Bushnell Laser Rangefinder Review and Field Tests

Anyone who has used binoculars realizes that adisplay also requires you to manually change the
steady hand is crucial to see a distant object, andhole number as you play. In other words, when
with the rangefinder a steady hand is even moreyou drive to the next tee, the GPS will continue
important. The best, most accurate way to useto tell you the distance to the previous green until
the rangefinder is to prop your elbows on the golfyou push a button to go to the next hole. I found
cart's steering wheel with both hands and aimthis inconvenient at first, but as IGÇÖve
directly at the flag (not the flagstick) If you don'tgotten used to it, it really is not that big of a deal.
keep a steady hand, you may be getting theIf your eyes don't happen to match the diopter
distance of whatever the laser is hitting behindcorrection built into the Legend, you are out of
the flag. Take two or three readings. If you areluck. There is no way to adjust this Bushnell's
without a cart, use your golf club as a mono-pod.eyepiece, so put up with blurry views or start
While the rangefinder will measure distances up toshopping for something else.
several hundred yards (I successfully got aThe >150 mode allows ranging objects that are
reading today of 367 yards off of the back of anat least 150 yards (or 165 meters) away through
unsuspecting golfer on the green ahead of me)brush or other foreground clutter. The unit simply
The real value of the rangefinder is inside 175ignores anything closer than 150 yards. In this
yards. Especially within 120 yards. It is accurate tomode ">150" appears in the LCD display. The
within 1 yard by my experimentation.>150 mode is selected by depressing the
Overall, we think the Bushnell Yardage Pro is amode button once while looking through the
step in the right direction for a company enteringmonocular. Note that the Legend will return to the
the GPS marketplace. They put out a high qualitylast setting selected each time that the unit is
and extremely accurate GPS unit that will beturned-on.
perfect for golfers that play the same course allGPS and laser rangefinder (LRF) technologies each
the time and really just need green distances.have distinct pros and cons. I chose the LRF
However if you play multiple or new coursesmainly because 1) it got better reviews from
frequently, you might want to wait for some ofusers, 2) it doesn't require course loading, 3) it
the other Bushnell GPS reviews before makingdoesn't require annual fees and 4) I was
your decision. You can read all about the Yardageimpressed with it when I saw a friend use it. But I
Pro at their website Bushnell Golf Yardage Pro.still wasn't sure how much its negatives vs GPS
This unit carries a MSRP of $199.99 and is(mainly the line of sight requirement) would
available now.diminish its usefulness on the course.
The display on the Yardage Pro is pretty basic.I have had the Bushnell Yardage Pro Sport 450
There is no layout of the hole or any way tolaser range finder for just over a year now. This
choose the distances that you want to measure.is the entry level range finder from Bushnell. The
It simply shows you the distance to the front,Sport 450 has a range of 5 to 999 yards.
middle, and back of the green. This is typical ofAccording to Bushnell the effective ranges for the
most entry-level GPS rangefinders. You can jumpSport 450 are 200 yards for deer and golf flag
to another screen to calculate drive distances, butpins, 450 yards for trees and 999 yards for large
that requires a little effort and navigation. Thereflective objects with an accuracy of +/- 1 yard.