Bushnell Broadhead

[Billy Goat]

Has anyone gotten any experience with one? Looks decent, 5 year warranty, not the best out there, but reasonable in my opinion.

They tout it being the most accurate. The changing color display is interesting.

I have been casually looking for a replacement archery RF and this seems to check a lot of the boxes. Other considerations are the Vortex Razor HD 4000 and the Leupold RX Fulldraw 5. I'm not thrilled to spend the money on Leupold with only a year warranty on it, already had an experience with that. Don't have a problem with getting a Vortex, just this is a fair amount cheaper, supposedly more accurate (.3 yard versus .5 yard accuracy).

Maven has the .5 yard accuracy, says lifetime warranty so I assume it's same as their other optics and is truly lifetime, or a reasonable lifetime. Probably should be in the mix as well.

Sig I can't find what their claimed accuracy is.


Number 1 priority for this one is accuracy, I have others I can use for hunting if need be. Just want the downright most accurate with a decent lifetime. Needs to return same distance no matter color of target, Bushnell has had issues with that.

 

[3forks]

I looked at the Broadhead, but opted for the Full Draw 5.

The reason I went with the Full Draw 5 is because I was informed the Bushnell uses cosine, and is not accurate on angles and distance over 220 degrees and 70 yards. Also, the Leupold is the only range finder that is configured off of bow dimensions and speed (Archer’s Advantage).

If you’re not shooting steep incline or decline shots over longer distances, I think the Broadhead would be great, and I like the color change reticle. Also, as you probably know Tim Gillingham helped design the Broadhead. I don’t agree with everything that guy says, or the degree he gets into the minutiae on things, but he’s not going to risk his reputation on junk.

I have not had the chance to test the Full Draw at steep angles and long distances yet, but I will say that it’s been great in every other way. AA was easy to configure and accurate, super fast, reticle choices are good and bright, etc.

I had an older Leupold that I thought was failing, but turns out a replacement battery I used to replace a dying battery was weak. Anyway, Leupold sold me the Full Draw 5 at a significant discount. I say that because I hear enough complaints about Leupold’s durability to know the issues must be real, but I haven’t experience those and their CS was great.

 

[Billy Goat]

I looked at the Broadhead, but opted for the Full Draw 5.

The reason I went with the Full Draw 5 is because I was informed the Bushnell uses cosine, and is not accurate on angles and distance over 220 degrees and 70 yards. Also, the Leupold is the only range finder that is configured off of bow dimensions and speed (Archer’s Advantage).

If you’re not shooting steep incline or decline shots over longer distances, I think the Broadhead would be great, and I like the color change reticle. Also, as you probably know Tim Gillingham helped design the Broadhead. I don’t agree with everything that guy says, or the degree he gets into the minutiae on things, but he’s not going to risk his reputation on junk.

I have not had the chance to test the Full Draw at steep angles and long distances yet, but I will say that it’s been great in every other way. AA was easy to configure and accurate, super fast, reticle choices are good and bright, etc.

I had an older Leupold that I thought was failing, but turns out a replacement battery I used to replace a dying battery was weak. Anyway, Leupold sold me the Full Draw 5 at a significant discount. I say that because I hear enough complaints about Leupold’s durability to know the issues must be real, but I haven’t experience those and their CS was great.

I have had 3 different Leupold products fail, one being a rangefinder a few days out of warranty that they told me tuff luck on. That's been well over a decade ago, but still left a sour taste in my mouth.

I agree that the AA software would be a huge plus, but I'm mainly looking at it for field archery. Seems Gaius Carter is using a Bosch laser. Might be something to look into instead. I can use line of sight and the angle on my cut charts, just would save some work to have it built in.


Tim has endorsed several RF's before, I'm sure he made some valuable inputs on it, but I don't feel like that guarantees the quality. Vista (Owns Bushnell) also owns Beestinger and Gold Tip, who employ Tim. So he might not have too much choice in the endorsement.....

 

[Zac]

This gives you everything you need to shoot in a cut chart yet does none of the calculations for you. I guess if you have a ton of time on your hands it would be worth it.

 

[freedomhunter25]

I have been using the new broadhead for over a month now . I took 3 rangefinders with me to test , the bushnell, a sig , and my leica 2700 hdr binos . I shot 2 different tac events . The leicas were off on steep angles , the broadhead and the sig were almost alway within half yard of each other , . I like the ergos on broadhead, I really like the color changing , it helped alot on dark shadows , And I like how it shows both line of sight, and angle . So far its been PERFECT to 103 yards . But Im still testing . For me I like the bushnell Broadhead , and for the money its a GREAT product . Sold my leicas when I got home !!!!!!! lol

 

[Billy Goat]

So I ended up purchasing one. Decided to test it a little and put the results here. Haven't tested accuracy yet, just repeatability. I'll test accuracy later.

After only 2 days it seems good, but I'll keep updating and I'll also test it over taped distances and different materials.

 

[nphunter]

I love my Razor 4K, it's been great, quick, great glass and so far it hasn't had a single issue. I really like the lifetime warranty on the electronics, as far as I know, they are the only company to offer the warranty on the electronics. I've had a couple of others fail in the past and was offered 30% off of a new one, I really hope the Razor is the last range finder I ever have to purchase.

I do have a Bushnell ARC 1200 that I've had OK luck with and it's still working after about 8 years, I have had some battery life issues with it where it totally drained a battery for no reason before but lately, it's been OK and my kid uses it. A great older range finder is the Nikon Archers Choice, it is the only range finder I know of that automatically switches from a red LED to a black when it gets light and dark out, this is a great feature but I also had battery life issues and ranging issues with that one after several years of use. The RZ is my 4th range finder in the last 10 years, all 3 of the others had electronic issues that were not covered by warranty.

 

[Billy Goat]

 

[Billy Goat]

I love my Razor 4K, it's been great, quick, great glass and so far it hasn't had a single issue. I really like the lifetime warranty on the electronics, as far as I know, they are the only company to offer the warranty on the electronics. I've had a couple of others fail in the past and was offered 30% off of a new one, I really hope the Razor is the last range finder I ever have to purchase.

I do have a Bushnell ARC 1200 that I've had OK luck with and it's still working after about 8 years, I have had some battery life issues with it where it totally drained a battery for no reason before but lately, it's been OK and my kid uses it. A great older range finder is the Nikon Archers Choice, it is the only range finder I know of that automatically switches from a red LED to a black when it gets light and dark out, this is a great feature but I also had battery life issues and ranging issues with that one after several years of use. The RZ is my 4th range finder in the last 10 years, all 3 of the others had electronic issues that were not covered by warranty.

This Bushnell goings from red to black depending on lighting.

I still have my Vortex 1800, I'll probably keep using it for my hunting rangefinder, I don't feel like a yard up or down matters there. Trying to find one to use for outdoor more than anything.

Had a Nikon that was previous to the archers choice, never had issues with it however I decided after a dozen years it didn't owe me anything and didn't want to count on it, replaced it with the Vortex because of their warranty. A young hunter has the nikon now, far as I know still holding up well for him.

 

[IN_Varmntr]

BG have you compared it to a tape yet?

I recently came across a podcast with Gillingham talking about it which was the first I'd heard of it. He made a good point, being someone needs to release one that is capable of being user-calibrated.

They're like anything else really, they provide data based upon variables whose accuracy rely heavily upon the accuracy of the instrumentation measuring them.

Levi was talking about RFs in general in another and was discussing how variables with each arrow setup affect arrow speed decay at distance and more extreme angles. The RFs cannot account for that without having the known variable entered. Interesting discussion for sure.

 

[Billy Goat]

BG have you compared it to a tape yet?

I recently came across a podcast with Gillingham talking about it which was the first I'd heard of it. He made a good point, being someone needs to release one that is capable of being user-calibrated.

They're like anything else really, they provide data based upon variables whose accuracy rely heavily upon the accuracy of the instrumentation measuring them.

Levi was talking about RFs in general in another and was discussing how variables with each arrow setup affect arrow speed decay at distance and more extreme angles. The RFs cannot account for that without having the known variable entered. Interesting discussion for sure.

Have not.

I haven't updated any ranged either cause conditions have been pretty consistent. If I don't dove hunt this evening, I'll get a tape out and check it against that.


Yes, individual arrow setups create situations that a standard program can't account for. That's what is neat about AA input in the Leupold, however AA still only makes adjustments to the speed to account for things like fletching drag. So if getting marks at 20 and then 100, heavier helical will drop like a slower arrow with slight offset fletching. So they just compute the speed based on drop, which is usually accurate enough, likely will find that a heavier helical will actually be a little higher at 55 yards or so than the slight offset. However that is getting to the point that no skill level can shoot past I believe.

 

[Billy Goat]

Haven't gotten a tape out an actually measured this thing yet, too occupied with other things. Did shoot another yardage tho.




It was bouncing a bit, of course the one picture isn't centered. But I was getting some 101.1 on the center of it too. Just my camera phone has a bunch of different lenses, I'll have it almost right, then it changes to a different camera lense. Pain in the butt.

Conditions were overcast, been drizzling a bit, starting to clear. 100% humidity, 55 degrees.

 

[Billy Goat]

Been a minute since I played with it. Still consistent, tho I'd like to check it when it's a bit colder.



I did check it against a tape finally. Dead on at 40 and 60 yards. I guess it could be off an inch or 2, but it was reading 40.0 and 60.0 at exactly 120 and 180 feet.

 

[Billy Goat]

Fog messed it up this weekend.

Everything was 5.4 yards.
I haven't run into it before, and I wish I a few of my other RF's were with me to compare.

On one hand, I was pretty pissed, but fog was thick. Had to wait a long time for fog to clear to see the first target enough to shoot it.

It's better it was saying 5.4 yards instead of 38 on a 42.5 yard target.

I'm going to make a point of comparing what I have in those conditions now.

 

[mod-it]

I have had the Broadhead for a few months now. I just used it this weekend at a 3d shoot, there were several angled shots and quite a few that had you in open sunlight and then in darker timber. I have used the Broadhead at 3 different 3d shoots so far since I got them.
My brother-in-law has one too and we often go to shoots together. We found that they normally read around .2 yards the same as each other, that was not the case with our old ones at all. My kid was along with us this weekend and I let him carry my old rangefinders, they were constantly reading around 2 yards longer than the Broadhead's did. But when they were my main rangefinders I never really had a problem with the yardage they gave me, I just always sighted in to them.

I really liked the reticle changing between black and red for the different lighting conditions. The red is really visible in the darker timber. My old ones only have a black read-out and often when in dark areas / low light I had to zap something and then point them at the sky to be able to see what they said. It was a bright sunny day and the read-out was black for most of the targets, but I noticed that it changed to red for a couple of targets that were back in the trees, could read them easily.

The angle compensation seemed to be accurate, I set my sight per what they recommended on steep shots and elevation at the target was spot on, if I did my part that is.

My old ones really struggled with black targets, this is one of the main reasons I bought the Broadhead. I have yet to run into a target that they won't read, they have worked flawlessly on every color target I've zapped so far.

My only gripe about them is how sensitive they are for picking up very small twigs between you and the actual desired target you want to range. They pick up really small stuff pretty readily. I pretty much use them only on the bullseye setting because of this and they still give me a reading off small little twigs or leaves a lot. I have to be very aware of the lane I'm zapping a target through with them. It does seem to mostly happen on stuff really close to you, so the reading they give is pretty obviously wrong when they do this. But annoying, my old rangefinders did not pick up the tiny little things the Broadhead does. My BIL is seeing the same thing with his set.

I have not tried to use them in fog yet but recently read a thread where someone else said the same thing. Fog completely renders them useless. I will keep my old ones in my pack just in case, they didn't seem to struggle too much in fog, at least at archery distances, if I put them in the rain setting.

 

[jbelz]

Maven RF.1's field/forest mode saved me at Redding this year. Heavy fog in the morning, switched over to forest mode and didn't have an issue with the readings. Hunted with it last year – no complaints.

 

[doc holiday13]

I have a sig kilo 10k. (binos) but my understanding is that the 8k, 5k, and 3k have the same laser technology. It has a First, Best, Last, Fog, and Extended Range mode. The 3K is close to same price point as the bushnell.

Bushnell does make a good rangefinder. I bought an arc model about 12 years ago and its still kicking. Accuracy is +/- 1 yard.. But for bow hunt thats good enough. I only bought a new rangefinder because I was afraid of the bushnell dieing mid hunt

 

[Ho5tile1]

I use the broadhead and love it I’ve had zero issues ranging anything uphill or downhill and any color target my buddies range finder will not give ranges on dark targets but not sure which one he has.


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