In the market for a sub-$400 rangefinder and have not paid attention for a couple years. Don't need uber-longrange but want consistent performance. Seriously not interested in the high dollar units. Had a used Ziess for awhile and it was very nice, just too big to be handy imo.

If not the Vortex, then what? No, not a Swarovski, Lieca 1600, etc. Under $400

Cabelas has/had the Leupold 1000i DNA on sale for $299. It's a dandy,as mine has been great over the past 2 years. I'd avoid the other Leupold RF's though.

Vortex is the ONLY one on the market that has a 100% no-fault, no-questions warranty on the entire unit, including the electronics.

Yep, good point and Doug's got them open box for $330. So, how do they work?

JG, have you compared the two? The Leupold has good reviews, compared to the earlier ones, and still on sale $300.

No, I have not ever used the Vortex model.

I bought a Vortex from Doug and to be fair, Ive only used it a little bit. It ranged targets out to 600 yards just fine, and the red LED was visible even in bright sunlight. So far so good....

Friend of mine bought one this fall for our CO trip. I prefer it to my Swarovski RF out to 600/700 yards, display is killer and it's much more compact. Think I'm going to pick one up sometime just to use when I travel so I don't have to lug around the Swaro unit. Wouldn't have wound up with the latter but I found it used on ebay in the wrong section without a name brand for $300.

Thanks, that should be good enough, because a guy at Sportsmans said my 270 will shoot a half mile before it starts to drop!

Really, 600 is what I hope for ranging on bushes, trees, rocks...

Same here. I was spinning a turret on a .243 and frankly don't give a crap what it does past 500 yards, cause I wont be using it on game past that range...it worked well, I thought, but I gotta give it some more field testing

IIRC, the vortex manual says deer at 500 yards, which I haven't been able to verify, and mine's a little sketchy on soft targets past 550, but I have no real complaints on it yet.

Sounds right. We were getting consistent reading past that on vegetation and harder targets of course, like hillsides...

I bought one this fall and like it about 600 to 700 seems to be its max but thats ok with me.

That sounds like pretty typical performance of all the RF's I've fiddled with in this price range. To be honest about it, the Leica crf I had wasn't any better. That Vortex with it's lifetime warranty, even on electronics, if it performs like that may be one to seriously consider for sure.

Kinda what I ran into when I was shopping for one.......Seems in a given price range theres a lot of apples.....to find an orange to compare to, you math literally spend 3X as much. Everything was pretty much the same...

I own a Vortex Ranger 1000. Have had it for two years. Have not used it a bunch but it has worked well every time i have used it. I will range out 600-700yds most of the time depending on the lighting conditions and your ability to hold it steady(this is key). Ranging 400-500yds is easy pretty much every time. the Leupold 1000DNA that I tried at the store was a little faster at ranging than the Vortex but the Vortex seemed more consistent, IMO.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy the Vortex again after owning this one for two years. It ranged on a reflective target(rock cliff)to 860yds during elk season out in Utah this year without too much effort. Still has the original battery which I put in the day I bought it and the battery life icon still shows 3/4 charge.

Leftybolt

I bought one last year right before a whitetail hunt in SD. It worked OK out to about 400 yds(389y actually) on deer size target but any further it had problems and only to about 700 yds on larger targets.
I thought it should work better than that and called them up and they told me to send it in. I got the new one 2 weeks later and used it this year in CO for Elk season. I was ranging deer out to about 543 yds and the furthest I got a reading was 1013 yds on a hillside if I was steady enough.
My buddy has the Leopold 1000 DNA and we thought they were both really nice and fairly equal. I will say he did have problems ranging anything past 1000 yds but we are never going to take a shot that far.

Great info folks. Much appreciated. The Vortex has a lot going for it.

Anybody try them for short ranging, for archery? More of a secondary concern, just curious.

I played with it a little. They all work at close range.

I ranged a Black Bear at about 670 yards steep up hill from boat,
then went after it used range finder to establish where I was at in relation to bear. Ranged to boat around 620 yards eventually saw bear around 50 yards. Worked well.

Yikes! Did you educate him and tell him the drop begins as soon as the bullet leaves the barrel.



I agree with everybody's analysis on the Vortex. I also have a couple of several year old Nikons that my kids use. You can usually find them at real good prices used. Mine have been excellent and spot on for years.