I would not say that the stadiometric rangefinders drive up the cost, but stadiometric rangefinding is pretty much crap for most hunting situations. At distances where you really need it, say 250 - 500 yards, it is hard to get a precise enough measurement to make an accurate assessment. The lines in the display are not the fine lines of a micrometer, but are fairly thick and unless you line of things exactly right, you can get a good bit of variation from the actual distance. An error of 20 yards at 300 yards can have you off by as much as 3-5" on the target and being off by 20 yards is a tiny adjustment difference of precision in measuring your fuzzy target with your thick stadiometric lines.
That was the first issue. The second can be you getting steady enough to make a precise measurement on a distant living target that needs to be stationary long enough to get a precise measurement. Do hogs usually stand still for long periods of time?
The third issue, and this is critical, is that for stadiometric range estimation to work, you must have a target of known size. So I ask you this. What is the known size of a hog? You have seen the posts on this forum, is there a single standard hog size? Are all adult hogs the same size? That hog you are trying to range...is it a 150 lb sow or a 250 lb boar. Will they range the same? Nope, not unless you know their size difference. Do you know the size difference without going up and measuring the hog first and if you can go up and measure the hog first, why didn't you just shoot it?
There may be exceptions, but when I have seen folks use stadiometric rangefinding to make shots on Youtube, I don't see them making long range shots accurately and when shots are made that connect, they are usually within point blank range and nobody verifies the estimated range with a laser rangefinder or tape measurement. So you really never know just how accurate the estimate was or was not.
Now, if you are using subsonic ammo and your shots are going to be within 100 yards, this may work out much better for you, but don't think that having a statiometric rangefinder is going to give you the precision you need to make a shot on a 400 yard hog of undetermined size with any sort of consistency. What it may be able to tell you, however, is that you are still too far to be making a good shot.
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As to Midway and other dealers still taking orders for the Pulsar LRFs, I am not surprised. There will likely be people waiting a very long time for their scopes. As for "flying off the shelves," Sellmark didn't import that many of them to start with. It isn't like dealers had 200 or 300 in stock and are shipping dozens per day. The FLIR PTS233s flew off the shelf as well, the few that were shipped.
Pulsar Apex LRFs are not in stock at
Optics Planet
UNV
TCT
Midway
Amazon
As with Midway, there are other vendors that will take your order, but they don't actually show the products being in stock or not.
That was the first issue. The second can be you getting steady enough to make a precise measurement on a distant living target that needs to be stationary long enough to get a precise measurement. Do hogs usually stand still for long periods of time?
The third issue, and this is critical, is that for stadiometric range estimation to work, you must have a target of known size. So I ask you this. What is the known size of a hog? You have seen the posts on this forum, is there a single standard hog size? Are all adult hogs the same size? That hog you are trying to range...is it a 150 lb sow or a 250 lb boar. Will they range the same? Nope, not unless you know their size difference. Do you know the size difference without going up and measuring the hog first and if you can go up and measure the hog first, why didn't you just shoot it?
There may be exceptions, but when I have seen folks use stadiometric rangefinding to make shots on Youtube, I don't see them making long range shots accurately and when shots are made that connect, they are usually within point blank range and nobody verifies the estimated range with a laser rangefinder or tape measurement. So you really never know just how accurate the estimate was or was not.
Now, if you are using subsonic ammo and your shots are going to be within 100 yards, this may work out much better for you, but don't think that having a statiometric rangefinder is going to give you the precision you need to make a shot on a 400 yard hog of undetermined size with any sort of consistency. What it may be able to tell you, however, is that you are still too far to be making a good shot.
------------------------
As to Midway and other dealers still taking orders for the Pulsar LRFs, I am not surprised. There will likely be people waiting a very long time for their scopes. As for "flying off the shelves," Sellmark didn't import that many of them to start with. It isn't like dealers had 200 or 300 in stock and are shipping dozens per day. The FLIR PTS233s flew off the shelf as well, the few that were shipped.
Pulsar Apex LRFs are not in stock at
Optics Planet
UNV
TCT
Midway
Amazon
As with Midway, there are other vendors that will take your order, but they don't actually show the products being in stock or not.
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