Leica 1600-B problems

Wildyote

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I just bought a Leica 1600-B rangefinder and I have friends of mine with Leica's that have real good luck with them. I was out prairie dog hunting this weekend and was not impressed with the unit. It was 20-25 yards off at 200 and 200 yards off at 1200 yds. We used several other rangefinders to confirm this. Has anyone else had problems with them?
 


jpv

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I haven't had any problems with mine but I do know that if there's an issue send it in and Leica will take care of you. Had a cousin send his rangefinder in cause it was malfunctioning and they just sent him a new one. Mine has worked flawlessly since I bought it but it's always nice to know if things ever go south with it the company will take care of the issue and make it right.
 

Wildyote

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I haven't had any problems with mine but I do know that if there's an issue send it in and Leica will take care of you. Had a cousin send his rangefinder in cause it was malfunctioning and they just sent him a new one. Mine has worked flawlessly since I bought it but it's always nice to know if things ever go south with it the company will take care of the issue and make it right.

I think I am going to return it to Scheels as I just bought it Thursday. We used another Leica, G7 Gunwerks, and a Vectronix to verify. The Vextronix that my friend has is about $8500 now less when he bought it. I really trust that one! Thanks for the info.
 

aron

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Didn't accidentally get set up for meters did it? 200 yards is about 183 meters and 1200 yards is about 1100 meters. Might be worth checking before returning it.
 

Wildyote

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I will check. I didn't even think of that.
 


snow

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No issues with mine either and its 5c years old,great range finder.
 

Retired Educator

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Didn't accidentally get set up for meters did it? 200 yards is about 183 meters and 1200 yards is about 1100 meters. Might be worth checking before returning it.
I'm not very good about checking the obvious when I have a problem. Sometimes makes one feel a little (lot) stupid. Like the time I called an electrician to fix a circuit that didn't seem to be working. He pressed the reset button on the GFI and it came back to life. Better than rewiring but I didn't look like the sharpest knife in the drawer. Luckily he laughed and didn't charge me anything. Must have felt sorry for someone with so little knowledge. At least now that's the first thing I check when I have a problem and it's been the issue every time.
 

Howler

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Leicas are about 60/40 set up on meters from the factory.

I bet your unit was in meters.

If you return look hard at the sig sauer. 3400 yards on a 500 dollar rf is impressive.
 


PrairieGhost

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Leicas are about 60/40 set up on meters from the factory.

I bet your unit was in meters.

If you return look hard at the sig sauer. 3400 yards on a 500 dollar rf is impressive.

I have had a couple of Leica and no problems. Then I went to a Swarovski, and had a medium priced Nikon for a backup. When the Sig Sauer came out I dumped the Nikon and bought it for backup. It's hard to decide which will be my primary. The Swarovski optics are much better, but it doesn't have angle compensation. I guess Swarovski around North Dakota, and Sig in the mountains. For the dollar your absolutely right Howler. Sig gives law enforcement a good break also.
 

Wildyote

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Leicas are about 60/40 set up on meters from the factory.

I bet your unit was in meters.

If you return look hard at the sig sauer. 3400 yards on a 500 dollar rf is impressive.

The Sig might be a good rangefinder but its claim of 3400 yds is at reflective targets and 1200 yds on deer sized targets which is still good. They will not touch the Vectronix. My friends Vectronix has ranged deer sized targets at 4,000 yds. Heck they make one that will do 25 km. But, like you said the Sig for $500 is not bad for the price. I would like to compare it to the Leica 1600
 

PrairieGhost

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The Sig might be a good rangefinder but its claim of 3400 yds is at reflective targets and 1200 yds on deer sized targets which is still good. They will not touch the Vectronix. My friends Vectronix has ranged deer sized targets at 4,000 yds. Heck they make one that will do 25 km. But, like you said the Sig for $500 is not bad for the price. I would like to compare it to the Leica 1600

There are better rangefinders, but I am just comparing dollar to dollar value. So far I have ranged buildings to 3215, and I don't know if I was ranging a deer, or the trees around the deer, but I ranged 2243 yd. Either way I got the yardage and it's way beyond shooting at unless a person has something vehicle mounted.:)
 

Wildyote

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There are better rangefinders, but I am just comparing dollar to dollar value. So far I have ranged buildings to 3215, and I don't know if I was ranging a deer, or the trees around the deer, but I ranged 2243 yd. Either way I got the yardage and it's way beyond shooting at unless a person has something vehicle mounted.:)

I didn't realize you owned one as I thought you were relaying what Sig was specifying. That is impressive for the price! What model do have? If my Leica is faulty I might seriously look into buying the Sig. Thanks for the info.
 


SupressYourself

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So far I have ranged buildings to 3215, and I don't know if I was ranging a deer, or the trees around the deer, but I ranged 2243 yd. Either way I got the yardage and it's way beyond shooting at unless a person has something vehicle mounted.:)

Are you holding it in your hand when ranging at that distance, or do you have it on a tripod or something?
My Nikon is supposed to go to 1200, but I've never been able to range anything (buildings, hills, etc) past 5-600.
 

PrairieGhost

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Are you holding it in your hand when ranging at that distance, or do you have it on a tripod or something?
My Nikon is supposed to go to 1200, but I've never been able to range anything (buildings, hills, etc) past 5-600.

I like some Nikon things, but I have had three Nikon rangefinders and they do about 60% of what they advertise. On the 3215 yd range no I was hand holding it. Sitting in my vehicle with the window down shooting across part of the Pipestem reservoir at a friends farm house. Both the Swarovski and the Sig are very fast. Moving it around and scanning the ranges are instantaneous at anything 1200 yds and under. The Sig struggled for seconds to get the 3215 yardage, but then it wasn't reflective just a building side. The Swarovski stops at 1999 yd. It does that easily, but acts as if it has built in limitations that stop anything beyond 1999. Good enough for me. I have owned nearly a dozen laser rangefinders and looked through many more. So far nothing beats the optics of the Swarovski. I often don't carry binocs bow hunting.
 


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