Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Binoculars with Range Finder Built-In?

PLease help me find the Best Long Range Laser Range Finding Binoculars

For the past two weeks when ever I had the chance I have been testing some high Quality Laser Range finding Binocs. I have to test :

Leica 15 x 50 RFB

Newcon's LRB 3000 Pro 7 X 40

Steiner 10 x 50 model 398 LRB



I have tested them until I am motion sick after hours of looking and ranging .

So far Each one has strong points but no Absolute stand out in the crowd
"Got to have it" favorite.

I also have a pair of the Leica 10-15 x 50 Duovid's for clarity comparison.


My Observations so far

The Leica's have the highest power and the best target selectivity
as well as fabulous clarity and the best resolution especially in the shadows
But fall short of the other two in the Ultra long ranging ability.
Body size targets are ranged consistently out to 900 yards
and larger targets 4' x 4' cardboard out to 1300 ( the stated ability ).
Other strong points includes tripod cradle and superb quality and durability.



The Steiner's have my favored combo so far with great optics but only 10 power, And Consistent ranges to the tree line @ 1750 yards.
We tested a number of signs and power transformers as well as the tree line. These are the stand out on non-reflective targets like ( Our Buddy Jake in his gray t-shirt and his 4'X4' cardboard. ) They also share a plus with the Leica with Smaller more precise Red LED Reticle and Red LED Readouts in both yards and Meters.


The Newcon's are the least in price, but on reflective targets like brown forest
service roadsigns ( with reflective paint ) They were the fastest and gave great performance out to 1914 yards. The Steiners also were consistent on the same sign just to an extra seconds. The Leicas were a NO GO . The low point for the Newcons in the LCD display which can be seen well against a bright
back round but very had to see in the dark shadows of the tree line and could not range it at all .
The build quality is not even close the the other two competitors, these are more plastic than rubber and a small amount of glue could be seen oozing out from the seems in more then one place. They are not waterproof ! All that said as range finder only for the money the do quite well. Optics quality was up from some other Newcon's we have tested, and with only 7x40 were lacking
a little power to reach out and be more selective of your target.


Finally We tested cars driving away @ 60 plus MPH and The Steiner and the Newcon were able to follow SUVs traveling away from us on the HWY .
until the disappeared over the hill @ 1835 yards.

Looks like the only other contender is the New 1600 Yard Leica Monocular
to use as a companion to my Favorite Binoculars. We will try out a pair next week.


PLease add your personal field testing as well, so we might come up with a winner.


THanks

Dan

Follow up on LRF

We tested more big money Glass and found the Steiners to win Hands downs

We added Leica 15 x 56 LRF binoculars RTL 2999.00

Swarvski 7 x monocular

Brand New Leica CRF 1600 mono.

here is the deal.


The Steiners are able to range man size non reflective targets easily out to 1100 yard as tested many times over the past weekend at Ft. McCoy WI during the 3 day match
held there. The man size textured targets pop up and have to be ranged by your spotter and you need to calculate the holdover and send the round down range. ( BTW Jake & I
took first place ) Sat and second on Sun.


The Steiners could also range the hillside @ 1427 yards every time and surrounding bushes and trees with ease. And last but not least the further hillside @ 1850 yards and treeline
out to 2027 yards WOW . 2499

the next best are the Leica CRF 1600's and those can reach respectable distance on the man targets with a few ties out to 1087 yards and occasionally the hillside @ 1427 but never the 1800 or 2000 plus 799


We tried both the Leica 15 x 56 LRF 1400 new and the first gen 1300 and found them by far the most expensive @ 2999.00 and the worst of the pack. In the early morning hours
durring some light mist they would not even read the reflective range signs @ 400 yards. ( The Steiners were not detured by the mist and read body targets @ 1087 yrds and the hillside
@ 1427 yards. While the Leica 15 x 56 LRF's are poor in the range finder department they are the CLEAR winner in optics Quality far above even the Steiners.


the Swarvski @ 999 are good out to about 800 yards nice glass but the reticle is way to large to key in on game size targets.


If you NEED to know the range I put my money in the proven 1600 steiners.

Hope this helps


SW and ME

I have not tried the Vectronics as I know better than to tempt myself.

The Garage, while nice only has a SINGLE bed :P

I do not remember the Beam divergence but it was the same as the
New Leica 1600

One other note is the fantastic battery life with one 3 V CR 123 battery

No count but thousands of ranges and I found it works best in the Scan mode so I can concentrate on holding it STILL I used a rest or tripod most of the time

I am a Pro Photographer so I have a nice lightweight Carbon Fiber 4 section tripod Gitzo G1228 MKII with 468MGRC2 Head I really like.

Hope this helps

Dan

Any ?? feel free to call
715-367-1144
_________________________
swandmeme.com

715-367-1144

Thanks

Dan

I also need a new rangefinder....but I really like the idea of the TBR (true ballistic range) or the "shoots like" feature some have, anyone tested this? My scopes either have a dial or reticles in yds, so that's the number I need. I was going to get a CRF 1600 (to replace my 1200, I probably shouldn't have sold) but it doesn't sound like it gives a "shoots like" distance, only hold over. And some give shot angle, but I would prefer not to have to do that math myself. Also I am skeptical of the elevation, or barimetric pressure adjustment that Leica claims to use, because I don't understand what it uses as a baseline "zero" - maybe sea level? But I live at 8000 ft, does that mean I have to adjust my scopes to some theoretical sea level zero to make sense of the ballistic calculations?

I am sure I am thinking about this too hard, can anyone give me any suggestions for a rangefinder? I don't really need the bino combo, but the bushnell fusion 1600's seem closest to what I need, or should I just wait for Leica to add the "shoots like" function? I don't plan on taking shots over 750 yds, so I would be happy with a rangefinder that went to 1000 on brown furry critters with reasonable consistency.

Thanks

My experience is in order to do it right you need to use a separate tool to refine the holdover and or wind to get on target the first time. Even then there are variable beyond your control or imagination, ( like erratic wind and thermals across a canyon etc...

Of all the Ballistic tools I have tried Ohlher (Ballistic Explorer ) I have been using since the early 90's to the Night force ( Exbal By Perry Systems ) , LRSS , And a few more, I like the Knights Armament for the iPhone / iPod Touch by far the best and even the $12 version is fantastic.

The Leica CRF 1600 built in is a general guide for a fixed set of Bullet paths
that you might get lucky to match up with some of the time.

The CRF 1600 as a Range finder is quite nice and the compact size is impressive
and we found it would range the upper body size Targets @ Ft. McCoy most of the time out to 1084 Yards as long as you were on a steady rest and in scan
mode. I am still waiting to test the Bushnells but as of today my vote still goes to the Steiner 398 's

I have the blessing of a 1000 yard range I can use as needed and have spent many hours in the field in all kinds of weather and find the thrill of putting one in the bullseye the first time based on the science and tech is still a kick i enjoy.

Great optics Accurate, reliable,and repeatable hold over and weather tools are a big piece of the pie but the experience of those legendary mentors always gets my respect.

Thanks,

I probably rambled a bit there, but on all my hunting guns I have an aiming point, that matches my ballistics very well. In other words, given the elevation and horizontal distance, I can twist my elevation dial or pick the corresponding yardage bar (rapid z 800 reticle) and know where my bullet will land, out to 600 yds or so (this summers project is to see if we can get to 750). Anyway as big of a deal as wind is, I am going to hold off on that variable for now and just talk range.

So what I want in a range finder, is not some ballistic curve ( I've got that figured out already) and not some hold over ( I have know way of knowing what to do with say 66 in of hold over, other than guess, or convert it to MOA) I just want to know the true horizontal distance to the target, not the actual distance. So if I need to take a shot at an angle, I know what to turn my elevation dial to, in yds; or what bar to be on in my ballistic reticle in yds again.

From what I gather the Leica 1600, will give you line of sight distance to target and angle from horizontal, but doesn't display the true horizontal distance, even though it has to calculate it somewhere to even have a hope of providing "hold over".

It sounds like the Steiners are great, but I just can't see lugging that kind of weight up and down these mountains. I really want a sub 8 oz rangefinder, or a bino/rangefinder combo that is good enough that I don't feel too bad about leaving my Ultravids at home.

It just seems with all the new aiming systems based in yds (Leupold CDS, Zeiss Z600 and 800, Leupold BandC, etc) that more rangefinders should be spitting out the true horizontal distance as a primary display.

WOW Supertrucker, that is incredible bad luck. I have had the newer Geovids for years and never had a problem. I even carried the old 7x42 Geovids back in the 90's and they performed every time. Your experience was really bad luck... Hope the hunter had better luck finding a ram! O_C