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New Binoculars or Range Finder?

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Hit&Miss84

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I am headed to Va for opening weekend of archery and I have neither good binoculars or any sort of range finder. I don't have money for both - I have about $150.00+/-. Any thought on whether a range finder or binoculars would be more helpful and any suggestions on either that would fit my budget?
 
$150 for a range finder probably wont get you much. My buddy got one of those Wildgame Innovations ones and you can barely read the yardage on a sunny day.

I got some bino's last year on sale from $99 for like $30 from BassPro. They do the job pretty well IMO.
 
I would opt for a rangefinder�even the halo is better than nothing. You do not need binoculars to see 40 yards, hence the logic behind suggesting the rangefinder that will give you accurate measurements for what you are shooting at.
 
Thanks, I found some refurbed bushnell 1200 that were around $240.00. I am guessing I wil have to spend more than $150.00 on the range finder but i cant spend much more than $200.00. also been looking at Hawke binoculars, they seem pretty nice for the money.
 
If I can't buy a range finder in my price range that will last a while and work well I will probably forgo the range finder until I can afford something that won't be a waste of money.
 
I have a couple of friends that use the cheaper Halo rangefinder, due to financial reasons, and they have had no problems with them. I think that rangefinder is $100, give or take a little.
 
I ended up looking at low end rangefinder reviews and decided to see if Dicks had the cheap little Simmons, they did! $79.00 after $20.00 mail in rebate. It had the best reviews out of the ones I found and it worked better than the WGI in the store. Hopefully it will last long enough I can use it to practice judging distances and eventually go without electronic assistance. I decided to hold off on the binoculars but tried out some made by Hawke and they felt really nice and solid.

Thanks for the advice, I wish I had more time and money!
 
I am old fashioned. I walk off the yardage from my stand and make mental notes or disturb the ground with my heel. I only do around 20 yard and 30 yard markers. I have an inexpensive range finder and use it to check my yardage markers I have made, but only if I feel like packing it.

I think Binocs would be more helpful if you were big buck hunting.
 
I own two good compact binoculars and never use them bowhunting. I went to Dicks about a month ago looking to buy a range finder for both archery and golf. The guy in the hunting dept told me that I would not be happy with the "hunting" range finders when playing golf. So, I went to the golf dept and looked at their best range finder which was a Bushnell Tour v2. I went home and bought it for $245 on ebay with free shipping and no tax. It arrived in three days. I took it to my tree stand and sighted in the distances the first day. It is great for golf with excellent lighting and very easy to use. It is 5 power. Having used it on several golf outings, I'm much better at estimating distances with my naked eye than before. I plan to carry it with me during the muzzy and gun season also.
 
Hit&Miss84 said:
If I can't buy a range finder in my price range that will last a while and work well I will probably forgo the range finder until I can afford something that won't be a waste of money.
Click to expand...

Bingo. See what you can find... but why waste $150 on something if it isn't going to work well and isn't going to last?
 
Just save your money like everybody else is saying and buy quality if you're serious about hunting. There are other means of measuring distance such as walking off yardage from your tree and placing flag tape at different yardages if need be. But most of the time my shots in the whitetail woods are really close.
 

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