From: John De Armond
Subject: Re: Experience with range finders ?
Date: 11 Nov 90 06:29:29 GMT

Ed.Harris@p0.f417.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Ed Harris) writes:
>My experience is 
>that small range finders are useful for golfers and archers, but for a 
>rifle shooter to gain any advantage you would need to have a pretty 
>bulky range finder, since up to about 300 yards, range estimation 
>errors won't hurt you much with modern rifles properly zeroed.  I have 
>also found that most of the popular ones have poor light gathering 
>ability and don't perform under poor conditions when you need them.

I have a Rangematic Mk 5 soooper-doooper 1000 yd optical rangefind.
This is the kind you commonly see in the sporting goods stores and at
gun shows.  It has a separation of about 1 foot.

It is a pretty sorry unit.  The optics are very bad.  Instead of
split screen which is easy to use, it uses a colored filter, in this
case, yellow, for one image.  Except under ideal conditions, the 
yellow image is indistinguishable from the clear one.

Secondly, it has a rather cheap plastic dial that I'd have little 
confidence in regarding stability.  The scale is very non-linear and
is so coarse by 300 yards (50 yds, div) as to be pretty worthless.
I've found that I can estimate distance visually about as well without
the unit as with.  I've never checked the calibration so I don't have
any idea as to accuracy.

john

From: toby@stein.u.washington.edu (Toby Bradshaw)
Subject: Re: Range finders
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

In article <240@ecsa01.encon.pge.com> dxbq@ecsa01.encon.pge.com (Dimitar Bojantchev) writes:

#Hello group,
#
#just came to the realization that serious sniper shooting can't
#be achieved without the help of a range finder device. I am aware
#of some simple and imprecise techniques for range measurement but
#was wondering if there are any optical devices on the market which
#are reasonably priced. Answers by e-mail welcome.

The standard for long-range hunting is the Barr&Stroud rangefinder,
which comes in 500 and 1000 yard models, I believe, and is good to
+/- 1% at its maximum range.  They run about $1000 if you can find
one.  An optical rangefinder can be made from two riflescopes and
a metal bar to serve as the baseline, as detailed in a recent
Precision Shooting.  Not having a prism or mirrors connecting the
two scopes, it would be less convenient to use than the Barr&Stroud,
but can be built for $300-$400 (and the scopes can be removed and
used for their intended purpose).

Toby Bradshaw
Department of Biochemistry and College of Forest Resources
University of Washington, Seattle
toby@u.washington.edu

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