Vortex Fury HD 5000 AB Review (2024)

Vortex Fury HD 5000 AB Review Part II​

Ranging​

As I mentioned previously, the real changes in the Fury ABs revolve around ballistics, information utilization and workflow, not around ranging. The ranging hardware and software for the Fury AB’s is the same as the Fury 5k HD’s. Nothing has changed in that department. So the divergence remains consistent at 1.5x.1 mils, in an oval shape lying on its side (it’s wider than taller). The reticle is 2.25 mils internal diameter, 3 mils external. In terms of sensor alignment, like most RF’s, you will need to map where it lies on your particular RF. Vortex expects at least 50% of the sensor to be inside the reticle, mine appears to be so, but it was basically sitting at the 4 oclock position, with probably a fourth or maybe a third of the sensor outside the reticle. As I have said in the past, I really wish manufacturers would generally tighten this up, but it seems that with most, some amount of the sensor being outside the reticle, and the sensor not being entirely aligned, is acceptable, especially at this price point. Leica is the main exception I am familiar with, where the entire sensor must be inside the reticle for the RF to be considered in spec, but even there, you still need to map it to know exactly where it is inside the reticle, and Leica’s price point plays in a higher league when you compare apples to apples. So once again, if you want to get the best out of ranging with your new RF, you will want to map your sensor before starting to test, and the Fury was no exception here.

Having not used Furys in the past, once I mapped my sensor, I spent a fair amount of time trying to get an idea of how these would perform under various circ*mstances. Though my time with the Furys was more limited than it has been with some other RF’s I have reviewed in the past, I still feel like I got a pretty good idea of what they are capable of, where their strengths and weaknesses lie and where there is room for development. Of course, Vortex is very clear that the ‘5000’ part of the name refers to expected performance under favorable conditions on very reflective targets….reflective like road signs. Not quite mirrors, but close. If you listen to their podcast, they will set that expectation explicitly. If you are hitting trees, and not all trees are created equal for ranging, they expect it to top out around 2400 yards. On animals, max range should be just under a mile, at about 1600 yards. Again, these are under testing conditions that are most favorable (not full sun, not in the rain, etc.), and the dramatic effect different conditions can have on results make it difficult to compare based on numbers alone. So, considering the relatively short time I had to test these, in order to get a real measure, I used my Leica 2800 and Sig 3k, two RF’s that I have a ton of time with, to get an idea on where the Furys lie in terms of ranging performance.

One side note, and that is generally, RF performance relies on 3 major factors in design. One is the laser itself (wavelength, divergence, and overall power). The second factor is down to the receptor, and particularly the size. Due to their larger size, all things being equal, bino RF’s usually have an advantage here. The final factor is the software, that is signal processing and interpretation. This is where I believe many RF’s separate themselves from competitors. That is, two RF’s with the same laser and receptor can have pretty different performance that is determined entirely due to different algorithms for signal processing and interpretation.

Reflective

In the case of the Furys, when compared with the other two RF’s I was using for control, this phenomenon seemed apparent to me. Beginning with highly reflective targets, I was able to hit the farthest street sign I could locate with a line of sight, and both the Fury and the Sig easily hit it repeatedly at 4825 yards, this being with only a fraction of the sign being visible and under full sun. I have no doubt that could I find something at 5000 yards, and probably even further, the Sig and the Fury would have ranged it too. The one left out of the party was the 2800. It simply could not play at that distance, reflective or not. Now of course, not many of us hunt signs (though judging from the signs around where I live, someone apparently does), so this would seem a useless datapoint. But I wanted to actually test the contention that these RF’s could pull such numbers, and it turned out to be pretty instructive as the testing continued.

Non-Reflective, Under Full Sun

When I next switched to more general targets, design capabilities of the RF’s started to become more clear. A white watertower 3600 yards from my house was only rangeable in full sun by the Sig, it was never rangeable by the Furys or the 2800. So it seemed the Furys were now outrun by the Sig, but the Leica and Vortex were on par. However, things changed even more when testing on hills, animals and trees under full sun. Here, while the Sig continually outranged both of them, the Leica pulled ahead of the Furys. With the somewhat bare trees that we had during the winter, the Furys generally topped out at about 1200 yards, while the Leica reached to a little under 1500 in some cases. Keep in mind that the trees I had on hand at this time of year were fairly bare, so my numbers probably won’t match up to other testers numbers owing to the lack of reflective leaf cover on the trees at the moment. So these results need to be taken in relative terms, as they are low compared to other instances where I have tested due to the different conditions. For instance, I have ranged different trees at nearly 2700 yards with the Leica in past testing, but these were different trees with full foliage. During the conditions available for this review, the Leica struggled to read trees to 1500 yards, which illustrates just how difficult it is to compare numbers directly when they are taken at different times, places, and targets of varying condition.

Switching to even more appropriate targets, I spent as much time as possible trying to find animals to range to get an idea of the RFs performance on game. Unfortunately, having the Furys for a limited time and considering where I live, I was not able to range off elk or deer and had to settle for cattle. In order to get the most reliable indication possible, I looked for opportunities where the cows were skylined, and looked particularly for calves.

While I was not able to find many calves who remained skylined, I was able to range one at 1194, but I had to use scan to make it happen on the Fury. The Leica had no problem ranging off that same calf. The farthest I was able to hit a cow with the Fury was 1345, and was only able to get it to read one time on scan. The Leica was able to hit this same cow with some difficulty, but more than once.

Finally, in order to get an idea of how the Fury will fare on the range, I setup a 2/3 IPSC steel target so that it was skylined. The target was not repainted, I decided to leave it shot up and marked so I could see how it would do under the tougher conditions of a target that had been hit a bunch, not shiny and reflective.

Under a bright noon sun, I was able to hit the plate out to 611 yards with the Furys. In comparison, the Leica was able to hit it once at 875, but more consistently, was limited to about 750 yards.

Non Reflective, Low Light

So if you look at the numbers and compare the 2800’s performance with the Fury’s performance under full sun, you could surmise that the Fury is capable of ranging at about 80-85% of the distance of the 2800 on these types of targets, which would be defined as lightly leafed trees, barely sloping grassy fields, a lead colored 2/3 IPSC target, and again, all under full sun.

Interestingly, however, those numbers started to change when conditions changed. As the sun went down, the gap between the Leica and the Vortex shrunk considerably. Ranging right before sunset, I started hitting trees with the Leica at over 1600 yards, but now was able to get within 50 yards or so of that distance with the Furys too. On the steel plate, both were now able to hit it at 1016 yards, but the Furys did it easier than the Leicas by a noticeable margin.

And when it got good and dark, the Furys could now hit that watertower at 3600 yards, but the Leica never could. Overall, in days of ranging, I noticed that while low light effects all RF’s, the Furys showed a much larger disparity when the sun got high than did the Leicas, and the Furys ranging really surged and improved much more dramatically as the sun went down than did the Leica, such that the gap between them closed considerably during lowlight testing.