A Clean Miss on a Trophy Animal
- Thread starter Crews
- Start date
Why do rangefinder companies use such large measuring indicator boxes? Is it because they can't accurately manufacture the laser position to the display any more accurately, don't want to take the time to adjust it to a smaller indicator, or they just don't understand the importance of having a ranging point that's precise at long distance instead of the size of a trailer.
It's an angular measurement. The longer the range, the larger the "box". You should be able to calculate this using the 'beam divergence' spec. My Leica has a beam divergence of 1.2 MIL vertical x .5 MIL horizontal. So roughly 4.3 inches tall and 1.8 inches wide at 100 yards. That would be approx. 43" tall and 18" wide at 1000 yards. That's a fairly reasonable size as it's not larger than your average man a 70" tall and 16" wide.
Better usually equals more money. If you want a military grade rangefinder, you're in the $10K+ range. But they operate a much more powerful LASER.
TL/DR; Beam divergence is the spec you need to pay attention to when shopping rangefinders.
I think the question wasn’t how but why. Is it more costly to have a smaller divergence. My $400 sig rangefinder will range as far as the eye can see. Over 2000 yards on bigger objects. The only way to better it would be to shrink the divergence as you called it. Is it more costly to do so, or do they make some products sub par in order to influence you to spend more on a product that increases the manufacturers profit margins?
Here's some of my experience
I have a sig kilo 2000 and have had it since they first came out. The scan mode is worth its weight in gold because you scan all around as others have mentioned and can build up around it and can verify the actual target and do it FAST
other bits...
I used the sig kilo as part of the gear to shoot a deer in 2017 that was quite challenging.
I was:
- in a 20ft tree stand
-deer were only coming out right at dusk so very low light situation
-literally rained all day on me in stand and stopped at dusk and fog rolled in
-deer was not a massive buck so smaller target
I had all my gear sorted and rifle zero verified the day before. The following were things I did to try and prepare as best I could:
-verified weather was the same as far as DA and temp
-went and practiced at the distance I was planning on shooting
-painted SMALLER than normal deer torso across my full size IPSC
-SHOT positional out of my truck with tailgate up to mimic front rail on deer stand
-used backpack and shooting bags in would be using in stand
-analyzed my hand loads visually and on scale to verify as much I could that ammo was same and good to go
I was shooting handloads with 147 ELD going 2858 fps out of my 26 inch 6.5 CM with form1 suppressor
The result was a cold bore shot placed exactly where I aimed. The shot entered right side in vitals behind should and exited leaving a hole AT LEAST as big as a baseball on left side.
Not bragging here, just sharing my experience. It's tough to hunt long range. There are many great suggestions and recommendations as to what could have gone wrong. Just learn and know everything for sure as best you can. Good luck on next hunt
I have a sig kilo 2000 and have had it since they first came out. The scan mode is worth its weight in gold because you scan all around as others have mentioned and can build up around it and can verify the actual target and do it FAST
other bits...
I used the sig kilo as part of the gear to shoot a deer in 2017 that was quite challenging.
I was:
- in a 20ft tree stand
-deer were only coming out right at dusk so very low light situation
-literally rained all day on me in stand and stopped at dusk and fog rolled in
-deer was not a massive buck so smaller target
I had all my gear sorted and rifle zero verified the day before. The following were things I did to try and prepare as best I could:
-verified weather was the same as far as DA and temp
-went and practiced at the distance I was planning on shooting
-painted SMALLER than normal deer torso across my full size IPSC
-SHOT positional out of my truck with tailgate up to mimic front rail on deer stand
-used backpack and shooting bags in would be using in stand
-analyzed my hand loads visually and on scale to verify as much I could that ammo was same and good to go
I was shooting handloads with 147 ELD going 2858 fps out of my 26 inch 6.5 CM with form1 suppressor
The result was a cold bore shot placed exactly where I aimed. The shot entered right side in vitals behind should and exited leaving a hole AT LEAST as big as a baseball on left side.
Not bragging here, just sharing my experience. It's tough to hunt long range. There are many great suggestions and recommendations as to what could have gone wrong. Just learn and know everything for sure as best you can. Good luck on next hunt
I assume you have the same attitude for now hunters and flintlocks?
I would say the average person poking at animals at longer ranges has more success and is more prepared than the average gun hunter who shoots one box of ammo over 5 years.
140s work great on deer. Just as good as Amax of course deer aren’t hard to kill
Similar threads
