Customer Reviews for VORTEX Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
VORTEX Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
The Ranger 1000 gives gun hunters, target shooters and bowhunters the data to be accurate to 1,000 yards. Plus, it can be set to yards or meters. Primary Horizontal Component Distance (HCD) mode displays an angle-compensated distance. A clean display and highly intuitive menu keep things simple, yet provide high-level performance. Fully multicoated lenses deliver optimal light transmission, while O-ring seals make them waterproof. It’s compact, ergonomic and lightweight, making it easy to pack or hang around your neck using the included lanyard. An adjustable utility clip can be mounted to the right or left side to clip it to a belt, pocket or other flat-edged surface for easy access, or can be completely removed. Runs on one CR-2 battery (included). Limited lifetime warranty. Dimensions: 3.9"L x 3"W. Weight: 7.7 oz.
Overall Customer Rating:
(13 Reviews) 13
Rating breakdown 13 reviews
5 Stars
8
4 Stars
1
3 Stars
1
2 Stars
2
1 Star
1
10 out of 13(77%)customers would recommend this product to a friend.
Customer Reviews for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Review 1 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
fulldrawxl
Country:United States
State:Texas
Age:26-35
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes
Sold on Vortex
Date:April 2, 2013
This rangefinder has the clearest optic I have ever looked thru. It has been quite the conversation piece at the range with lots of folks now wanting one as well because they were so impressed. I love the scan mode and have had no trouble reading any target in bow range. Superb product.
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Review 2 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
meandyou2
Country:United States
State:Tennessee
Age:65 and over
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes
Works Great
Date:December 6, 2012
Works great. Have used in on several hunts so far.
Love that it is waterproof not just water resistant.
Love that it is waterproof not just water resistant.
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Review 3 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
roadhog56
Country:United States
State:California
Age:65 and over
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes
It works
Date:November 26, 2012
Compact and easy to use. Must have for measuring distance in real time. Not good for short distances. Great for field work.
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Review 4 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
Mildew
Country:United States
State:Utah
Age:46-55
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes
Sweet
Date:October 16, 2012
2nd time was the charm for me. Sent first pair back as it had difficulty ranging targets (soft or hard) anywhere close to the specs. 2nd pair I received one day before Utah muzzleloader mule deer hunt. They work perfectly and ranged deer and trees up to 800 yards away. Ranged a moving truck at 1,230 yards before it went around a turn. Elk hunt was just as good, ranging elk at 860 yards. This 1,000 rangefinder is small and fits inside my cargo pant pocket for easy grab. Consistently ranges past the specs of 500 yards for soft targets and 1,000 for hard targets. Accurately displays angled yardage to target as far as I can tell. Red display was no problem seeing in bright sunlight. Point, press button twice (three times if you want scanning mode yardage--nice feature) and your ready. Nothing to adjust or mess with. Default settings are just right.
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Review 5 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
russc99
Country:United States
State:Wyoming
Age:56-65
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes
Impressive!!
Date:October 7, 2012
Purchased to replace another rangefinder. While hunting Elk, had the opportunity to range deer and antelope at 600 yards plus in the open. Reflective ranges at 950 yards plus. Compact, lightweight and easy to use. Good job Vortex!!
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Review 6 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
Hudmo
Country:United States
State:Wisconsin
Age:56-65
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes
Dual purpose Rangefinder
Date:October 2, 2012
I recently returned from asucessful Elk Hunt in Craig, Colorado where the Vortex rangefinder proved reliable and extremely useful. I have used the Vortex brand for scopes on my hunting rifles and have been very pleased with them. I went with this brand beacuse of the reputaion they have built with those scopes and am happy to report that the same quality carried over to their rangedfinder. I havs since used this tool for my golfing and am again pleased to report equal success and overall satisfaction with this product when used for that purpose too. I strongly recomend Vortex.
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Review 7 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
OutdoorFanaticBowhunter
Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes
Excellent Rangefinder! WOW!
Date:August 22, 2012
I own a few Vortex products already so I was excited to hear they were making a rangefinder now. I picked one up and the first time I used it was when I got home that evening. It was getting darker but I wanted to check it out. I couldnt believe how bright the view was through the glass! I have since used it ranging distances within bowhunting range and outwards of 400 plus yards shooting my rifles. Seems to be spot on, accurate, and fast. Build quality seems better than any other rangefinder I have looked at previously. Thinking this may be the last rangefinder I will ever need to purchase!
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Review 8 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
Raypla
Country:United States
State:New York
Age:26-35
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes
Extordinary Optics
Date:August 13, 2012
Just picked this up tonight. Low light performance is excellent, different intensity settings for the red crosshairs. Does not have all the frills and thrills as some others but has everything needed to give you the right distance (that's what I bought it for anyway).
Time will tell as I'm yet to put it through it's paces but I'm not worried considering Vortex's customer service is the best I've ever experienced (have an nice set of they're bino's). This is not far behind my Swarovski and Leupold VXIII scope's I have as far as optics and at a much better price point. A must have for the serious hunter!
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Review 9 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
rofisherman
Country:United States
State:Utah
Age:46-55
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes
2nd time was the charm
Date:October 2, 2012
Bought this rangefinder after a strong recommendation from an outfitter in my local Cabelas store that he was ranging cow elk at over 700 yards. Could not get it to range buildings, houses and other hard targets past about 750 yards. Soft targets were in the 400 yard range. Could not get the line of sight (LOS) feature to work. Returned it to Cabelas for exchange and the second one arrived just one day before this year's muzzleloader hunt in Utah. Took it with me and ranged elk at 602 yards and a moving pickup truck to just over 1,200 yards. Ranged everything I wanted it to and was pleasantly surprised. Small and compact. Fits nicely in my cargo pant pocket. Did not have any issues with the red reticle even in bright sunlight. Love the automatic angle adjustment. Point it, press the button and it works. No mumbo jumbo to figure out. We'll see how it performs on the elk hunt this weekend but I suspect it will be fine. If not, I will repost any issues.
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Review 10 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
SJHunter
Age:36-45
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes
Know the details and match to your hunting
Date:September 20, 2012
I'll say up front, I'm not affiliated with any of the manufactures and generally love Vortex products. I'm just your avg hunter and like most guys, always looking at new hunting gear.
I bought the Vortex range finder last month to use on a NM archery hunt for elk in unit 16D. My prior rangefinder was a Bushnell, cheaper version that went out to 400 or 500 yards. Nothing fancy. I really wanted angle compensation. I just got back from NM yesterday and am now exchanging the Vortex for the Leupold Rx-1000. Below are some things to be aware of when considering this product. I may be a little overly critical, but I would rather have you know the nuances up front. Then you decide. None of these are deal killers, it works, just minor differences that at times, in certain situations, can make a difference depending on your hunting method/situation.
The Good:
Compact, pretty easy to use and setup. It's heavier than my older Bushnell, but most of the better ones are since they have more technology for longer ranges and doing angle compensation. Reticule is great, both in color, size and the brightness options. Also, gotta love the warranty as well (huge plus). In general I always felt Vortex was great value for the money.
Compact, pretty easy to use and setup. It's heavier than my older Bushnell, but most of the better ones are since they have more technology for longer ranges and doing angle compensation. Reticule is great, both in color, size and the brightness options. Also, gotta love the warranty as well (huge plus). In general I always felt Vortex was great value for the money.
The bad:
In NM my guide had the Leupoldn rx1000, so it wasn't until I was sitting in the blind at a watering hole comparing them side by side that I noticed the differences. Plus, I had some hunting situations where I felt small differences started to make a big difference!
In NM my guide had the Leupoldn rx1000, so it wasn't until I was sitting in the blind at a watering hole comparing them side by side that I noticed the differences. Plus, I had some hunting situations where I felt small differences started to make a big difference!
Button Placement - Vortex has two buttons on the top, one for ranging and the other for setup. Not a big deal, but when you're in the heat of the moment and you need to push the button to range one or more objects I would press both. Total user error, but design could address this. I don't need the "setup" button easily accessible. I'm not going to switch between line of sight and angle compensated very often (in my opinion). I could certainly practice to make sure I'm pressing the correct one. I'm just saying in the heat of the moment when your fingers can feel both buttons, you might have a fleeting thought of "which button do I press"? ...call is buck fever.
Glass - The Vortex was amazingly crisp and bright. It blows my older Bushnell away. Not even comparable. But I'll be damned, when I compared side by side in the field with the Leupold I could see a difference. The Leupold was brighter and seemed more crisp. I especially noticed it the last half hour of light and was looking at fence posts with barbed wire on them 70 yards away. I could really see the barbed wire with the Leupold. This isn't a big deal, both are awesome. I certainly can see a tree or an elk with the Vortex, but long distance shooters will care. To be fair, on the crispness topic, I later wondered if maybe I didn't have the Vortex focused perfectly, so please compare for yourself. But the Leupold was certainly brighter.
Button activation - this was VERY frustrating. At first I couldn't figure it out. The Vortex just wasn't that fast with ranging objects. Remember, I'm elk hunting, doing the spot'n stalk/intercept method. Thus, you're always ranging objects on the fly as you change locations trying to setup or intercept the elk. In order to range an object you need to hit the range button 3 times. All others you only need to hit it twice. First time you hit the button it turns it on, second time displays the red crosshairs, the third time ranges the object. It's just too many clicks, especially in elk archery hunting where you're on the move. At first I couldn't figure out what was going on. I found myself clicking the button over and over in frustration. Then I figured it out how it's different. My old Bushnell and the new Leupold, use two clicks...one turns it on, second ranges an object. Seems minor, but two clicks is faster. I don't understand why Vortex designed this to require three clicks.
Delay in Range - I felt the ranging of distances was slightly slow. It seemed slower than my older Bushnell to display the range. I attributed it to maybe the angle compensation calculation. I would click the button to request the range and say to myself "one one-thousand". I was about to say "two.." and it displayed the range. It takes a full second to get the range. The Leupold, seemed like half a second. I would say "one" and it displayed the distance before I got to "one-thousand". I suspect it has a faster processor. Both were angle compensated, so it wasn't an issue of solving the formula for the adjusted distance. It must be a slower processor. Combe this with the three clicks to get the first range, then attempt to range 3 trees around you...that's when you feel it's taking too long. These elk can come in fast. I still need to get my release on my string.
Minor difference in Range - No idea which one is correct, but when sitting in the blind I was surprised how often the two range finders weren't giving the same reading. Most of the time it was a yard, but in some cases two or three. Plus it wasn't consistent in one direction or the other (One wasn't always further than another). Just an observation. This didn't occur in short range (sub 25 yards), but occurred more often in the 50+ yard distance. I didn't test it further than 70 or 80 yards since I was archery hunting. To be fair, even though I pointed them at the same objects, maybe there were minor differences in how reflective they were. No idea, just wanted to mention it.
Conclusion:
Be aware of how you want to use your range finder. The Vortex would be great for rifle hunts, tree stand hunting, etc. Situations where you range objects ahead of time or have time to range your animal before you shoot. Situations where speed it not an issue. In my case where I was archery hunting for elk, usually on the move and in a situations where I needed to quickly range 3-4 objects and/or a bull very quickly....that's when these differences seemed to be pretty major. Test them for yourself.
Be aware of how you want to use your range finder. The Vortex would be great for rifle hunts, tree stand hunting, etc. Situations where you range objects ahead of time or have time to range your animal before you shoot. Situations where speed it not an issue. In my case where I was archery hunting for elk, usually on the move and in a situations where I needed to quickly range 3-4 objects and/or a bull very quickly....that's when these differences seemed to be pretty major. Test them for yourself.
This is Vortex first pass at doing a range finder, so I assume they'll improve it over time. Until then, I'll return mine and swap it out for another one. In my case, I'm going with the Leupold.
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Review 11 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
echomike0311
Country:United States
State:Texas
Age:26-35
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? No
Buyer Beware
Date:October 8, 2012
I've been looking at range finders for about 3 monthes, reading reviews and comparing. The Vortex LRF had little in reviews due to it being fairly new, but I bought it anyway knowing that I could return it within 60 days. Works great on street signs and cars...Im not hunting street signs or cars. Went to the field and it was a mess. Furthest I got was 478 on a tree. But that was after 8 tries on the same spot. Im not impressed, Im sure they will go back to the drawing board on this one and fix it. Leica, for the extra $$, will be worth it.
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Review 12 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
hammerdown12
Country:United States
State:Utah
Age:36-45
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? No
High hopes....Big disappointment.
Date:September 28, 2012
Purchased this range finder over several other more expensive brands. Worked great in the store, the functionality is well thought out and the optics were very good to say the least. Took it out today to give a test run and attempted to range a very large boulder approximately 600yds in distance, it would not range. When i chose a closer target it ranged but it was very slow to range and register a distance. I own several Vortex products and their optics are second to none. I had very high hopes for this rangefinder sadly it is a very big disappointment.
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Review 13 for Vortex® Ranger 1000 Rangefinder
Overall Customer Rating:
HighLux
Country:United States
State:North Dakota
Age:26-35
Gender:Male
Would you recommend this product to a friend? No
Not good
Date:April 6, 2013
I'm comparing this range finder to my Nikon 440 that is 10+ years old. It looks solid and well put together. That's the only good thing I can say about this range finder. When I press the button to range it takes atleast a second if not longer to get the reading. If I hold down the button (scan mode) it take close to 2 seconds to start the scan mode. I wished the display had an option for black. It's impossible to see in the winter when there is snow on the ground. That's when I use it the most. I couldnt get it to read past 300 on nonreflective and 648 on reflective surfaces. this was a clear day with 60% humidity. I sent it back and got a leupold RX 1000i TBR. $10 more and instant readings and scan mode. It also has better option. The leupold reads 534 yards on nonreflective and 984 yards on reflective surfaces. I would have to say both optics were very clear.
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