Bino / Rangefinder combo
 

Looking for a set for the up and coming season.
Not looking at breaking the bank. Pros and cons


Nikon
Vortex
Sig

If anyone has a pair for sale I will look at other brands but my budget is 1200-1500.

Thanks in advance

At that price range you are real close to getting into a set of used geovids.

I own the vortex Fury 5000’s. Got up to around 4300
Yard ranges while sheep hunting. Impressive! The glass is basically the Razor HD. I can glass a hard day (and I go pretty darn hard) and not have too bad eye fatigue. We’re talking hrs and hrs on the glass. No they aren’t Swaro but they are decent quality for the price and have no issues picking out sheep (and other critters) with good clarity and sharp edges. The warranty is second to none.
The downside is they didn’t “raise” the range button on top so it’s hard to find with a glove on. I solved that by adding a dab of silicone on the button. Worked like a darn.

Sig 3000 binos for that price if you look hard enough.

This summer i sold my 10 year old Leica geovids and bought a pair of the SIG kilo3000 rangefinder binoculars. Pretty much a straight over swap as i sold the old ones for 1300 and new ones were 1349 on sale at bass pro.
The glass is obviously not the same - i wasn’t expecting Leica quality glass - but the different settings, speed of ranging and lower weight make me happy i bought the new ones. The glass isn’t BAD - heck, it’s much better than i expected, just not quite on the same level as Leica, zeiss, or swaro.
Also, i recently bought a new tikka in 6.5 and topped it with a SIG Sierra 6.5-20 scope. The rangefinder and scope communicate with each other, and when you range a target, the scope automatically adjusts the point of aim to reflect the distance... I’m not much of a rifle hunter, but for shooting steel targets at various ranges, i thought it would be a ton of fun. Haven’t tried it out too much, but it was definitely a selling feature on the SIG binocular/rangefinder.
As a side note - one of my buddies also got rangefinding binoculars this summer. He went with the vortex. When comparing them in the field, we notice that the SIG are a tiny bit clearer in low light, but not by much. The warranty on the vortex is much better. So i think that’s the trade off.

Thank you for the reviews

still looking for a pair
anyone know of any good used?
thanks

I was looking at the Nikon Laserforce at Cabelas and the sales associate said that the warranty was limited on the range finder. I think he said 2 years. That there was a solid no, couple that with the fact Nikon is getting out of hunting optics, if you have a issue you may not have service. If in buying anything that is limited in use and over $1000 I want warranty for life.

I believe the only company that warranties the range finding aspect for life is Vortex. All other companies, the glass and body are warrantied for life and the electronics are normally covered for 1-2 years.

You are right that Vortex is the only one I know that warranties red-dots and RFs lifetime like the rest of their stuff. That aside, I have used Leica RF in monocular and binos for 25 years. No failures nor do I know anyone that had one fail and just in my direct buddies we have over a dozen Leica RFs of different types. I did send one pair of Ultravids back to fix a lens alignment issue, never even checked for warranty as it wasn't Leica's fault, repaired and returned no charge.

Athlon has a RF Bino now as well with their top tier glass that is supposed to beat out the Razor glass. Their warranty is on par with Vortex although I haven’t looked into reviews on them yet.

I have been happy with the Vortex Fury’s.