Mr Ian Hardie the South African representative from Leica invited me to attend their yearly Leica Day. We would be seeing some of the new products in action and also explained the inner workings and technical information with some of the developers from Leica.
Thereafter we would be spending some time on the shooting range to test the equipment. I was excited to see some of the new Leica equipment in action after Andrew Mcleod had been using the Leica Magnus 3-12 x 42 on his recent buffalo Hunt with me in Hoedspruit.
Leica is renowned for their brilliant optics and I was rearing to see their new hardware in action.
Products I spent some time with at the shooting range.
Leica Geovid 10 x 42 HD-B, the latest technology Binocular
Leica ER 6.5 – 26 x 56 LRS, the latest technology Telescope
Couple these two giants with a 300 WSM and you have a combination worthy of Chris Kyle in “American Sniper” all you need is someone that can read and relay windage.
These two are used in conjunction with one another,
The Binocular/Rangefinder has some key features, Including but not limited to “Ballistic System for Maximum Precise Shot” This allows extremely long ranging capability of up to 1,825 metres, Advanced Ballistic Compensation (ABC®) for all hunting needs, including point of aim correction for various reticles and bullet drop compensators. A microSD memory card allows for the input of the hunter’s own ballistic parameters. All units feature a very bright, clear and easily legible LED display with automatic adjustment to any lighting conditions. Users benefit from an extremely short measuring time of max. 0.3 seconds.
This is probably the most critical feature of the new range Binocular/Rangefinder. You can now input your own rifles ballistic data and the rangefinder will interpreted angles and distance to give you accurate calculated compensation or number of clicks if you are using the binocular in conjunction with the Leica ER 6.5 – 26 x 56 LRS rifle telescope.
We put this to the test. We reset all the data on the Binocular to factory default. Begin the setup procedure that takes 3 minutes, make sure you set it to Metric or Imperial and you are off. Allways be aware of wich setting you had it on last, the rangefinder gives you compensation in inches or cm – this can be a problem if you have not made sure what you are on. From a PH point of view I would stick to inches, 99% of your clients would be using the imperial system and you don’t want to confuse yourself with imperial & metric.
We then zero’d the rifle scope at 100 and reset the dial click to zero. The 200m steel plate was up next. You range the plate at 200m and directly after the range calculation a digit appears under the distance. This would be your compensation distance, there are two options, either the Bino’s will give you cm/inch compensation or when using in conjunction with the Leica scope it will give you amount of click’s.
I liked the click adjustment on the scope because your crosshair always remains dead centre and you only have to compensate for windage. 200,300 & even 400m was a brease if you have your shooting technique fine tuned. Then came the 500m. As an added difficulty the guys decreased the gong by 1/4 of the 200m gong, add a little wind into it and you have yourself a blast on the range seeing who can hit the 500m gong first.
Your wind compensation has to be spot on for you to hit that small gong on 500m. Lucky enough I managed to hit the gong twice in my little time behind the rifle. It was also really nice having the chaps from Leica especially Norman there to assist you with any queries regarding any of their equipment.
After an amazing day on the range where I met some amazing people and they allowed us to use their latest equipment it was time for me to hit the road. This day had changed my mind, Leica is some of the best if not the very best equipment out there and I would urge anyone to buy a combination like this if you enjoy long range accurate shooting.
Thank’s to everyone from Leica for setting up a wonderful day on the range. Thanks to Ian for the invite and Andrew Macleod for the introduction.
Leica has the Pro Hunting Safaris – PH approval for Sure !!!
Visit Norman and Ian at 2016 Huntex – They are truly great gentlemen.
PH Bernard.
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