Range finders

[cruze82]

Hi all
I have just purchased a range finder from ebay its a nikko sterling 5-800m range finder, has any one had any luck with this brand ?
it was not the cheapest but not the most expensive on the market
I recently used a lupold one at the gun shop and was very impressed with the quality but the price was a bit high

[Rocker]

Hey mate,

I think I had the same one as you, the NSLRF501?



Mine worked good, one day though I decided to leave it at the bottom of the river while crossing

TBH the 800m distance was asking a bit much of it I found, it was prone to a little trouble past 500m ish...

Inside that though no problems.

I didn't really use mine heaps so haven't raced out to buy another one, but I'd get it again when I have the cash...

[Rippah]

If I remember right their are actually two distances for factor in with these.

One is the distance it will work on all objects, and the max distance is what it will work at on reflective objects.

That's probably where you're getting your issue Rocker?

[Rippah]

Or were getting it before you took it for a swim

[cruze82]

I think I had the same one as you, the NSLRF501?

That's the one .

That's good to know ill be happy if I get 500m out of it, there are not too many real life animal shots that range past that.

I'll just remember not to swim with it.

[Grated]

I had the same one too, ended up swaping it with a mate for some other shooting goodies but only because I didn't use it much, not because there was anything wrong with it.

Can't say I ever tried it at 800m, more like 300-400m for my shooting, but it worked no complaints up to that for me too.

[Noisydad]

What did you discover about your own abilities to judge range compared to what the machine told you? Where your estimates close or miles away? Did your own estimates get better having a baseline to judge against? Just interested is all having never used one.

[cruze82]

Ok the range finder has arrived but not over the moon about the performance of the product it only seems to work well when you are straight on to an object.

I was interested I the same thing as you noisydad I wanted to confirm that my range estimates were close enough to make the shot, when it does work it seems quite accurate as I have checked a known distance of 350m and 100m and it comes up within a meter each time.

If an animal presented it self I would probably trust my own judgement of range over it as it takes to much time to pull the thing out and try get it to work.

However I have found it useful to range the terrain that I hunt on a regular basis animals tend to gather in the same spots all the time and I tend to stalk from the same 10 vantage points so knowing those ranges is useful.

[Grrzrr]

What did you discover about your own abilities to judge range compared to what the machine told you? Where your estimates close or miles away? Did your own estimates get better having a baseline to judge against? Just interested is all having never used one.

I found my ability to judge distance turned out to be pretty terrible

Using a range finder for a little while gave me some good reference and helped me better my own estimates I think.

[Noisydad]

I found my ability to judge distance turned out to be pretty terrible

Using a range finder for a little while gave me some good reference and helped me better my own estimates I think.

Interesting! I've suspected (for a long time) that lots of people cant tell the difference between 100m from 300m with most estimating waaay to far. Keen to hear some more observations from users.

[inervate]

I found after a bit of time I was pretty decent at doing 50m, 100m and 150m because that's what I'm used to at the range.

Anything beyond that though, TBH I'm just just throwing a figuring out

At 300 or 400 metres I've occasionally had a range finder handy and made a guess and found I'm 100m short or more. Real far off...