Bushnell Laser Rangefinder Review and Field Tests
Anyone who has used binoculars realizes that a steady hand is crucial to see a distant object, and with the rangefinder a steady hand is even more important. The best, most accurate way to use the rangefinder is to prop your elbows on the golf cart’s steering wheel with both hands and aim directly at the flag (not the flagstick) If you don’t keep a steady hand, you may be getting the distance of whatever the laser is hitting behind the flag. Take two or three readings. If you are without a cart, use your golf club as a mono-pod. While the rangefinder will measure distances up to several hundred yards (I successfully got a reading today of 367 yards off of the back of an unsuspecting golfer on the green ahead of me) The real value of the rangefinder is inside 175 yards. Especially within 120 yards. It is accurate to within 1 yard by my experimentation.
Overall, we think the Bushnell Yardage Pro is a step in the right direction for a company entering the GPS marketplace. They put out a high quality and extremely accurate GPS unit that will be perfect for golfers that play the same course all the time and really just need green distances. However if you play multiple or new courses frequently, you might want to wait for some of the other Bushnell GPS reviews before making your decision. You can read all about the Yardage Pro at their website Bushnell Golf Yardage Pro. This unit carries a MSRP of $199.99 and is available now.
The display on the Yardage Pro is pretty basic. There is no layout of the hole or any way to choose the distances that you want to measure. It simply shows you the distance to the front, middle, and back of the green. This is typical of most entry-level GPS rangefinders. You can jump to another screen to calculate drive distances, but that requires a little effort and navigation. The display also requires you to manually change the hole number as you play. In other words, when you drive to the next tee, the GPS will continue to tell you the distance to the previous green until you push a button to go to the next hole. I found this inconvenient at first, but as IGÇÖve gotten used to it, it really is not that big of a deal.
If your eyes don’t happen to match the diopter correction built into the Legend, you are out of luck. There is no way to adjust this Bushnell’s eyepiece, so put up with blurry views or start shopping for something else.
The >150 mode allows ranging objects that are at least 150 yards (or 165 meters) away through brush or other foreground clutter. The unit simply ignores anything closer than 150 yards. In this mode “>150″ appears in the LCD display. The >150 mode is selected by depressing the mode button once while looking through the monocular. Note that the Legend will return to the last setting selected each time that the unit is turned-on.
GPS and laser rangefinder (LRF) technologies each have distinct pros and cons. I chose the LRF mainly because 1) it got better reviews from users, 2) it doesn’t require course loading, 3) it doesn’t require annual fees and 4) I was impressed with it when I saw a friend use it. But I still wasn’t sure how much its negatives vs GPS (mainly the line of sight requirement) would diminish its usefulness on the course.
I have had the Bushnell Yardage Pro Sport 450 laser range finder for just over a year now. This is the entry level range finder from Bushnell. The Sport 450 has a range of 5 to 999 yards. According to Bushnell the effective ranges for the Sport 450 are 200 yards for deer and golf flag pins, 450 yards for trees and 999 yards for large reflective objects with an accuracy of +/- 1 yard.
About the Author
Check out more optical rangefinders advice at opticalrangefindes.com. You can also read some great reviews on the Bushnell Yardage Pro Legend there as well.
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