Bushnell 800 Yardage Pro Compact

[duck911]

Well, got the unit in yesterday (Natchez Shooters Supply - $189), after having paid nearly $80 less than the next cheapest competitor, and saving more than $100-$200 when compared to just about everyone else. Besides questionable e-bay stores, this is by FAR as cheap as I have found this unit.

The ordered via phone last Friday, and it came yesterday (Thursday). About what one could expect from a mail order company.

Out of the box the unit was a little smaller than I remembered from handling it at the stores, which is a great thing! After reading the directions, I installed the batteries. This leads me to my one dislike of the unit: The battery door. It closes with a sliding latch that "clicks" and locks into place but it is not a very secure connection and it's in a bad location (next to the users hand when range finding!). It's too bad that a trivial part like this is seemingly the only downfall of the product! Anyhow, I plan on calling Bushnell and asking them to ship me 2 or 3 spares which I will keep in my gun safe.

On to the range finding!

The 800 Compact Pro has 8x magnification. That's great for range finding smaller items at a distance. It goes without saying that unless you can keep the crosshairs on what you want to range, you'll get either no reading or an inaccurate reading, maybe of some surrounding or nearby object. The 8x magnification really helps in this regard. The brightness of the monocular is perfectly acceptable, but it's no Leica. I was able to range find houses, people, stop signs, and dogs in the neighborhood until well after sunset. (hopefully there's no influx of blind dogs at the vet's office in the near future! haha!)

The ranges pop up almost instantaneously if the object is close and/or highly reflective. For longer ranges the unit takes just a fraction of a second longer to return a result, and either way the timeframes aren't really even noticeable.

I'm really impressed with the long range capabilities of the unit. I just made a beer run and stopped at a field by my house to play a little. I was able to range some horses out past 700 yards, and that was with high winds and bright sunshine (which is supposed to negatively impact performance). Houses, buildings, trees, and other generally "large" objects are a cinch, and I was able to range a barn at 900 yards! I have confidence after my testing that almost any any horse-to-house sized land-based object 600 yards or under will result in quick readings most if not all the time, and in "most" reasonable cases, out to 800. Small game, shooting targets, and small sized objects in real field conditions ouit to 600 yards most of the time. As most of my shooting is under 300 yards this unit will work nicely!

Then, a flock of city geese came over some trees on the other side of the road and dropped into the field right over the top of me. I picked the lead bird and did my best to hold on him against the big blue sky. The first reading was just after they cleared the trees. In flight, 212 yards. With the high wind it was tough to keep it in the crosshairs and it took me 2 or 3 button pushes for a result. Then 175, then 125, then 100. The closer the birds got, the easier it was to get a number back and under 150 yards it was just 1 push. I think that has to do less with the capabilities of the unit and more with my ability to keep the crosshairs on "waffling" geese. As they hit the field I checked them out on the ground. 76 yards. Cool!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the purchase and I think it'll give some interesting feedback in the field in the future.

It seems like a great deal... it was between the Leica 800 and this Bushnell. The Leica gets GREAT reviews and I liked it at the store, but with the Natchez sale I paid $300 less for the bushnell. After playing with the range finder, my initial reaction is that I have a very acceptable unit for my needs, and, $300 extra for my next gun! (AR-15?)

Hope this is helpful...

--Duck911