Leupold & Stevens, Inc., provider of the world’s most rugged, lightweight, and clear sport optics, is pleased to announce the addition of two industry-leading ballistic solvers to its RX-5000 rangefinder: Hornady’s 4DOF® ballistic calculator for rifle shooters and the Precision Cut Archery ballistic calculator for bowhunters and competitive archers.
The new features can be downloaded for free through the Leupold Control App and installed upon new and existing RX-5000 units through a firmware update upon establishing a Bluetooth connection with your mobile device.
“When we launched the BX-6 Range HD early in 2026, we specifically selected Hornady’s 4DOF® calculator and the Precision Cut Archery software for their incredible performance,” said Eric Overstreet, Technology Product Line Manager for Leupold & Stevens, Inc. “Thanks to the capabilities of the Leupold Control App, we’re now able to bring that same performance to our handheld RX-5000, making industry-leading technology available to even more hunters and shooters worldwide.
The RX-5000 is the first handheld rangefinder to utilize the Hornady 4DOF® ballistic calculator, which provides a modern ballistic solver that models how your specific bullet behaves in flight, delivering dependable, highly accurate trajectory solutions at long range. Unlike traditional ballistic calculators that rely on a ballistic coefficient, 4DOF® uses real, Doppler-measured bullet data to account for bullet drag. Those drag coefficients are then paired with the exact physical model of your specific projectile. By matching drag coefficient and the physical model of the bullet, 4DOF® can accurately predict the dynamic responses of your bullet in flight, providing more reliable predictions for drop and wind drift, helping shooters make confident adjustments when precision matters most.
The RX-5000 also offers Leupold’s existing CDS ballistic technology, which provides angle-compensated shoot-to distances for rifle hunters and pairs with Leupold’s Custom Dial System (CDS) compatible riflescopes for fast, accurate solutions to typical hunting distance. Though the Leupold Control App, the RX-5000’s CDS setting offers 25 selectable ballistics groups that account for your preferred cartridge, helping you dial in the exact range of your target. A basic Line of Sight (LOS) mode is also available.
Archery hunters and competition shooters are taken care of, too, with the inclusion of the new Precision Cut Archery Software. PCA uses your arrow weight, arrow velocity, peep height, and environmentals to calculate extremely accurate archery ballistic solutions. By including your atmospheric conditions when sighting in and setting up sight tapes Leupold provides accurate shoot-to distances at all elevations and angles, corrected to your sight-in tape.
“PCA changes the game by reducing re-zero requirements when your archery camp changes elevation,” said Eric Overstreet, Technology Product Line Manager for Leupold & Stevens, Inc. “It will provide ranges compensated to your sight tape, regardless of location or atmospheric conditions. It’s the equivalent of real-time ballistics for archers.”
The RX-5000’s ballistic software is managed through the unit’s Bluetooth connection with the Leupold Control App. The Leupold Control app transforms your mobile device into a powerful command center for select Leupold rangefinding products. With it, you’ll dominate the field as you customize modes and settings, adjust your ballistic profiles, capture accurate ranges, and precisely drop GPS waypoints—all with just a few quick taps.
Available for free download in the Apple Store and for Android on Google Play, the Leupold Control App allows you to customize your RX-5000 experience. Choose your ballistics, your rangefinding display settings, your reticle, and more.
Through the Leupold Control App, the RX-5000 has always provided access to Leupold’s Precision GPS Pinning system. Using your phone’s GPS, pinning allows you to remotely drop location pins on digital mapping platforms like onX Hunt, HuntStand, Google Maps, and Apple Maps, ATAK, and additional mapping services, turning every range into a recorded waypoint.
The RX-5000 will accurately range in the snow, rain, and fog, thanks to its Last Target mode. It provides exceptionally bright and clear images with a high light transmission red AMOLED display and makes long-range target acquisition fast and easy with its 8x magnification. When mounted on a tripod and set to Long Range mode, the RX-5000 can reach distances past 5,000 yards. It will also quickly range trees out to 3,000 yards, and deer-sized game at 2,000 yards. Read more
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