Cheap ebay rangefinders, are they any good for airgunning ?

[BADGER.BRAD]

Hello all,

Are the cheap golf rangefinders on eBay any good for air gunning ? I very rarely get the chance to shoot at any distance other than up to about 12 meters in my back garden so don't get a lot of practice above these distances .My thinking is if I could find out the way the gun shoots at varying distances I would at least have a better chance when I do shoot at longer distances.

 

Thanks all

[bruno22rf]

TBH (and no doubt many will come along who disagree) with the limited range of an Airgun you would be better off practising range finding with your naked eye. If you normally shoot at 20 yards then it's fairly straightforward to double the range using guesstimation - set your primary zero at  20 then learn the drop over twice the distance - should become second nature and when you come across vermin at whatever range you should be in with a pretty good chance.

[Chaz25]

Bruno has a good point, train your eye, its part of the skill set, and one less thing to carry but I'm a bit old school and morn the loss of personal skill with tech taking over things we are more than capable of doing with one of the most powerful computers know to man, his own mind.

Edited January 24, 2020 by Chaz25

[Rewulf]

Learn the trajectory of your combo.

Use chair gun.

Zero at 25 or 30 yards, then learn how many clicks or mils you need for 35,40, and 45. If you dont have a long measure, this is the time to use the rangefinder if you have one.

Practice at these ranges and the rest will come naturally.

[strimmer_13]

I'm following this with interest. Not for airguns but I fancy knocking about some longer stuff, sub 300 yards and the hawke lrf400reviews ain't amazing on amazon. Was thinking is these £70 jobbies on ebay accurate enough. 

[BADGER.BRAD]

Thanks everyone , your input is much appreciated.I guess your right I will have to find somewhere I can practice and measure the distances to give myself an idea of how the gun shoots, then make up a little chart to jog my memory when I do get to use the gun at longer distances. Much cheaper as well.

[strimmer_13]

31 minutes ago, BADGER.BRAD said:

Thanks everyone , your input is much appreciated.I guess your right I will have to find somewhere I can practice and measure the distances to give myself an idea of how the gun shoots, then make up a little chart to jog my memory when I do get to use the gun at longer distances. Much cheaper as well.

The way i learned a long time ago, was the distance between fence posts. Sounds daft, but i started with only a few fields and the posts were about 5mtr apart. If I saw something along there it took a second to figure the distance. 

Take a tape next time your out, measure the space between, it will be fairly accurate for the whole length as fencers are a pretty ocd bunch I've found and stick a target next to each one out to 40 yards and practice your mildots / holdover 👍

[oldypigeonpopper]

9 minutes ago, strimmer_13 said:

The way i learned a long time ago, was the distance between fence posts. Sounds daft, but i started with only a few fields and the posts were about 5mtr apart. If I saw something along there it took a second to figure the distance. 

Take a tape next time your out, measure the space between, it will be fairly accurate for the whole length as fencers are a pretty ocd bunch I've found and stick a target next to each one out to 40 yards and practice your mildots / holdover 👍

hello, have done that with white spray paint on fence posts, easy to see with night vision

[Mr.C]

You can use parallax error to give you a pretty good range estimation. 

[Ultrastu]

What mr.C said above .That is how i range find in competions (where no lasers are allowed ) i can /or could .be very accurate to a yard between 8 and 15 .and then know what the images should look like at 20 25 30 35 40 and 45 yds   for hft . 

It was one of the reasons i was pretty sucessful at it  .

[figgy]

You can set out distances and use tape or scope markers to out the distance on your parralax wheel.  This is quite good and pretty accurate. 

I use a Hawke lrf 900 pro it's a good bit of kit, gives distance angles heights and the beeline function is it's best feature. If shooting up or down. 

Yes to answer the op the cheap ones are good enough. Check out airgunology on the web, Steve on it bought and tested one and it was decent.

[Hamster]

I got a cheap one off eBay and it is ok up to around 50-60 yards but struggles to give readings above that, in my opinion you can’t beat a decent one meant for firearms. As for learning to do it yourself either by experience or parallax, hmmmm, yes both can work very well but unless you happen to be very good at it it’s surprising how far out you can be under different background conditions. I’m pretty good myself up to around 60 yards but believe me 😬 there have been times when checking my own guesstimate against a laser has revealed fairly shocking errors. 

[figgy]

Hamster I agree, I regularly check myself against a range finder but as you say you can be off a good amount sometimes.

Best feature for me is the beeline, takes out the guessing or trying to get a read off the trunk at eye level if your shooting something higher out of a tree. All taken care of in one press of the button.

[Hamster]

👍

[stu64]

for me a cheap rangefinder is excellent, i paid £45 for mine off amazon. I'm not very good at estimating ranges anymore (age?) and find it essential now in woodland (most of my shooting)

[wobbly bob 2]

I bought an Eyoyo online for sub  £60.  No bells and whistles but checks out against a tape and more expensive stuff.

[figgy]

That's the one Steve on airpungogollogee bought himself and reviewed.