Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Why doesn't anyone make a mid price rangefinding binocular?

Someone else mentioned it on another thread I was reading and it got me thinking. There are a lot of great options on the market today in the $1,500-$3,000 range. Nikon, Sig, Vortex, Leica.... They all have near Alpha glass and will range 2,500+ yards. Great if you can afford it.

But why is there no mid price option? Something like a Nikon Monarch 7 series or Leupold BX-3 or Meopta Meopro or Zeiss Terra combined with an 800 to 1,200 yard range finder? You can buy a darn good binocular for $350-400 and you can buy a darn good rangefinder for $300. Couldn't you combine them, in an 8x32 or 8x42 and sell it for $600-$700? Seems to me there would be a big market for that? Am I the only one?

I'd be down for one if the weight was reasonable.

The glass in the mid range bino/rf's.....Nikon, Fury HD, Sig3000 is beaten rather easily by any of the glass found in upper crust $500 binos like the M7, Meostar HD, Hawke HD, BX4 HD, etc. In other words the glass in those units is nothing to write home about by a long shot. Those three are all made in the same Chinese factory, quite obviously, and the optics all the same. I am also one who doesn't understand why it's so difficult to make a 2000rf/bino unit with excellent glass for around $1200.

The Bushnell Fusion 1-Mile is pretty good for ~$850. JG is right about glass quality, but you can't expect $800 glass in a unit that costs $800 and also comes with a very good built-in RF.

Mid range rf binocular? It’s called a used Leica geovid off eBay

I sold my $3K Leica's to fund the $1,100 Sig Kilo 3000. I disagree about the glass being just average. I had both in my hands for a month or so, and while the Leica's were superior, the Sig wasn't far behind. The ranging performance of the Sig as amazing. I can regularly get hits at 3,500 yards plus. The Leica's were solid to about 750 and then hit and miss to 1,200 depending on conditions.

To be fair, I'm a competition shooter, not a hunter. Mine get used to range at matches, obviously, and to observe environmentals while others are shooting. You know, dust in the air, bugs, that sort of thing to get a read on the wind. I never tried either in low light situations.

Seems to me that you could take this bino that is very good by all accounts I have read: Nikon Monarch 7 8x30

and combine it with this rangefinder that is quite good in my limited experience: Vortex Ranger

Combine these units and they would weigh +/-20 oz and should cost no more than $650. I would think they would sell like crazy...... But I guess if everyone agreed, it would already be available.

The only ones I see that are less than $1k appear to be really old. I'm not paying $700 for a worn out unit with no warranty......

I think it depends on what ranging ability your RF would need. I had a Nikon 600 which cost about $250, and it would range a coyote or deer to 400 yards, and a shiny object to 900 yards. Unfortunately, I wanted 500 to 600 yards for deer and coyotes. A Sig1250 didn’t do it, but a Leica 2000B does it easily.

If target shooting, you can get by with less expenditure, since shiny targets are easier to range. For hunting, you might need a better unit for ranging something like a mud covered hog. So, decide what “coyote ranging” you need, like I did. It takes some research, because the reviews I read mostly talked about long range target use, which didn’t apply to my needs at all.

Are any of them good in low light? I hear that’s the problem. Had a friend sell pair of Leica range finding binoculars for that reason. Would greatly appreciate y’all’s experience. Thank

Leupold made one for a little while.

I'm the first to preach that everyone's eyes are different. That's inarguable. I owned the Laserforce and Sig300BDX. The optics in my Athlon Midas HD 8x42's are brighter than either of those, and equally as sharp.

Leupold does have a bino/rf now, it's a $3k rebadged Meopta unit.