When I bought my first RF back in about 2017, I went to a gun shop in Idaho Falls and had them empty the case of all the rangefinders in every brand, from cheap to expensive, and we went outside and tested them. I picked out a telephone pole at about 300 yards and a billboard at about 800, and I proceeded to test every tier from every brand and compare them. Almost every brand had some variance in the accuracy of their rangefinder depending on the tier (price), with the Leupold being the biggest difference of about 40 yards between their cheap and their expensive tier at the 800 yard mark. Along with that, depending on the tier, sometimes the rangefinder would return a different range if I ranged the same spot time after time. And I'm not talking a difference of a yard or 2, I'm talking double digit discrepancies with lots of them. Every brand's high end returned the same range as one another, so I came to the conclusion that the more money spent, the more accurate ranges I would get.
Then I tried the Sigs. Everything from their now discontinued $130 Kilo850 up to their high end (I think it was the Kilo2500 at the time) gave the same range as every other rangefinder in Sig's lineup. The glass and overall construction got better as you spent more money, but the ranges didn't vary at all. In other words, from what I experienced, Sig puts the same electronics into their entry level rangefinders as into their top end. I ended up going home with the Sig and haven't looked back.
Every brand has their strong suit, and for Sig, it's their rangefinder. They make the best in the game as far as I'm concerned. Leica and Vortex came in tied for second in my test. Both had better glass at each tier by a good margin, but you had to get to the top of the line to get consistent ranging performance from both brands. Nikon's had good glass all the way through, but their ranging abilities were abysmal. The Leupolds came in dead last on ranging abilities, and their glass was about on par with Sig. Although their glass isn't the best, I say buy the Sig and don't look back! Spend glassing money on your binos and spotter, buy a rangefinder as a rangefinder. As long as you can make out the silhouette of whatever you're trying to range, that's what matters. Use your top dollar binoculars to verify your trophy, use the rangefinder for finding ranges. I would rather have sub-par glass with dead on ranging capabilities.
