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Field Test: Laser Rangefinders

Leupold Vendetta

www.leupold.com

Price: $300

Probably the most-talked-about new product at this year’s Archery Trade Association show in January, the Vendetta piqued our interest and we were eager to give it a try.

Mounted to the bow’s riser, above the sight, the Vendetta works by aligning your sight’s top pin with the target and squeezing a pressure pad mounted on your bow’s grip. It allows you to range a target while at full draw, minimizing game-spooking movement and time spent. If you keep pressing the pad, the unit will continually adjust distance, angles, and elevation as your target moves.

Measurements automatically factor in incline/decline, distance to target, and bow-specific ballistics to provide the equivalent horizontal distance for precise shooting on an incline. Maximum range is 70 yards; minimum is 10. A large LED display has a red filter that makes it easy to see distance readings in various light conditions.

The Vendetta features a durable polycarbonate body and a sturdy aluminum mount that easily adjusts left and right, and up and down. The ball joint allows for further fine-tuning when mounting. The CR2 lithium battery provides thousands of activations to last through even long seasons.

Here’s how it works: You start by bolting the mount to your sight bracket and using two rails to bring the unit around back to the other side of the riser, where it suspends at the top of your sight window. Then attach the activation switch to the front of the grip where you can easily reach it with a finger. Next step is to align the laser with your top pin. Leupold provides an alignment target, which you set up 20 yards or more away. You set the rangefinder on alignment mode, which projects a red dot on the target; when both the sight pin and dot converge on the target, you’re ready to rock.

One of the first things I noticed about the setup is that it pretty much requires you to be at full draw to take a reading. I had assumed you could get a reading by simply holding the pin up to the target without drawing, but I found most situations require more precision than you can get that way.

I shot targets at a variety of ranges and found the Vendetta to be reliable and precise.

It does change the way your bow handles, making it a bit more top-heavy (the unit and mounting hardware weigh 10 ounces). I noticed that with my shooting style, having the Vendetta mounted caused my top limb to tend to fall backward at the shot. That is probably why the bow (a Mathews DXT) shot 3 or 4 inches higher with the unit mounted than without. I also noticed my groups seemed to be tighter with the Vendetta mounted, which makes sense as extra weight has a stabilizing effect. I experimented by attaching the largest stabilizer I could find to offset the top-heaviness, and found that point of impact was somewhat corrected and my groups got even smaller, though the setup resulted in a bow heavier than I really care to use.

A couple other things I noticed is that maintaining good form with the grip hand can be a challenge when operating the switch. Also, it occurred to me that the Vendetta will not work with a moveable sight—unless perhaps the user got really creative and came up with some other way of aligning the laser on the target.

These are all factors to consider when contemplating purchase of a Vendetta. There are two others: Whether it is legal where you hunt (see sidebar) and the fact that it can do something no other rangefinder can, which is to give you a precise reading precisely at the moment of truth, which could very well be the difference between bagging an animal and not.

Here is a link to the Leupold TV video that demonstrates the installation and alignment of the Vendetta.

http://www.leupold.com/leupoldtv/video-library/vendetta-alignment/

—Mike Strandlund

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