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Pros - Inexpensive rangefinder - Excellent image of target and beyond - Includes battery Cons - Fairly fragile plastic housing and trim - Lacks good accuracy beyond 100 yards - Difficult to range smaller objects with larger ones in the background

Welcome to our review of the TecTecTec VPRO500 Golf Rangefinder. While the model name of this might hint it’s only good for golf, most sporting rangefinders are equally useful in the hunting and shooting field, so I decided to give it a try. Here’s what I’ve learned about this budget-priced rangefinder, so read on to find out if this is the right purchase for you.

First of all, you should know what you get for the money. TecTecTec includes a pouch for carrying the rangefinder, a cleaning cloth, a wrist strap, and a CR2 battery. The pouch is protective without being overly bulky, but it is made of cheap materials – the zipper on mine broke within a couple of weeks of use.

What’s the Maximum Range of the Device

The advertised range of this particular model is 540 yards with accuracy of plus or minus one yard, for a highly reflective target. For short-range use, out to 100 yards, the accuracy is spot on. Beyond that, problems arise with getting an accurate reading from your subject, especially when there are larger or more reflective objects in the background. I found the rangefinder almost useless at the shooting range for lasing targets beyond 100 yards, so I’d recommend passing if you do long-distance hunting or other forms of shooting.

How Easy Is It To Use?

The through-the-lens display is easy to read, giving you distance measurement and battery life superimposed on your image. Operation is reliable with one-button fingertip use, using the same button to power the device on as well as to switch to continuous ranging mode for picking up measurements on multiple subjects at once.

The TecTecTech VPRO500 Rangefinder has a 24mm objective lens, which offers 6X magnification, along with a field of view of 367.5 feet at 1,000 yards and a diopter adjustment range of ± 4 diopters.

How is the TecTecTec VPRO500 Powered?

I feel like a broken record, but I hate CR2 batteries, which is what powers this model. These batteries are often difficult to find when you’re hunting in rural, sparsely populated areas, so you almost have to carry a spare with you in case your primary cell runs out of power. With that said, TecTecTec includes a battery with your purchase and the device does offer pretty good power management, shutting the rangefinder off after 30 seconds of inactivity. I’ve been using the VPRO500 pretty regularly for a few months now, and the battery life indicator still reads a full charge.

What Features Can I Expect From this Accessory?

This device offers two ranging modes, either single-shot or a 20-second continuous measurement mode. It also has a “flagstick” mode that is supposed to allow the rangefinder to ignore background objects like hills, rocks, and trees. That feature, unfortunately, does not function reliably, so you have to be very precise and have steady hands to get an accurate reading on smaller subjects.

How Well Does the Rangefinder Gather Light?

With multicoated optics, TecTecTec’s offering gathers light reasonably well, but not as well as if they’d utilized fully multicoated components. You’ll be able to use the device in low lighting conditions, with one caveat: the display isn’t backlit, so while it may be easy to see your subject in near darkness, you won’t be able to read the display. This particular rangefinder, therefore, is less than useful in early morning or late evening conditions.

How Are the Optics and Focus on This Rangefinder?

As previously noted, the rangefinder has multicoated optics, and it offers a crystal clear, crisp display of your subject and the background. The auto-focus works reasonably quickly, allowing you to locate and lock onto your subject with speed and reliability.

How Durable is the Rangefinder?

Durability is definitely a problem here, as the rangefinder is constructed from plastic without any rubberized armor to protect it against impacts. Furthermore, the plastic seems to be of the very cheap variety, and things happen like the silver trim around the lenses falling off and the retainer clip for the wrist strap disintegrating. It’s not advertised as being either waterproof or fogproof, and I’ve seen evidence that the optical chamber isn’t nitrogen purged – one cold winter morning, the display fogged right up on me when I was setting up to do some sighting in on my rifle.