I just recieved the Terrapin rangefinder from my Distributor that I had ordered a few weeks ago, so I couldnt wait and had to test it out against my Swaro rangefinder, so I started ranging buildings, lamps on posts about 3'x3' at the airport and the radar (looks like a big golf ball) Ok the lamps I was ranging were from 1500m to 2500m the biuldings were 1200m-2500m and the radar golf ball was 3275meters, guess what the Terrapin ranged everything without a hitch I pointed and it gave me a reading and did it consistently and repeatedly, my Swaro on the hand could not pick up the lamps at 1600yards but did get a few buildings at about 1900yards, but on small objects and distance the terrapin just blew the swaro away. There was no comparison.
The glass is great at 5x, it has an illuminated reticle cross hair with mil graduations and with a super small aiming circle.
I thought the 5x zoom would be a little weak as far as power goes compared to the Swaro 8x but actually the glass is so good I dont think it makes a difference.
Tommorow and this weekend i will be testing both units out on deer at 1000yards and will post my results.
So far this unit is probably the best rangefinder for longrange hunting without going much over 2k.
Elmer

care to share the cost with us?

thanks,

Rich

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
care to share the cost with us?

thanks,

Rich

Appox 2200$ Canadian

Wow--the Gold Standard and at a reasonable price.

quote:

radar golf ball was 3275meters

WOW you just got my attention.

That's 3 times what my Leica will do.

quote:

Originally posted by Antelope Sniper:

quote:

radar golf ball was 3275meters

WOW you just got my attention.

That's 3 times what my Leica will do.

Who cares? You can't shoot half that far anyway.

On the other hand, detecting small objects with larger objects in the background - that is impressive.

Wind is the big killer and always will be. Range has ceased to be; any number of rangefinders will measure farther than any of us can shoot/hold for the wind. Even if you could hold for the wind, you may need a specialized mounting system; even a 20 MOA base with a wide W/E adjustment range isn't good enough. Such a gun is useless for normal hunting.

A .750 BC launched at 2900 fps drifts 25 inches in a 1 mph at 2000 yards. That is obviously way too far to be shooting. Why own a rangefinder that can measure farther?

quote:

Who cares? You can't shoot half that far anyway.

On the other hand, detecting small objects with larger objects in the background - that is impressive.

AZ, I have no intention to try shooting 3000 yards. Nor do I intend to shoot any radar dome golf balls. I'm sure they would be easier to hit then a deer at 3k, but I sure someone in an ACU uniform might be a little unhappy with me.

Well, my current range finder will measure to about 1100 yards under the absolute best of conditions, around 500-700 under normal conditions, and sometimes only 300 under poor conditions. In other words, there are many conditions in which I AM capable of shooting farther then my Leica will read. So if the Terrapin follows the pattern of the Leica, after all, they use similar technology, and would read 1000 yards, reliably everytime on a game animal and a soft background, then I would no longer have that problem.

In addition, just because I can't shoot 3k yards, doesn't mean there is no benefit to knowing the distance to something that far. Sometimes it's nice to know how far something is for orienteering purposes, or planning your stalk. As an example on one hunt I lased an antelope hear at 800 yards. It was a long shot, so I looked for some terrain I could use to close the distance. My son and I dropped into a small wash and headed their direction. When I felt we were close getting close, I back lased to my original position. It was 700 yards, so we eased to the top of the wash, and my son was in position for a 216 yard shot. Of course, these are more nice to haves, but still useful applications.

In a couple of day, we will get to see what Elmer has to report about the Terrapin on deer.

In a couple of day, we will get to see what Elmer has to report about the Terrapin on deer.[/QUOTE

I was out today here is a quick review.

Well I was out ranging today in on off rainy conditions, T-storms were moving in and out of my hunting spots. So I was driving around looking for deer to range that were farther than 500yards, found a few at 800yards and started to range them with my 2 rangefinders. As far as ranging goes the Terrapin is very good at what it does, I was ranging deer with ease at 800yards as long as I had a little support on my elbows(all ranging was done from my car seat).
I did not find any deer at 1000yards but from what I've seen from this unit it wont have a problem with that.
The Swaro held its own but that aiming circle is way to big compared to the
Terrapin and it takes longer to give the reading, also the flat ground gave me false readings a few times cause the beam was hitting things on its way there.
As far as how far the 2 units ranged the swaro because of the rainy conditions would not give me ranges on treelines that were more that 1700yards, usually I could and have gotten 1995yards on treelines at dusk.
The Terrapin gave a treeline reading at 3575yards consistently and it varied depending on where in the treeline I aimed at, also on homes over 2400yards NP, and on tops of pine trees 1950yards. I also ranged earth mounds that were dark in colour there was one in particular that was 989 yards away its size is about 3ft high and 3-4ft wide the Swaro could not pick that up no matter how many times I tried, the Terrapin was picking them up Np, it would aslo pick up the bigger earth mounds at much farther distances.
All in all I am very happy with the way this unit performs its quick, has good glass,and ranges further than I will probably ever need!

http://www.vectronix.ch/userup..._Vec_TERRAPIN_lr.pdf


Elmer

I was out ranging again with both units, swaro and Terrapin.
I was on a country road and started ranging the tops of the wooden poles that have electric wires running from house to house, they are nothing big on the top part,they has a wooden horizontal beam thats about 5'wide x 1', the terrapin ranged the tops of the poles starting at distances of 900yards and I ranged all the way down the road to 1975 yards where the poles stopped, the terrapin did not miss any of the poles, it ranged them consistently and repeatedly giving me the same readings over and over.
I tried the same ranging test with the Swaro and after the first pole which it picked up failed with all the following poles it would not give me any readings on small objects of that size and that type of material (wood and brown in colour). All my testing was done leaning my elbows on my car not the most solid postision. The terrapin also gives me the readings fast much faster than the Swaro. Another plus is the size of the aiming circle its way smaller than the Swaro's which helps in the aiming.
So out to practical ranges for longrange hunting and or target shooting this gadget is awesome,I used to like the Swaro but theres no comparison, its not in the same class!
Its comes in a black pouch with batteries and a small manual thats in the pouch.
Features are, it can give you 3 distances on the 3d feature, meaning you range an animal and there is something in front of it like bushes and a treeline further behind the animal you will get the 3 readings 1st,2nd,3rd 2nd being the animal.
It also has something called gate which means that you can set it to only start ranging after a certain distance so in effect it blocks a certain amount of distance you dont want to pick up.
It also has a night mode.
As far as pics the pdf file that cali tz posted is exactly what you see and get.
Elmer

quote:

Originally posted by elmerdeer:
In a couple of day, we will get to see what Elmer has to report about the Terrapin on deer.[/QUOTE


The Swaro held its own but that aiming circle is way to big compared to the
Terrapin and it takes longer to give the reading, also the flat ground gave me false readings a few times cause the beam was hitting things on its way there.


I also ranged earth mounds that were dark in colour there was one in particular that was 989 yards away its size is about 3ft high and 3-4ft wide the Swaro could not pick that up no matter how many times I tried, the Terrapin was picking them up Np, it would aslo pick up the bigger earth mounds at much farther distances.
All in all I am very happy with the way this unit performs its quick, has good glass,and ranges further than I will probably ever need!

http://www.vectronix.ch/userup..._Vec_TERRAPIN_lr.pdf


Elmer

This tells me the beam divergence of vectronix is much smaller than other rangefinders. Small beam divergence is why I loved the original Leica Geovid. Unfortunately, most rangefinders since have wide beam divergence.

I would much rather be able to detect smaller objects at moderate ranges.

That sounds pretty neat, thanks for posting!

Yes, Thanks for the report.
Sounds like a great unit.

Hi guys, I was out today on the mountain in my city so I had a nice view of distant buildings and people walking around and was ranging using the PLRF05, conditions were mainly sunny with a few clouds and it was about 2:30pm. I ranged people at 950 to about 1250yards in a park, I also got my longest range with this unit to date it was on a churh steeple that was grayish in colour and I got 4 readings in a row of between 4965yards and 4969yards, so in summary this unit ranges way better than the top 3 usual suspects Zeiss,Swaro, Leica.
Elmer

Okay, I will admit there is a good application for long range LRs:

I was hunting deer last week in NM. We spotted three bucks just under the lip of a hill. We were maybe 1.5 miles away. We thought if we got to the hill just before theirs we could get a shot. However, it was very difficult to see how far the range was, and we didn't have a map.

As it turned out, it was only 240 yards. But I passed on the buck.

where can you order one?
Thanks,