Looking for rangefinder for mountain rifle hunting

mtmuley said:
I had a bad experience with Vortex. I bought my first rangefinder, a Nikon Yardage Pro 800 in 1999. It was a great rangefinder, but I somehow lost it packing an elk out in the dark. I replaced it with a Nikon Monarch Gold 1200. Still have it. A warranty doesn't sway me for a rangefinder purchase as much as how long a company has made them. mtmuley
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I’ve got a Nikon Monarch 800 myself. Got in 1988 I believe and have never had the first issue with it. It’s been good to me.
 
I have a Razor 4000 I like quite a bit. I like it for archery too because it gives you 1/10 readings within about 250 yards.
 
I was set on a Leica until I played around with one. The glass is great, but I’m a little red colorblind so the display was really hard for me to see. The vortex razor and sig 2200 were much easier to read, they seem to have more orange in the display with larger font. Sig has two new rangefinders coming out that have some cool features so I’m waiting to see if they suit me better.
 
I replaced a Vortex last year with a good used,like new, Leica 1600b.
Night & day difference.
Just ranged a bull @ 1000 yrds @ 1st light. He is now about 300....make that 327yrds from my front door and moving up the hill past me.
 
Avoid vortex. Used to be good, at least the ranger 1000. My 1000 crapped out and they replaced it with an 1800 - that thing was worthless. Couldn't range close, couldn't range far, and the scan mode was like one range per 5 seconds. Max range I got out of it was 400yds, and barely. For a $380 rangefinder that was ridiculous!

I sold it and got a Sig, holy smokes!! This thing is awesome. Highly recommend Sig
 
I'm not into the technocrap and normally try to stay within moderate to close range when hunting so a rangefinder isn't on my Christmas list. However, in Africa when hunting for plains game a rangefinder can make a world of difference. No snow for tracking up close and personal. Also the geography doesn't always lend itself to that style of hunting (though it has given up my two closest shots ever - 15 and 12 yards into the heart of incoming gemsbuck). My PH does the ranging with his binoculars. Do most of you guys use rangefinding binoculars or a designated unit?
 
Not seeing much about Leupold on here - I've been really happy with the two I've had. I picked up my first one when I started archery hunting here and got a used RX1 that was fantastic. Last year I needed one in a hurry and couldn't get what I wanted as my Sheep Hunt was already costing me more then I had planned so I got the soon to be discontinued RX1300i which has done even better then my RX1.
But you can definitely get into some nicer models then I have for the $600 - and like other have pointed out - I'm $400 into range finders now ($350 for the new one and $50 for the used) so if I buy one more I should have just ponied up to begin with!

The local guy who built my Kimber runs the Sig and has the program on his phone where he can bluetooth to the rangefinder and it will take all the readings from his sheep hunting location and give him corrected data for altitude, temp, wind, pressure and angle I believe and it stores 10 rifles with a specific load per rifle.

When I look again I'll look at the Leupold, Leica and the Sig - Maven has also been stepping up and I see their name more and more.
 
I have a vortex ranger 1300, it's new, but so far I've loved it. Easy to use and read, has 3 modes, but I don't use scan, they others work (LOS and angle comp). For distances, I had no issue ranging an antelope at 837 yards this past weekend.

Time will tell how it holds up, but so far so good
 
I used a sig this weekend extensively. Sig makes a good unit but the readout is so bright that in low light you cannot see the image again for a 2nd confirmation readout.

I owned a Vortex 4000. Was about useless as the reticle is so huge you have no idea if you're on your target or not.

My favorite for along time has been my Leica 1600. It will read constantly well past 1600 in real world scenarios.
 
SCliving Outdoors said:
$400. Its a 5-4500yd unit. In my opinion it would cost more then double that from any other retailer. I've used it out to over 2000 on game at low light.
Click to expand...
Very nice. I will be checking it out for sure.

EDIT: I just accidentally ordered a RF1.
 
Last edited:
TimeOnTarget said:
I used a sig this weekend extensively. Sig makes a good unit but the readout is so bright that in low light you cannot see the image again for a 2nd confirmation readout.

I owned a Vortex 4000. Was about useless as the reticle is so huge you have no idea if you're on your target or not.

My favorite for along time has been my Leica 1600. It will read constantly well past 1600 in real world scenarios.
Click to expand...
The Sig 2200 I have you can adjust through five different levels of brightness or keep it on auto setting - pretty sweet.
 
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