Interestingly for the last few years as I looked for rangefinders given mine is getting really old, I noticed hunters complaining that the newer ones had problems taking readings that the older ones did not. It also seemed based on everyones remarks, the leupold would not have those issues.
I got it in time for the 4th of July Sunrise 3D shoot. At first it worked great outside in the dark, at camp and with clear site to targets sighting in the bows. I first noticed a problem when some pine trees made some striped shade on my bag target. Suddenly I couldn't get a reading at 40yds. It seemed the more I tried the worse it got. I event did a reset and also at one point removed the battery to restart it. No change. Once we got to the shoot the next day, I had the same problem. It worked fine in open targets when sun was out. It would not range any targets set back into the trees a few yards and once the clouds or rain set in, it only got worse. Targets behind bushes couldn't read. I had my trusty old bushnell the whole time with no issues even without using rain mode. I noticed plenty of shooters out there with all types of brands with no issues. Really annoying that my expensive rangefinder wasn't doing jack. I would mostly get dashes and occasionally when doing scan, it might read a nearby tree or the target for a second then go back to dashes.
Long story just to get to my question. Will all these new rangefinders have this kind of issue? Is this a lemon or expected behavior of a Leupold 1000i TBR w/DNA? Do any of the new ones offer the mode settings anymore (rain, reflective, >150, normal)?
I wanted to take the rangefinder to the store and exchange it to see if the new one would do this too but it appears no one sells that model anymore (guess that's why it was on sale). I am reluctant to take it to leupold for repair if indeed any of this bad operation is "normal" because then I would be stuck with it. I am off to get my refund tomorrow but now wondering if there is a good replacement brand/model (on sale of course) including another leupold (yup I am leupold fan for optics) that will work as well as my old bushnell but with improved behavior in low light, fog, low contrast yellow grass.
Just picked up a lightly used 1200 model (newer model from the 1000) and it's been dead on, clear optics, bright screen, really liking it so far, eats my old Nikon for lunch. But it will pick up sticks and grass, etc. Works much better in the last target mode IMO.
What color is the LED display.... red, black, or green?
Only had it a couple weeks but really impressed. When my buddy picked up a 1000 (on my advice, heheheheh..."here, this is the one you need to try..") had to have one after playing around with it.... when the Nikon started dying.... a month or two on ebay and found the deal I wanted.
