I found the ultimate range finder!
I haven't had a ton of time to shoot in the last few months and while I've been working, one of the guys I shoot with has been quietly practicing his long range shooting. It used to be that 600 yards was enough for him. Now when we go out he wants to shoot past 1000. The problem was trying to get good ranges on rocks that far out. We were using a Leica 1200 and a surveyors rangefinder called a TruPulse. Those did pretty well to about 1000 yards in good conditions but dropped off after that. Sooooooo, I was nominated to buy a better rangefinder!
After a lot of searching and digging I realized that getting past that 1200 yard mark was a little trickier than I though it would be. The Leica 1600 and the Swarovski rangefinders are good but still struggle to really get out there in less than ideal conditions. Then I discovered the Vectronix Terrapin! This is the low end unit from Vectronix and it's rated at 2400 meters (about 2625 yards). That's far enough to challenge pretty much anyone's ability with a rifle!
I bit the bullet and ordered the Terrapin and I've had it for about 2 weeks now. It is without a doubt the best range finder I've ever played with! The best range I've got so far was over 4300 yards on a rock bluff down the road. This was under ideal conditions though at dusk off of a tripod. When we got it out into the woods we could get consistent hits off hand at about 2100 yards. From a steady rest or tripod we were getting in the 3500 yard range to rocks on an overcast day. In fog/rainy conditions 1867 was the best we could do. To be fair though, we couldn't even see that rock well enough through the fog to get a shot at it even if we wanted to.
I have to say that this was probably the best optics purchase I've made since I picked up my spotting scope. I wasn't convinced that I wanted to drop the money on one until I started contacting vendors about pricing. When they told me that this particular unit was getting discontinued I figured that it was time to move quick. In fact, one vendor told me that if I found one in stock anywhere at any reasonable price to just buy it!
Now I need to practice so that I can actually hit stuff as far out as I can range it!
Andrew
