Where I live the hardest thing to overcome when coyote hunting (other than finding them) is getting an exact range. Currently I am using a Sig Kilo 2200 and a Bushnell 1 Mile. The Sig seems to perform better under ideal conditions but the Bushnell seems to do better under less than ideal conditions, mostly in the cold.

Performance seems to drop off considerably anytime the weather is below freezing. Keeping the unit and batteries warm seems to help but that usually means keeping it an inner pocket where it is not very accessible.

One thing I do to gain a bit more stability when I need to get higher I sometimes place the butt of my rifle on the ground and rest the rangefinder on top of the bipod feet.

I had thought of drawing up range cards but I move around a lot and it is difficult to find reference points in the fields I usually hunt in.

What do you guys do to get the most out of your rangefinders? Does anyone have a rangefinder mounted directly to their rifle?

Mounting a rangefinder to a rifle is silly for trigonometric reasons. Ask Pythagoras what he'd think about it.

Bright overhead sun degrades performance. Non-reflective targets (you'd be surprised what's "reflective" and what's not in practice) degrade performance. Small targets make it harder to get anything like a good reading. Wide beam divergences make for an essentially useless rangefinder.

Me, I use a Vector21 and that seems to keep all of the problems at bay all the way out to multiple miles in the worst of conditions.

I use a kilo 2400, been no issues with it, even during our hunt season which is normally in 20-50 degree temps..I use a small tripod for ranging with it..as far as keeping it warm, I would sling it around my neck and keep it just inside my coat on my chest, or I would keep it in a coat pocket with a chemical hand warmer in the pocket.. I am surprised you kill batteries that easy, I put a fresh battery in when we hit camp and it comes out when I get home after 6-24 days, most of the time the range finder stays in my pack outside the tent, including over night...never had an issue with it ranging stuff...

I coyote hunt a lot, and use a rangefinder on every stand. I just range landmarks, and set boundaries in my head, i.e, "That corner post is XXXyd, that tree is XXXyd," etc..

A small rear bag on top the scope works wonders for sitting your rangefinder on to be steady for longer readings.




And oh yeah, the Silencero Radius is a rifle mounted rangefinder, and works pretty great. They are discontinued, and bring stupid money when you can find one.