Thread: Rangefinder

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.