Thread: Rangefinder

I’m getting into hunting and looking for a range finder that isn’t going to break the budget, Iv seen on some Leupold RF’s that they have TBR and was wondering what that is and do I need a RF with it? cheers

Niko Stirling from scopeyouout website should be under $400

A lot of range finders have the TBR function, its true ballistic range. That is the range corrected for slope angle.

I've been happy with my SNDway cheapie. It has true horizontal distance adjustment. The optics aren't great, but it does the job - I have better glass for finding things.
It depends on your shooting - I only got mine because I had access to a farm and I couldn't tell whether the goats were small and close or large and far off. If you plan on bush hunting only you could zero at 200m, which would make your rifle point and shoot at 50m or across a 200m gully.

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If your ballistic calculator accepts the inclination angle then whether TRB exists doesn't really matter.

SNDWAY are pretty good for the price. The only issue I find is the reticle display is black, making it near impossible to see at last light

Yep i second or third the SNDWAY , I brought one for $200 od bucks and havent looked back or had any problems with it.

TBR is useful once you start shooting out past about 250 in steep country. It is useful at distances less than 150 if you are using a .22lr or .44

To answer your question as to what it is, the first bit of context is that when shooting at an upward or downward angle, bullets drop differently to how much they drop when shot horizontally (which is how they are normally being shot when sighting in is taking place at the shooting range)

Think if you are shooting directly downward from a helicopter at a deer. Gravity will not be pulling your bullet toward the bottom of your scope view because the true bottom of you scope view in this scenario is directly where the crosshair is pointing.

Now if you are shooting at a 45degree angle downward, you still need to account for some subtraction of the amount that the bullet will normally drop. Because you are still half aiming in the direction that gravity is pulling. You do need to be quite good at math to calculate these numbers on the fly so TBR is a way to get around that.

Most people can't accurately estimate the angle of inclination (what angle upward or downward you are shooting) either, so TBR helps with that too.


There are basically two main types of rangefinder, because the actual technology of bouncing a light beam back and reading it isn't very expensive to produce.

1, accurate rangefinders with good glass that cost extra
2, accurate rangefinders without good glass that cost less

A rangefinder without TBR is useful all day long, but TBR is definitely good to have, all other things being equal if the difference between TBR and not doesn't push the price up too much, I would recommend it.

The effects of angle (both up and downhill) aren't possibly as great as you may expect. At 30 degrees, the actual drop is still 86% of shooting horizontally. At 45 degrees which is pretty steep downhill, it's about 70% but that's more than enough to miss, certainly past say 400yds.