In November 2024 I missed a doe clean off the far fence on the back forty. I had looked at that fence for years and told myself it was about a 150-yard shot. It was not. The doe ran off unhurt, which is the only good part of the story. That December I bought a TIDEWE rangefinder, walked out to the same fence, and got 212 yards back. Sixty-two yards of nothing I had ever accounted for. That is the honest reason a laser rangefinder lives in my jacket now, and it is the reason I bothered to write any of this down.
I am not a guide and I do not test gear for a living. I ran a one-woman taxidermy shop out of a converted garage for 20 years, which mostly taught me to look closely at how a thing is put together. I have hunted close to 50 years, most of it on 40 acres outside Cadiz, Kentucky. My own limit is 150 yards. Everything below comes from that, not from a listing I read once.
The fence was 212 yards, not the 150 I had guessed
That is the whole gap between a guess and a number. The TIDEWE hunting rangefinder reads from 3 to 700 yards at plus or minus one yard, weighs 5.67 ounces, and rides in a jacket pocket.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →Turns a guess into a number you can act on
For most of close to 50 years I judged distance by eye and I was decent at it inside 100 yards. Past that, decent is not a thing you want to be. The rangefinder takes the guess out of it. Push the button, get a number, and either the shot is inside your limit or it is not. That is the whole value of the tool, and everything else on this list is a smaller version of that same idea.
Locks in your three stand marks before it gets light
From the ladder stand on the big oak I have three marks. The near oak is 48 yards, the gate post is 96, the far fence is 212. I range all three before it gets light and then I quit thinking about distance for the rest of the morning. When a deer steps out I know which mark it is standing near. The arithmetic is already done and it did not cost me any of the attention I need for the deer.
Gives you the horizontal distance, which is the one that matters
The TIDEWE hunting rangefinder reads straight-line distance, vertical distance and horizontal distance. From a ladder stand you are above the animal, so the line from your eye down to the deer runs longer than the ground between the two of you. Horizontal is the number that matters for drop. I did not understand that for years, and I am not going to pretend I did.
Reads 3 to 700 yards, which covers every shot I would take
It measures from 3 to 700 yards. My limit is 150, so most of that range is wasted on a woman in a bean field in Kentucky. It is not wasted on a hunter working open ground. I would rather carry range I never use than a tool that quits at the far fence of my own field, and 212 is the number that decided that for me.
Holds within one yard, so the number is worth believing
Plus or minus one yard. If it read plus or minus ten I would be back to guessing with extra steps and a battery. The first morning I had it out I ranged the gate post three times from the same spot and got 96 every time. Consistency is what builds trust in a piece of glass and electronics. The number printed on the box does not.
The fence I had guessed at 150 yards came back at 212. That is 62 yards I had never accounted for, on a shot I had already talked myself into.
Six power is enough to pick a fence post out of a treeline
At 6x you can sit the reticle on a bare post at 212 yards without hunting around for it, and that is the job. More magnification sounds better when you read it on a listing. In a cold stand with your hands shaking, more magnification makes the wobble worse instead of better. Six is plenty for what I ask it to do.
Weighs 5.67 ounces, so it stays in your jacket and not your pack
It weighs 5.67 ounces and it rides in the chest pocket of my jacket, in the case it came with. I do not notice it on the 15-minute walk to the stand. A rangefinder that lives in a pack is a rangefinder that stays in the pack. The one in your pocket is the one that gets used every morning of the season.
Rechargeable, so nothing goes dead in the truck in October
It runs on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. I have had enough gear quit over a coin cell I forgot to change in October. I charge it before the season opens and top it off once in the middle, and that has been the entire maintenance schedule for nearly two years of owning it.
Handles a wet morning, and I do not ask more than that
It is rated IP54, so I call it water resistant, and I do not call it waterproof. It has been rained on in the stand and it kept reading. When I am not using it, it is in the case on the gun cabinet shelf. That is the care it gets and that is the claim I am willing to make for it.
Small enough that you never leave it in the truck
It measures 4.13 by 2.61 by 1.49 inches and it comes with a case. Small matters more than people admit. Gear you can carry without thinking about is gear you actually carry, and in nearly two years this one has never stayed in the truck because it was too much trouble to bring along.
What I'd Skip
The speed function. The unit reads the speed of a moving target and I have never used it on a deer, because I do not shoot at moving animals and I would not advise you to. I pointed it at a truck on the road once to see whether it worked. It worked. That is the whole of my experience with that feature.
The other thing I would skip is buying more rangefinder than your own shooting is worth. If your limit is 150 yards like mine, a unit that reads to 700 is already generous. And I would skip anybody who tells you a rangefinder makes you a better shot. It does not. It tells you the truth about the shot you were already going to take, and some mornings the truth is that you should let it walk.
Range the three marks before light tomorrow
Nearly two years in a jacket chest pocket and it has not let me down. If you have a fence line you have been guessing at, this is the plainest way to stop guessing. Rated IP54, rechargeable, 3 to 700 yards.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →