Went out yesterday scouting public land for new shooting spots and brought it with me Starting mid day at 1230 to 1630 (hour before sunset). Obviously it got better as the day went on and the sun wasn't so intense so I'll only post the two extremes. In between those times, the distance and consistency increased.
Distance in yards , shot out of window in my truck, no support other then elbows on window seal holding laser in hands .
Conditions were clear sky fresh light snow. Some mirage from snow / bright sun combo.
Picture from the day I went out taken at 1330ish
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Picture from last week facing the opposite direction to show the terrain in which I tested it out in
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1230 Mid day, sun to back
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Snowbanks were hard to read kinda all over the place depending on angle and how much snow was on them, pretty consistent at 1000-1500
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Trees depended on location and in what relation to sun. Stand alone in shadows about 1500, treelines and groups of trees at 1600-2000 regardless of conditions
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Rocks were about the same as trees, maybe a little better pretty consistent at 2000-2200 when it's a a big face
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Black cattle against white snow, 1000 consistently but got nothing past 1100. I started at 2000 and pulled over every 100 yards until I got a reading. Herds of cows or standalone made no difference.
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Single Antelope/ Deer against snow, 1000-1200 consistently, there was some out at 1500ish but no readings at that distance.
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Buildings, 2200-2400
Facing the sun decreased distance by about 10% on average on any target.
1430 hour sunset, sun to back
I was limited by the location I drove to to the last part of the day. Furthest tree line/ rock face was 2400. So it very well could have lasted further.
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Snowbanks 2000-2200 consistently , would hit the 2400-2500 mark ~70% of the time.
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Trees 2400 consistently (max avail)
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Rocks 2400 consistently (max avail)
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Black cattle shot the furthest herd I could find and got 1800 consistently, there wasn't that many out there. Got one that was off feeding by himself at 1750 as well.
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Single Antelope/ deer, only saw a couple at this spot, but the furthest one lased up at 1600 no problem. ( I would bet they would lase just as good if not better then the cows)
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Buildings 2600 (furthest one I could spot)
Hindsight, I should have used the same location , lase the same things, making the only variable the time of day.
Mount came in after I got home yesterday so I'll bring try to get out tomorrow and do it again but with the mount and use the same location.
I know I signed up for, I know I'll be going through all the bugs of any new product. If I was smart, I would have waited, but I'm a dipshit, so here's the two bugs I've encountered the past three days having it.
The rangefinder shuts after a few minutes when it's not used, no biggy, it wakes up as soon as you engage the button to range. But the bluetooth also goes to sleep and disconnects from your kestrel. Now it should "remember " it's paired to your kestrel and hook back up when you depress the "range" button. About 50% of the time it doesn't. Forcing you to go back in your kestel to devices, highlight the 35000.com and let it search/ connect again ( it is on "lock" in settings). Sometimes it helps to turn off Bluetooth and back on in kestrel. I had to "forget" the 3500 one time to get it to pair back up ..if that's not frustrating enough, here's the kicker. You won't know until your firing solution doesn't show up. Both the kestrel and the HUD in the rangefinder show a solid "Bluetooth" logo saying it's connected.. I don't know if it's an update that Kestrel or Leica has to do but I haven't called either yet, so that's on me. They might not even know yet since it's so new.
Personally I would rather the Bluetooth stays connected and drains my battery.
The one thing that Leica could have prevented was the fact that there no way to clear the last ranged target so you can range another one quickly. For example, there's a target in a field at 500 yards and a treeline 500 yards behind the target. You lase the target and you see that you've actually missed it and hit the treeline, the rangefinder is reading 1000 yards..you have to wait for the rangefinder to complete it's whole cycle before you can range another target ( approximately 3 seconds if the kestrel is hooked up probably but 15-20 seconds if it's disconnected like it is 50% of the time)... Scan mode prevents this, but scan mode is only activated by holding the button down for >3 seconds then continue to hold it. The time the distance is shown is either too short when you need it and everything is hooked up , or way too long when it disconnects to the kestrel. The way to improve this would be to have a feature where you could quickly tap the scroll through the menu button or something after you lase something to scroll through the range/solutions. Also a recall of the last lased distance would be nice, I could be wrong but I haven't found a way to do that yet.
Also in case anyone was wondering...
The mount and the neoprene case for the CRF from Leica are compatible, as long as you don't use both together at the same time.. this mount is badass though, machined to an exact fit. Neoprene cover is cheesy but works fine.
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I don't know what I
should be expecting out of a >$1100 rangefinder, but I guess I was expecting a little more. I may be biased, I have always dreamed of owning a Terrapin and even though I have never even looked through one before, I know it will be a big "what if" in the back of my mind. Seeing all the pictures of people with Kilo 3000's hitting 4000+ yards surely doesn't help either. But then again, it's only been three days, I am sure updates are on the way and the conditions outside are always a big factor.
