Russ Hatch
Well-Known Member
A friend and I took my new Zeiss rangefinder out for a test drive today. The weather was overcast with intermitent drizzle, in other words a gray gloomy day. We drove the gravel roads until we found several cattle herds in pastures at various ranges. The rangefinder was set up in yards. We also had a old, 15 yrs old, Bushnell 400 with us. There is a world of difference between looking through the 8x26 Zeiss and the 7x25 Bushnell. The Zeiss is much clearer and brighter. We also had a pair of Nikon Traveller III's, 8x26 binoculars and a pair of Meade 10x25 binoculars along for the ride. The Zeiss was the best of all the optics we were using. These 67 year old eyes were able to make out greater detail with the Zeiss at any range than with any of the other optics.
I had read that the Zeiss would not range black objects, so we found a herd of mixed Black and Red Angus cows at ranges varying from 300 to 950 yds. I could range the black cows out to 650 yds but no further, the furthest that I ranged a red cow was to 957 yards. I was able to range red calves out to 800 yds.
We also played around with the scan mode, ranging cars passing us. The farthest I ranged a car was 1453 yards, not to bad for a 1300 yd rangefinder
. The farthest building was 1149 yards.
When comparing the Zeiss to the Bushnell at ranges under 400 yds the Zeiss was much faster. It appeared that the Zeiss would have a readout as soon as you lifted your finger from the button. The readouts between the two were within 2 yds of each other to 400 yds where the Busnell could not read any further. I prefered the Ziess aiming mark to the Busnell's. The Bushnell 400 uses a LCD shaped like a set of cross hairs with a square in the center and is black in color. It also had a bar acrossed the top of the view that gave you a visual display of the lasers return strength and at the bottom the range is showed. The Ziess uses a LED shaped like a small set of crosshairs with a small circle in the center and is bright red in color and bright red numbers at the bottom for the range.
The Zeiss has a Ballistic Information System (BIS) in it that goes to 600 yds. I have no use for the system as the drops don't match any of my rifles and there is no way to input BC or bullet speed into the rangefinder. I would much rather See a ARC system in the rangefinder.
The Zeiss comes with a belt pouch, neck lanyard, cleaning cloth, instruction booklet, and a 2 year parts guarantee.
I had read that the Zeiss would not range black objects, so we found a herd of mixed Black and Red Angus cows at ranges varying from 300 to 950 yds. I could range the black cows out to 650 yds but no further, the furthest that I ranged a red cow was to 957 yards. I was able to range red calves out to 800 yds.
We also played around with the scan mode, ranging cars passing us. The farthest I ranged a car was 1453 yards, not to bad for a 1300 yd rangefinder
. The farthest building was 1149 yards.When comparing the Zeiss to the Bushnell at ranges under 400 yds the Zeiss was much faster. It appeared that the Zeiss would have a readout as soon as you lifted your finger from the button. The readouts between the two were within 2 yds of each other to 400 yds where the Busnell could not read any further. I prefered the Ziess aiming mark to the Busnell's. The Bushnell 400 uses a LCD shaped like a set of cross hairs with a square in the center and is black in color. It also had a bar acrossed the top of the view that gave you a visual display of the lasers return strength and at the bottom the range is showed. The Ziess uses a LED shaped like a small set of crosshairs with a small circle in the center and is bright red in color and bright red numbers at the bottom for the range.
The Zeiss has a Ballistic Information System (BIS) in it that goes to 600 yds. I have no use for the system as the drops don't match any of my rifles and there is no way to input BC or bullet speed into the rangefinder. I would much rather See a ARC system in the rangefinder.
The Zeiss comes with a belt pouch, neck lanyard, cleaning cloth, instruction booklet, and a 2 year parts guarantee.
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