The rangefinder and binocular combination in one single unit is far superior to having both a binocular and a rangefinder. This is obviously a personal opinion, but when you spend hundreds of days a year in the field, you get to establish a pretty solid foundation of what works best in nearly every situation.
This new Vortex Fury HD 5000 is a great quality set of optics and a beefed-up rangefinder which is going to get you ranges out to a couple miles. We will cover all of this more in our video review. From a binocular standpoint, the Fury HD is going to come in between the Razor HD and the Viper HD in quality of glass. This means that you have a really good optical platform to work from with the HD glass and XR lens coatings, as you can expect very good low light performance as well as edge to edge clarity.
The rangefinder portion of these new optics is a major upgrade from the past Fury model. It is available in 10x42, which is why I like the combination setup of a rangefinder and binocular as opposed to just a rangefinder. Most of the rangefinders are either a 7x or 6x and this added magnification as well as a stable platform for both hands allows you to get accurate ranges at significantly longer distances. These are rated to range deer-sized targets to 1,600 yards, trees out to 2,400 yards, and a reflective target like a building out to 5,000 yards. We exceeded the deer and tree types of targets throughout our testing, but never could get 5,000 yards claimed on reflective targets. A couple of miles is achievable when using a tripod with good conditions and that’s further than most people will ever shoot.
These optics have several settings that will aid your shooting and accuracy. The first is the HCD or ‘Horizontal Component Distance.’ This takes into consideration the uphill and downhill trajectory of your bullet as long as it is within 89.9 degrees up or down. This is what is most common for most hunters. You may also choose LOS or ‘Line of Sight’. This is the distance direct to the target without adjustments for uphill or downhill. There are multiple settings for brightness to give you the best contrast for your vision. Target modes to choose from are “Best Target” mode or “Last Target” mode. Scan mode is another very usable resource when you have animals moving.
Overall, the Fury HD 5000 are a great new addition to the Vortex line and they are covered under the same warranty as all Vortex products and not limited as some manufacturers do with electronics. See the full testing on this product in our video review.
