Rangefinder Recommendation

[tahoebum]

Read your post, went to TGW -- Leupold GX3i3 was crucified on TGW - display going out right after warranty period, Leupold offering new RF at a discount or doing nothing. That would make me run from them.

I prefer going by personal experience or from others I know and trust vs. online reviews/ratings from retailers who could easily be scewed for one reason or another. I'm a long time user of rangefinder, binoculars, and hunting scopes and I've owned 8 laser rangefinders since 1994 from Nikon, Bushnell, and Leupold. I had two Busnells fail me just out of the 2 year warranty and got zero help from their customer service. I bought a 3rd rangefinder from them but had trouble with the fit/function of the eye cup and sold it to a buddy when it was less than a year old. It failed on him two years later and Bushell offered him no help. Needless to say, I will never buy any product from them again.

My oldest Leupold rangefinder is 8 years old and works perfectly and I have several friends who have all had the same experience. Leupold has a long track record of high quality and great customer service going back 100+ years and my father-in-law has a few of their rangefinders over 15 years old that all work perfectly. He also owns 50+ Leupold rifle scopes and binoculars and the only one he ever had trouble with they replaced no charge after 30+ years of use. He was an elk hunting guide in Montana for many decades and also served as a Marine in Vietnam for 3 tours(one as a sniper) so he knows a bit about optics and demands only the best from his firearms and optics. As far as ranking optics companies for their quality, Leupold has cemented their reputaiton as the best and in fact the Army just selected one of their optics for their new precision sniper rilfe.

 

[JB]

Read your post, went to TGW -- Leupold GX3i3 was crucified on TGW - display going out right after warranty period, Leupold offering new RF at a discount or doing nothing. That would make me run from them.

FWIW, that is what happened to my GX4i
Display went blank and would just display odd numbers and characters.
I can't comment on the customer service part though.

 

[Desmond]

I prefer going by personal experience or from others I know and trust vs. online reviews/ratings from retailers who could easily be scewed for one reason or another. I'm a long time user of rangefinder, binoculars, and hunting scopes and I've owned 8 laser rangefinders since 1994 from Nikon, Bushnell, and Leupold. I had two Busnells fail me just out of the 2 year warranty and got zero help from their customer service. I bought a 3rd rangefinder from them but had trouble with the fit/function of the eye cup and sold it to a buddy when it was less than a year old. It failed on him two years later and Bushell offered him no help. Needless to say, I will never buy any product from them again.

My oldest Leupold rangefinder is 8 years old and works perfectly and I have several friends who have all had the same experience. Leupold has a long track record of high quality and great customer service going back 100+ years and my father-in-law has a few of their rangefinders over 15 years old that all work perfectly. He also owns 50+ Leupold rifle scopes and binoculars and the only one he ever had trouble with they replaced no charge after 30+ years of use. He was an elk hunting guide in Montana for many decades and also served as a Marine in Vietnam for 3 tours(one as a sniper) so he knows a bit about optics and demands only the best from his firearms and optics. As far as ranking optics companies for their quality, Leupold has cemented their reputaiton as the best and in fact the Army just selected one of their optics for their new precision sniper rilfe.

We all have different experiences. - my son still has the first Leupold from 13 yr ago. I have a Leica Pinseeker that is 16 yr old but only for emergency duty. Not great at getting the pin now as new ones. My Bushnell Tour X, about 5 yr old, works well. I was genuinely surprised at the feedback on the Leupold that I read - probably the reason I posted it, is that I was in shock. Always heard Leupold were excellent.

 

[tahoebum]

We all have different experiences. - my son still has the first Leupold from 13 yr ago. I have a Leica Pinseeker that is 16 yr old but only for emergency duty. Not great at getting the pin now as new ones. My Bushnell Tour X, about 5 yr old, works well. I was genuinely surprised at the feedback on the Leupold that I read - probably the reason I posted it, is that I was in shock. Always heard Leupold were excellent.

The Leupold reviews on TGW that you mention are very good except for the GX3i3 and the bad reviews for that model all look like they may have been written by the same person, lol. Either way, we have lots of great choices for rangefinders these days at all sorts of price points. I used my 19 year old Nikon a few times last month in Florida and was amazed that it picks up flags just as easy and fast as the newer ones I own.

They all seem to work so well now that functionally they are very similar with the lone exception being the Nikon Coolshot Pro. The image stabilization on that one really does work for those who have trouble locking onto flags.