Bushnell Tour X Laser Rangefinder

[Region3]

Last week (after West Hill actually) I decided to buy myself a new laser rangefinder.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with my old one, but it can struggle in rain and fog. I assumed this was normal as the beam would bounce of anything in between me and the target, but at West Hill I tried another player’s Bushnell and it was picking up distances through the rain when mine would not.

After scouting Nikon and Bushnell’s websites for info and reading various online reviews I decided on the Bushnell Tour X.

Now, I don’t need all the bells and whistles that the Tour X has, but they’re certainly not going to do me any harm and since I was treating myself I thought why not.

I’ve now played 2 rounds with it over the weekend, and my thoughts and impressions so far are:-


The Good

• Unbelievably quick at giving distances.
  
  
• I didn't think the jolt would be very beneficial but it is. With my old one I’d go back and forth between the flag and background to make sure I had the right number. With this, there is no need, even for my OCD’ness.
  
  
• Red display is super easy to see. The black is fine in normal light.
  
  
• Faceplate is very easy to change over.

The Not So Good

• Can't scan and continuously read distances like my old one. As soon as it reads a closer distance than the one it currently has it jolts and stops reading. Not a problem for flags but I struggled with long distance bunkers as my unsteady hands pointed at the ground well before the bunker.
  
  
• The eyepiece has some coating on it that darkens the view - like wearing sunglasses. Good for really bright days but makes it harder than need be to see flags in overcast conditions. I thought at first there might be a protective film like you get on new phones but I can't see anything to peel off!
  
  
• The case is a little fiddly and requires very small (or very dextrous) hands to get the device out one-handed. It’s also quite easy to move the focussing wheel when removing the device from the case.

Although it appears that I’ve written more bad than good that is far from the case. The bad points are merely niggles, and the good far outweighs them.


Slope

I had always wondered how useful (and accurate) the slope feature on rangefinders would be. For some reason I thought they might work yard for yard ie 5yds uphill means it plays 5yds longer.

I was wrong. It also allows for the length of shot in its calculations. For example, 10yds uphill on a 180yd shot will have more of an effect on club selection than 10yds uphill on a 90yd shot, because the ball will be descending at a shallower angle on the longer shot.

I can’t really judge how useful the slope is yet as my place isn’t hilly at all, and the one hole it could be useful on I forgot to take a reading from the usual approach spot.

It did make adjustments of 2 or 3 yards on a few shots I thought were flat, but I’m not yet at the stage where 2 or 3 yards will make that much of a difference to my club/shot choice.

Overall I’m very happy with it so far. It’s quite light but feels solid, fits in my hand very nicely and reads distances remarkably quickly.

I look forward to halving my handicap in the coming months

 

[patricks148]

Last week (after West Hill actually) I decided to buy myself a new laser rangefinder.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with my old one, but it can struggle in rain and fog. I assumed this was normal as the beam would bounce of anything in between me and the target, but at West Hill I tried another player’s Bushnell and it was picking up distances through the rain when mine would not.

After scouting Nikon and Bushnell’s websites for info and reading various online reviews I decided on the Bushnell Tour X.

Now, I don’t need all the bells and whistles that the Tour X has, but they’re certainly not going to do me any harm and since I was treating myself I thought why not.

I’ve now played 2 rounds with it over the weekend, and my thoughts and impressions so far are:-


The Good

• Unbelievably quick at giving distances.
  
  
• I didn't think the jolt would be very beneficial but it is. With my old one I’d go back and forth between the flag and background to make sure I had the right number. With this, there is no need, even for my OCD’ness.
  
  
• Red display is super easy to see. The black is fine in normal light.
  
  
• Faceplate is very easy to change over.

The Not So Good

• Can't scan and continuously read distances like my old one. As soon as it reads a closer distance than the one it currently has it jolts and stops reading. Not a problem for flags but I struggled with long distance bunkers as my unsteady hands pointed at the ground well before the bunker.
  
  
• The eyepiece has some coating on it that darkens the view - like wearing sunglasses. Good for really bright days but makes it harder than need be to see flags in overcast conditions. I thought at first there might be a protective film like you get on new phones but I can't see anything to peel off!
  
  
• The case is a little fiddly and requires very small (or very dextrous) hands to get the device out one-handed. It’s also quite easy to move the focussing wheel when removing the device from the case.

Although it appears that I’ve written more bad than good that is far from the case. The bad points are merely niggles, and the good far outweighs them.


Slope

I had always wondered how useful (and accurate) the slope feature on rangefinders would be. For some reason I thought they might work yard for yard ie 5yds uphill means it plays 5yds longer.

I was wrong. It also allows for the length of shot in its calculations. For example, 10yds uphill on a 180yd shot will have more of an effect on club selection than 10yds uphill on a 90yd shot, because the ball will be descending at a shallower angle on the longer shot.

I can’t really judge how useful the slope is yet as my place isn’t hilly at all, and the one hole it could be useful on I forgot to take a reading from the usual approach spot.

It did make adjustments of 2 or 3 yards on a few shots I thought were flat, but I’m not yet at the stage where 2 or 3 yards will make that much of a difference to my club/shot choice.

Overall I’m very happy with it so far. It’s quite light but feels solid, fits in my hand very nicely and reads distances remarkably quickly.

I look forward to halving my handicap in the coming months

Interesting, been thinking of getting one, but as I'm some what tight fisted, didn't want to pay full whack just yet.

please update any other observations over the winter if you do play some hilly or undulating courses.

 

[FairwayDodger]

I got one of these for my birthday. Have never had a rangefinder before but I am totally converted.... (Apart from getting a reading from the tree behind the pin at the 9th at West Hill and airmailing the green as a result!)

The slope surprised me in that it generally seems to make less difference to the yardage than I would previously have imagined.

My biggest fear is that I'll forget to change the faceplate in between a practice and competition round and get into trouble as a result!

 

[Alex1975]

Thanks for the review, its a lovely looking bit of kit!

Quick questions: Do you get two numbers, one for flat out distance and one for slope altered difference? I have a cheap range finder that is cool but it is slow and and am constantly doing the same as you were, background, pin and so on.

 

[FairwayDodger]

Thanks for the review, its a lovely looking bit of kit!

Quick questions: Do you get two numbers, one for flat out distance and one for slope altered difference? I have a cheap range finder that is cool but it is slow and and am constantly doing the same as you were, background, pin and so on.

Yes, when you have the slope faceplate on you get two distances.

 

[Region3]

Thanks for the review, its a lovely looking bit of kit!

Quick questions: Do you get two numbers, one for flat out distance and one for slope altered difference? I have a cheap range finder that is cool but it is slow and and am constantly doing the same as you were, background, pin and so on.

Yes, when you have the slope faceplate on you get two distances.

As FD said, 2 distances. The top one is as normal ie non slope adjusted.

In slightly smaller numbers underneath, it alternates every second or so between the angle it's detected and the slope adjusted yardage.

Something that the manual mentions is that you are supposed to keep the device looking at the target for a second or so after you have your normal distance so it can do the maths for the adjusted yardage.
I guess it doesn't continuously adjust for slope while the button is down and only does the calculation when the distance is final, so needs you to keep the device at the same angle.

In practice it gave me the adjusted yardage before I could even think about moving it away.

 

[MendieGK]

As FD said, 2 distances. The top one is as normal ie non slope adjusted.

In slightly smaller numbers underneath, it alternates every second or so between the angle it's detected and the slope adjusted yardage.

Something that the manual mentions is that you are supposed to keep the device looking at the target for a second or so after you have your normal distance so it can do the maths for the adjusted yardage.
I guess it doesn't continuously adjust for slope while the button is down and only does the calculation when the distance is final, so needs you to keep the device at the same angle.

In practice it gave me the adjusted yardage before I could even think about moving it away.

Which rangefinder did you have before? i struggled at west hill with my one constantly showing 11yards due to the rain etc!

 

[Region3]

Which rangefinder did you have before? i struggled at west hill with my one constantly showing 11yards due to the rain etc!

A Nikon. I think it's called Coolshot, but it's the all black one from before the new funky blue & white ones.

Mostly was either no reading or 11.5yds, but it did pick a few up.

 

[MendieGK]

A Nikon. I think it's called Coolshot, but it's the all black one from before the new funky blue & white ones.

Mostly was either no reading or 11.5yds, but it did pick a few up.

Yeah i've got the white one. Personally i much prefer it to the busnells i've used as i like the scan mode and also find it picks up the pin better when there are trees behind. However, i almost threw it @ West Hill.