SmallCaliberCentral

Just wondering if anyone uses a hand held range finder for woodchuck hunting and how hard is it to range the little rascals at long distances. Thanks guys.

I've seen reasonably good results with Nikon, Leupold and Bushnell range finders in the prairie dog towns where I shoot. But if you don't want it to calculate stuff, have 40 some different modes, or have numbers and messages that take up half your field of view, get the best first--BUY A LEICA!
Performance depends on the weather and time of day, different light conditions will give your range finder different limitations. A Leica will generally read a prairie dog mound to 500 yards. Sometimes to range farther I need to range a rock or a bush at similar distance because the dog or mound it is on won't read.
A friend has the Leica Geovid(about $3,000) and he can range to 800 yards on a mound and well over 1,000 on rocks and bushes, more than 1,500 yards on buildings and big trees.
Never tried the Swarovski but I would bet it performs well, too.

+1 on the Leica range finders... I have an older 1200 and while some Prairie Dog mounds are too flat to provide a good reflection, there is usually a rock, cactus, etc., that I can pick up for a general idea.

If I can hold it steady enough, I've been able to get readings on rocks (larger ones) at 950+ yards, which is way farther than I would ever be shooting.

As far as woodchucks, (I think we call them Groundhogs), I used to range one that had taken up residence in the old neighborhood, near the neighbor's in ground pool....there was a request made to 'have him gone', and I shot him while sitting on my deck at 125 yards (we lived out in the county then).

I use a Nikon and have had little problem with the unit itself but true it is difficult to hold steady. The problem I have run into is the properties I hunt are rather hilly and if they are on the top part of a knoll and you range a foot over him from not ranging steady it can be a 100 yards or so off. Ask, me how I know that The one thing I will do with mine is range them a couple times to make sure I keep getting the same number. When I start seeing variations I try to rest it on something. As for the Nikon Range finder itself, I am very happy with it. It is fast, easy to use and accurate, from what I can tell. Hope this helps

Dar

Another plus for the Leica. I have a CRF 1200 and can routinely range pd mounds out to 500 yds. Any time I take out my rifles or bow the Leica comes along.