranged a chuck on a rock at 592 yards, dialed in the MOA hold-over and another first shot kill. This with my 270 WSM elk rifle.
I have used this unit at elevations from around 5000' shooting prairie dogs in Utah to over 12000' shooting chucks in Colorado. Once you get your data fine tuned they are amazingly accurate in calculating ballistic solutions.
If you are serious about shooting at even medium ranges, and hitting your target, you want one of these.

I got mine a few weeks back. Being a guy, I had a hard time dealing with the "written" instructions. Found some vids on Youtube that helped immeasurably. I've now got it figured out. Like Joel said, it's pretty easy once you figure it out.

So, last week I was ranging rocks, sage brush and JP trees out to 2000+ plus in bright sunlight; something most LRF have a hard time with.

This morning I decided to acid test it. My 6.5x47 Lapua shooting the new Berger 140 gr Hybrid will put 5 into less than .3 moa all day, as long as I do my part. Unlike Joel, I used the MOA method instead of the BDC method (dial up). I shoot up Hobble Creek Canyon, behind my house, at over 5300'. Their is a meadow where I can get 200 yds. I set up my 100 yd target and punched 5 shots into .286" running 2776 fps, 12 SD over my Oehler 35p. I then took the BR2 and at a 10.6 deg up angle, found a rock that ranged at 1198 to 1100, over and over. The BR2 told me 29.7 moa. The wind was light to calm so I just held on the center of a 2' tall x 3' wide rock; wham, wham, wham! Three hits in a row with an untested LRF. Wow!

I've owned the Swaro Laser Guide which I loved. Sold it after testing the Leica 1600. Sold it after testing the Leica 1600-B. Now, I'll be selling the 1600-B. Loved them all. Just keep moving up in LRF's with features I like.

The BR2's "shoot" button is not stiff, but instead, easy to push. A hard button will surely throw off your aim like the Swaro, which has a stiff button and ranges on "release". It has four brightness levels which I hated about the Swaro, that only had one brightness level and could barely see the numbers in bright light. The BR2 has four different cross hairs, which none of the others have.

I'll be testing it thoroughly in two weeks. We have a Challenge at Altitude up in the West end of the Uintah mountains of Utah. Thirty plus competitors, shooting around 120-150 rounds of ammo over a two day course of fire with cross/up/down canyon shots to over 1200 yds known and 700 yds unknown distance. I'll report my findings.

Like Kevin Costner says in The Postman. "Things just keep gettin better".

Alan