A Rangefinder In Your Pocket - Brief Article

Guns Magazine, Oct, 1999 by Jon R. Sundra

Last month I reported that Bushnell had two new laser range finders in their line, the Yardage Pro 1000, and the 800 Compact. I was able to test the former on a prairie rat shoot in May. I've now had a chance to also check out the YP 800 Compact rather thoroughly, and I can tell you that it, too, is one nifty unit.

Measuring a mere 4.9"x3.75"x2" and weighing only 12 ozs., the YP 800 is about half the weight and two-thirds the size of an average 8x32 binocular. It's hard to believe that all that technology can be crammed into such a small, light package, but it is. Like the other YP units, the Compact is actually a monocular. What looks to be a second lens barrel is actually the sending/receiving unit.

The YP 800 has four targeting modes: Rain -- which reads through rain and snow; 150 -- disregards foreground clutter like brush and branches to read only targets beyond 150 yards; Scan -- provides continuous readings as different objects are scanned, and Reflector -- provides optimum operation when ranging off highly reflective surfaces.

I plan to take the YP 800 on a prairie rat shoot soon, but thus far I've had the opportunity of testing the unit only on my golf course where its performance has been quite impressive. In the normal Scan mode I was getting repeatable readings off the lips of sand traps, tree trunks of 12" to 15" diameter, and small, leafy bushes out at 350 to 400 yards.

Off the masts of large, leafy trees I got consistent readings out beyond 500 yards, and in the Reflector mode, accurate reads off cars and signs beyond 600 yards. Incidentally, the YP 800 reads in even numbers only, so the margin of error could be as much as /-2 yards. I'm not sure I can live with such sloppiness, but I'll try!

It's ironic that the two applications that are most perfectly suited to the use of laser rangefinders are the ones where there are the fewest good targeting objects -- prairie rat shooting and antelope hunting. The prairie, then, is the ultimate test of a rangefinder, but already the YP 800 has shown that it can easily handle the targeting objects in just about any other typical big game hunting situation.

The are two things I do not like about the YP 800. One is easily remedied, the other is not.

Easily remedied with a strip of black electrical tape is the fact that the battery cover unlatches rather easily in normal handling. My other complaint -- and one that only Bushnell could address -- is the fact that the YP 800 does not have a B-type eyepiece like the Model 1000.

With the 1000, eyeglass wearers like me need only fold the collapsible neoprene eyecup down around the ocular piece to see the full field of view. With the YP 800, the field shrinks to roughly half if you're wearing glasses; it's like looking through a tunnel. You cannot see all the displays at the same time; you have to actually move your eye as though you're frying to see the inside roof and floor of the optical system. On the other hand, the YP 800 offers an 8x magnification while the 1000's is only 6x.

The street price for the YP 800 Compact should be about $400.