NRL Hunter Binos: Prioritizing Ballistic Solver vs Glass Quality

[white_rushin]

Hello, I attended my first NRL Hunter and I’m officially hooked. I have a question for the more experienced folks on this site:

My teammate and I approached our stages with a handheld LRF + standard binos. We lost a significant amount of time on each stage because of juggling multiple devices.

I’ll be buying a set of RF Binos this summer to use for training + next NRL season. Money is a concern since I cannot rationalize spending $3000 on a tool that I’ll be using somewhat frequently. It appears in that $1K-$1.5K price range, there’s a trade off between having a ballistic solver (Sig Canyon, 6K HDX) vs higher glass quality but no ballistic output (Vortex Fury, GPO Rangeguide, Geovid R)

For any reader or NRL competitor, do you think it’s better to have worse glass + ballistics or sacrifice the ballistics and get better glass? For reference I use a data card / arm sleeve.

 

[wpeach1912]

The glass on the sigs isn’t that awful. I have the older 3ks, and I very rarely don’t find targets. If you get the 6ks, you’ll need a kestrel or something for solutions past 800. The fury ABs are a good in between with having full AB, but they are a bit slow for some people

 

[mmlook]

for NRL hunter, under $1k, its hard to beat the Sig 6K's
- Sigs have the fastest laser/solver of all the top ones.
Even the 3K and 6K's will range something way faster than pretty much anything else

for a team, I would say, best bang for the buck.
1 pair of Sig 6K's
and 1 pair of good non range finding binos
like a used pair of Swaro EL's or maybe Zeiss or Leica

 

[ChrisAU]

You can likely find used Revics for around $1500-$2000. That would be my suggestion, by far. I compared them to the Vectors and kept the Revics for competition and hunting use.

 

[Ledzep]

You have zero points potential on targets you never see.

 

[Schamsy33]

I second finding a pair of used Revics.

 

[beetroot]

Stupid question, but do you and your team mate have the same cartridge/ballistics?
If not then the ballistic solver won't be great for team matches.

With hard data (on paper) it's very quick to get you dope for a single target if you use TBR/EHR, so normal RF binos would be fine.
If you are scanning through an entire stage, finding, ranging, doping targets before shooting them then you may be trying to juggle to many things at one.

I can't really give a recommendation but I think normal RF binos should be fine if you have the right work flow sorted out.

 

[11Justin22]

I have the 6k's. They don't hold me back in any way. Last two matches I have managed to find every target with them.... Hitting them is a different story

 

[white_rushin]

Thanks all for your generous input!

It sounds like there’s a few reoccurring themes:

- Sig Kilo 6K sounds like a safe choice that an engaged / competitive NRL junkie would be satisfied with at an entry level price.

- stretch the budget and find a pair of used revics for the long term.

-invest the money in higher quality glass with simple RF tech because you can’t range what you can’t clearly find

 

[white_rushin]

Stupid question, but do you and your team mate have the same cartridge/ballistics?
If not then the ballistic solver won't be great for team matches.

With hard data (on paper) it's very quick to get you dope for a single target if you use TBR/EHR, so normal RF binos would be fine.
If you are scanning through an entire stage, finding, ranging, doping targets before shooting them then you may be trying to juggle to many things at one.

I can't really give a recommendation but I think normal RF binos should be fine if you have the right work flow sorted out.

Your follow up questions are a good point. We do both shoot the same caliber (.308) but I do imagine that in the next year - two one or both of us will eventually migrate to 6.5CM.

I had not thought of the fact that the dope output in a pair of binos would only be truly useful for one shooter. I do think you’re right that simply having the range distance in the binos would provide 80% of the value in our team workflow

 

[white_rushin]

Another question for the peanut gallery, does anyone have experience with GPO Rangeguide series? There’s a shop closing down local to me that is liquidating inventory & selling the latest 10x32 model that includes RF, temp / humidity / pressure / angle readings for $590 out the door. (Instead of $1K-$1.2K)