My testing has been more in line with the way I would expect you will use yours once you have it in hand. I've taken it with me on many trips afield and have used it extensively here on my land. The most distant object I can see from my property is a tree top on a hill that the YP-1000 tells me is 998 yards away. I'll have to take its word for it as I can't string a line between the two points and measure. What it does prove to me is that under field conditions I can expect this unit to provide me with distances up to or over the stated 1000 yard range of it. Will it do this on a big game animal? Can't say as I don't have a clue where I'd find a place around here that I can see a deer at such a distance. I have measured deer with no problem to the maximum distances I have seen them since getting it but that is under 200 yards in most cases as that's as far as I can see most places I hunt. I've tested it on bushes and trees to well over such distances and on the Reed Ranch in Texas it measured to trees well beyond the 1000 yard distance but I failed to record the numbers and CRS prevents me from recalling them precisely so I won't list a specific number but it was well beyond and not just a little beyond. In case you might be wondering just how accurate these units are, here is what Bushnell has to say on the subject on their website: Q. How accurate is the Yardage Pro 400/Compact 600/800? A. The 400, Compact 600 and 800 models are accurate to within 1 yard. PRECISION will be displayed when this accuracy has been achieved. When you have precision displayed, you can actually step forward and back in small increments noting when the range changes, and you can obtain ranges as accurate to be within 1 foot. If PRECISION is not displayed, the accuracy is within 3 yards. That's good enough for me and was backed up by the technical testing in the article I mentioned. I've checked it over the shorter distances I can actually measure and have to agree that the accuracy is consistently within a yard or less. There are a number of targeting modes that help you to gain the most benefit from your Yardage Pro Range Finder such as Scan, Rain, Zip and Reflector. The manual that comes with each range finder explains the use of these modes as does much of the literature that Bushnell puts out so I'll skip over that for this review. If you have questions not answer on the Bushnell website regarding them then call Bushnell at their toll free number listed below and ask, they will be happy to answer your questions. So what's the bottom line on owning and using a Bushnell Yardage Pro Range finder? Well if you hunt with rifle in thick cover they probably will not be of much aid to you as anything you see will be in range and the distance won't matter. If you are a bow hunter you need to know the distance rather precisely to prevent over or under shooting and so the appropriate range finder can greatly assist you. If you are an open country rifleman or if you use handguns at ranges where making the shots might be iffy without knowing the distance then I can see no reason not to have one of these units with you when hunting. They are light in weight, compact in size and highly accurate. I don't plan to hunt open country without one again. I also found it very useful on our Single Shot Rifle Forum Match held recently (April 2001). We wanted targets at 25, 50, 100, 250 and 400 yards and the use of the range finder and the Motorola radios I had on loan allowed us to precisely set them to these distances and without having to step it off or hollar to each other. I plan to continue to test this YP-1000 in a variety of conditions and if I find any problems I'll report them to you here. Right now as I write this (5-6-01) Rick Brown has the YP-1000 doing some testing of his own. Nope, no way I forgot it and left it in his truck when we returned from the shoot, not me, would I do that? Oh well, maybe I did but last year it was a TC Contender with Custom Shop 6 TCU barrel and Burris 3-12X scope so at least this time the item left in his truck costs less money. The Bushnell YP-1000 has impressed me and I can't imagine how I got along without one for so long. It gets the Graybeard Seal of Approval. If you've been wondering which range finder to buy I'd suggest the YP-1000.
Model :20-1000
Bushnell Corporation 9200 Cody Overland Park, KS Important Phone Numbers: In Kansas City area - (913) 752-3400 |
