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FEATUREHow Far?
I had others there who seemed to be knowledgeable but how could I confirm their more-educated guesses? One year – and one year only – an optics manufacturer supplied laser rangefinders. I found them interesting enough to want one of my own. Primarily it's "just to see" – a confirmation thing. As other fiscal issues intruded demanding my attention, I pushed laser rangefinders to the "maybe later" category. At the local club range, I'd paced off distances to targets on the rimfire/black powder range. Making the trip on the Highpower range to post targets gave me some idea there too, but a little precision would be helpful. A few days ago, I was in a local version of a "big big-box store," part of a company which is all but everywhere in the States. I had business fairly close to sporting goods and wandered over. An employee, a veteran of many years at that location, was easy to talk to. As we chatted about ammunition availability, I noticed a tag on an item in the optics counter. It was cheap, less than a C-note cheap. "Is that a rangefinder?" I asked. He sighed. "I was hoping you didn't notice it." He got the key to the display and said he was planning on checking it out later in the week. It was a Bushnell Scout DX 1000 ARC, black. Sale price on this item at BH-Photo is somewhere just south of $270 and the price shown was about thirty percent of that. "Uh, that would be sold." Now there's no carry case, lanyard or instructions, but a battery was installed. To say I started ranging items as soon as I got out of the store would be accurate.
It's certainly got more features than I'll use: settings for bow or rifle, using ballistic tables to calculate hold-over/under at various distances, etc. It's powered by commonly available CR2 3-volt lithium batteries. The device pushes infrared energy to calculate distance: the time it takes to reach the objective and reflect back calculated by a microprocessor. Accuracy depends on how still you can hold the device on the objective; keeping the power button depressed will give readings of the item and its surroundings. Reflectivity of the target will determine the maximum range of the device. You can expect +/- one yard accuracy at 100 yards or more. I determined a few things about our range: distance from closest firing point to each target board, backstop and steel target is very close. I imagine they taped the distances at the outset – and worked harder than I did confirming the range. Upon reflection – see what I did there? – I should have made the purchase before now. Actually ranging distances in neighborhoods, parking lots and the like gives you a basis for range estimation in your usual environments when it's inappropriate or impossible to use a rangefinder. It's a handy gizmo. Everyone should have one. For more information on the Bushnell line, see their website. - - Rich Grassi 
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