I have had several folks ask me about my experience with my new PLRF-10, so I thought I would just post this up and let everyone see what I think.
I had 2 laser rangefinders before I got the PLRF-10. A chepo Bushnell that worked well to exactly 600 yards, and a Swaro that was fine to 1,000 yards, and then didn't do much beyond it.
I have to admit the desert where I use them is a tough place to range. Lots of mixed background, and I use and range smallish targets (18x24 plate steel). You put an 18x24 piece of steel in the middle of mid-sized scrub and cactus and things get dicey. Not to mention my ability to handhold a laser on a target at 1,500+ yards.
I got the PLRF-10 with the expectation to use it in the desert to range targets out to and beyond the range of my 338LM Improved - call it 2,000 yards. So far it has met every expectation that I had for it.
Day one I got the device, and was surprised at its size (I guess I figured it would be bigger). It is bigger than the Swaro, but not by a whole lot. Its a box, with an eyepiece. They were nice enough to include batteries for it with the device, so you could install and immediately start to explore the device and its features. The batteries are the standard Surefire batteries. Easy to mount my Manfrotto tripod (and a tripod is helpful - at least by me when trying to hit an 18"x24" plate steel from 1,800 yards away). It has a mil-based reticle in teh viewer (10 mil increments out to 30 on each side)
The ranges show up in red Diod numbers; easy to read. If you are old enough to remember the original calculators from TI, the numbers look exactly like those did.
If you moved to much for the beam to get the range, you get horizontal lines, so try again. If you are too far from your target to get a range, same result.
I immediately started ranging things that I knew to be well beyond the reach of my swaro.... 2,200 yards, and out to 2,400+ yards. the max range is supposedly 2,500 yards. It is close to that, I have seen 2,400+ on my ranges. The beam is tight, and rarely do I get "the lines" telling me that it could not get the range. I still prefer to handhold everything (probably why I get the lines that I do), but it has a tripod mount on it for easy installation on the manfrotto. Mostly, I range 2 or 3 times just to make sure that I was holding and getting what I was trying to range.
Likes - I like: the ease of use, the glass is very clear, and gives a good image with 6X magnification. It has a mil-based reticle in the viewer. It has a separate lit reticle (very abbreviated version of the regular reticle) but I have never tried to use it. The lit reticle drain the batteries quickly.
Wishes - I wish it had a touch more magnification 6X is fine for what I use it for. 8X like my swaro would be nicer. I wish I could afford the extra cost of getting the internal compass and incline meter. I bet that is a sweet piece of gear, but it added nearly 50% to the cost.
I have had no problems with it at all, regardless of weather and time of day (I have not tried to range looking directly into the rising or setting sun). I have used it every desert trip since I bought it. Recently, I have been going out about every 3 weeks to shoot in the desert.
From my view, its worth the price (I got mine from Potomic Group, and they gave me a prior military service discount). To buy it they run your SSN and do a basic check. I was happy to see that happen, as it might just keep this gear out of the hands of folks who might use it against our troops.
Jeffvn
I had 2 laser rangefinders before I got the PLRF-10. A chepo Bushnell that worked well to exactly 600 yards, and a Swaro that was fine to 1,000 yards, and then didn't do much beyond it.
I have to admit the desert where I use them is a tough place to range. Lots of mixed background, and I use and range smallish targets (18x24 plate steel). You put an 18x24 piece of steel in the middle of mid-sized scrub and cactus and things get dicey. Not to mention my ability to handhold a laser on a target at 1,500+ yards.
I got the PLRF-10 with the expectation to use it in the desert to range targets out to and beyond the range of my 338LM Improved - call it 2,000 yards. So far it has met every expectation that I had for it.
Day one I got the device, and was surprised at its size (I guess I figured it would be bigger). It is bigger than the Swaro, but not by a whole lot. Its a box, with an eyepiece. They were nice enough to include batteries for it with the device, so you could install and immediately start to explore the device and its features. The batteries are the standard Surefire batteries. Easy to mount my Manfrotto tripod (and a tripod is helpful - at least by me when trying to hit an 18"x24" plate steel from 1,800 yards away). It has a mil-based reticle in teh viewer (10 mil increments out to 30 on each side)
The ranges show up in red Diod numbers; easy to read. If you are old enough to remember the original calculators from TI, the numbers look exactly like those did.
If you moved to much for the beam to get the range, you get horizontal lines, so try again. If you are too far from your target to get a range, same result.
I immediately started ranging things that I knew to be well beyond the reach of my swaro.... 2,200 yards, and out to 2,400+ yards. the max range is supposedly 2,500 yards. It is close to that, I have seen 2,400+ on my ranges. The beam is tight, and rarely do I get "the lines" telling me that it could not get the range. I still prefer to handhold everything (probably why I get the lines that I do), but it has a tripod mount on it for easy installation on the manfrotto. Mostly, I range 2 or 3 times just to make sure that I was holding and getting what I was trying to range.
Likes - I like: the ease of use, the glass is very clear, and gives a good image with 6X magnification. It has a mil-based reticle in the viewer. It has a separate lit reticle (very abbreviated version of the regular reticle) but I have never tried to use it. The lit reticle drain the batteries quickly.
Wishes - I wish it had a touch more magnification 6X is fine for what I use it for. 8X like my swaro would be nicer. I wish I could afford the extra cost of getting the internal compass and incline meter. I bet that is a sweet piece of gear, but it added nearly 50% to the cost.
I have had no problems with it at all, regardless of weather and time of day (I have not tried to range looking directly into the rising or setting sun). I have used it every desert trip since I bought it. Recently, I have been going out about every 3 weeks to shoot in the desert.
From my view, its worth the price (I got mine from Potomic Group, and they gave me a prior military service discount). To buy it they run your SSN and do a basic check. I was happy to see that happen, as it might just keep this gear out of the hands of folks who might use it against our troops.
Jeffvn