NRL hunter - ranging/bino separates

[Bobrobheimer]

I have been making sure to shoot at least one NRL hunter each year and plan to shoot my third this year. I have mostly just used only the same stuff I hunt with so far but I find myself wanting to get into the game of it more. Obviously range finding binos would be best but without an unlimited budget I have for now been working with separates. In the past matches I either look for targets directly with the crappy handheld or find them with binos and then re find them with the handheld. Not ideal.

I was thinking this year to maybe set up a rail with the binos and rangefinder so that once I find the target in the binos the range finder is already more or less on target. I know some people have done this but I am wondering how they manage that set up. Would be nice to just have the set up all mounted up when I start but even so if I want to shoot off the tripod where do people with this set up put the bino/rf/table combo? I could pop the binos off and back into the harness but if the rf is still on the rail it can’t go into its pocket and taking both on and off seems like a lot. Thoughts?

 

[gr8fuldoug]

If $650 is within budget take a look at the GPO RANGEGUIDE 8x40 Rangefinder Binocular

 

[hereinaz]

I have been making sure to shoot at least one NRL hunter each year and plan to shoot my third this year. I have mostly just used only the same stuff I hunt with so far but I find myself wanting to get into the game of it more. Obviously range finding binos would be best but without an unlimited budget I have for now been working with separates. In the past matches I either look for targets directly with the crappy handheld or find them with binos and then re find them with the handheld. Not ideal.

I was thinking this year to maybe set up a rail with the binos and rangefinder so that once I find the target in the binos the range finder is already more or less on target. I know some people have done this but I am wondering how they manage that set up. Would be nice to just have the set up all mounted up when I start but even so if I want to shoot off the tripod where do people with this set up put the bino/rf/table combo? I could pop the binos off and back into the harness but if the rf is still on the rail it can’t go into its pocket and taking both on and off seems like a lot. Thoughts?

Sell what you have and something else you aren’t using pick up a pair. They are so valuable as a tool.

It’s not worth the hassle, IMO.

You can buy a cheap rail off Amazon with clamp on one side and mount a small ball head. Put your bino in a mount and mount the rangefinder in the ball head.

Not sure I would want to run that. It all has to be stowed away.

 

[Bobrobheimer]

My current set up is NL pures and the Revic br4. Not exactly budget stuff, and is basically my ideal set up for hunting since I can glass with the best and not feel like internal electronics are going to eventually render them obsolete, when the times comes I can use the Revic to range with a ballistic solution that reflects environmentals. This works so well for hunting to me that a pair of rf binos would mostly be just for the gaming of the nrl hunter game… which I would totally do if I felt like I could drop the money on a premium pair of rf binos.

 

[Bobrobheimer]

I got one of these on the way to mess with but I am not sure if it will be overall helpful or not. I didn’t have a good shooting tripod the last two years either so I suppose if I could leave the set up on the tripod at least some of the stages then it could be overall decent.

Amazon.com

Sell what you have and something else you aren’t using pick up a pair. They are so valuable as a tool.

It’s not worth the hassle, IMO.

You can buy a cheap rail off Amazon with clamp on one side and mount a small ball head. Put your bino in a mount and mount the rangefinder in the ball head.

Not sure I would want to run that. It all has to be stowed away.

 

[ID_Matt]

Definitely a big advantage to RF Binos in hunter matches. You could put the bino and RF on a rail but i think it would be fairly cumbersome and easy to knock them off alignment. I used a paid of sig 6K's for a few years and they work well enough. Looks like the new kilo6K can be found for $700... might be a good option for a starter in to RF Binos. Has onboard sensors and ballistics.

 

[hereinaz]

My current set up is NL pures and the Revic br4. Not exactly budget stuff, and is basically my ideal set up for hunting since I can glass with the best and not feel like internal electronics are going to eventually render them obsolete, when the times comes I can use the Revic to range with a ballistic solution that reflects environmentals. This works so well for hunting to me that a pair of rf binos would mostly be just for the gaming of the nrl hunter game… which I would totally do if I felt like I could drop the money on a premium pair of rf binos.

Gotcha. Definitely don’t want to sell that!

I used the Kilo 3000, and now the 6K for NRL hunter. Onboard ballistics and link to my Garmin made gaming easy. Picking up one of them used would be my choice.

I am looking at upgrading to the Leica AB and eventually the NL 14s as my glassing package. So I get premium glass.

Hard to justify the money for the binos for gaming only. It’s just the way I run everything. I got tired of the limited use of the mono rangefinder. It is so much harder to find and range.

 

[flyfisher117]

I got one of these on the way to mess with but I am not sure if it will be overall helpful or not. I didn’t have a good shooting tripod the last two years either so I suppose if I could leave the set up on the tripod at least some of the stages then it could be overall decent.

Amazon.com

I have one of those. I don’t like it for NRLH or matches of that format. I just use mine for NRL/PRS style matches.

Maybe more dedicated practice would help but it’s just bulky and it’s a lot of fasteners to watch and ensure they don’t come loose. I do have my RF mounted on a dinky ball head that is likely half my issue.

 

[LongWayAround]

I shot two matches last year with RF binos and one match with non-RF binos + monocular rangefinder.

It was cumbersome without the RF binos.

I couldn't justify the jump to ballistic binos so I ordered the GPO's linked above. The Sig binos I used last year had pretty poor glass quality and I didn't want to roll the dice on another pair of them just to get ballistics at a decent price.

I'm planning to shoot 4-5 matches this year so we'll see how it goes.

 

[wpeach1912]

The rail is your best bet. You can leave them on clipped in on top of your tripod. Downside is there are some stages where it doesn’t make sense to glass of the tripod and more things to try to coordinate. If you stick with that, get really fast at position building and shooting. With the 6ks and Gen 2 6ks being out, the 3ks pop up in the classifieds for cheap. I very rarely didn’t find targets when I had the 3ks. Sig does support them for warranty stuff too. I don’t have the 3ks anymore because I sent them in for a minor diopter issue and they sent me the 6k HDXs back

 

[Bobrobheimer]

The rail is your best bet. You can leave them on clipped in on top of your tripod. Downside is there are some stages where it doesn’t make sense to glass of the tripod and more things to try to coordinate. If you stick with that, get really fast at position building and shooting. With the 6ks and Gen 2 6ks being out, the 3ks pop up in the classifieds for cheap. I very rarely didn’t find targets when I had the 3ks. Sig does support them for warranty stuff too. I don’t have the 3ks anymore because I sent them in for a minor diopter issue and they sent me the 6k HDXs back

Yeah, I am thinking maybe run my small backcountry hunting/glassing tripod for the rail and then have my bigger tripod as a shooting option so I can just set the glassing tripod aside and not have to put away RF and rail on the clock. I’ll have to try it out and see how viable that is.

How is the onboard ballistics in the 3ks? Does it do any environmental internally?

 

[wpeach1912]

Yeah, I am thinking maybe run my small backcountry hunting/glassing tripod for the rail and then have my bigger tripod as a shooting option so I can just set the glassing tripod aside and not have to put away RF and rail on the clock. I’ll have to try it out and see how viable that is.

How is the onboard ballistics in the 3ks? Does it do any environmental internally?

Two tripods is a good plan. Then you can use that small tripod for rear support too. The ballistics are ok, but they don’t pickup environmentals. They work really well bluetoothed to a kestrel though

 

[wind gypsy]

Looks like the new kilo6K can be found for $700... might be a good option for a starter in to RF Binos. Has onboard sensors and ballistics.

My buddy has a pair of these binos and in my very short time looking through them i didn't see a huge downgrade compared to my kilo 10k g2s. Would make a lot of sense as hobbyist gamer nockers IMO. Possibly even what I'd buy if starting over as I still hunt primarily with non-RF binos even though I own $2k+ RF binos.

 

[ID_Matt]

My buddy has a pair of these binos and in my very short time looking through them i didn't see a huge downgrade compared to my kilo 10k g2s. Would make a lot of sense as hobbyist gamer nockers IMO. Possibly even what I'd buy if starting over as I still hunt primarily with non-RF binos even though I own $2k+ RF binos.

I had the original gen 1 version 6K's and they were plenty good for matches. I am not sure if the new ones have the "lite" AB or the full version. My originals had the lite version which only gave solutions to 800 yards. Even that wasn't a big deal because it seems only 1 or 2 targets at the hunter matches i shot were 800+ so in that event I just had a backup dope card.

 

[wind gypsy]

I had the original gen 1 version 6K's and they were plenty good for matches. I am not sure if the new ones have the "lite" AB or the full version. My originals had the lite version which only gave solutions to 800 yards. Even that wasn't a big deal because it seems only 1 or 2 targets at the hunter matches i shot were 800+ so in that event I just had a backup dope card.

I think it's the lite version. Which works within the ranges at the IA matches I have shot. Haven't traveled west for a match where there are longer distances. Like you said, it wouldn't be hard to have longer range dope on an arm band.