Major Problems Discovered with Tango Fire4000 WMLRF

A major bug was discovered with the TANGOINNOS Tango Fire4000 WMLRF. First reported on Snipershide, if you engage continuous ranging by “long pressing” the remote or onboard range button, after 2-3 consecutive ranges, the unit will continue ranging but stop updating the dope. Rangefinding continues to work, but firing solutions no longer update.

Obviously this is a serious problem that could lead to shots being taken with wildly inaccurate dope. Hopefully the startup TANGOINNOS a.k.a, Tango Innovations Inc. can issue a firmware fix to the problem before long-range shooters start losing matches, or worse yet, hunters start wounding and losing game as a result.

If you’re on the fence about whether to buy a Tango Fire4000 WMLRF, should you anticipate a firmware fix and move ahead with the purchase? At this stage, we’d recommend waiting. In fact, even if new firmware is eventually issued which fixes this problem, we would be wary about purchasing a Tango Fire4000 WMLRF for the following reasons:

1. No response from the company
It’s been well over 2 weeks since this serious problem was first reported. The TANGOINNOS rep Mfelici1!! is following the thread. Why has there been no response? This is a dangerous product flaw that merits a much different stance from the company, perhaps even a recall, and yet the company has been silent. A respected vendor like Sig Sauer or Vortex would at least acknowledge the problem, make an official announcement warning their buyers, and announce plans to release a firmware fix. Noname startups like TANGOINNOS needs to try harder than the big respected companies if they want to compete in this space. A non-response to this serious product flaw represents a breach of trust. The behavior alone is ample justification to to avoid TANGOINNOS products.

2. Borderline illiterate company reps
We recognize this is the firearms space, and sure, not everyone has a degree from Harvard. But it sends a certain message when a corporate rep misspells simple words and struggles to construct understandable sentences. It just doesn’t inspire confidence in a company or their products, and $1500 is a fairly large investment.

3. Is the actual designer and seller based in China?
The label on the Tango Fire4000 WMLRF says it’s designed in the U.S. and made in China. But on the Tangoinnos website, the company implies in multiple statements the product was actually designed in China, as if they are just a sales agent. For example, on their FAQ as to why the product has no internal environmental sensors, they write “While it’s technically feasible to include a pressure sensor, the [Chinese] manufacturer likely opted against it for practical reasons tied to how shooters already operate.” And later they again write “…the [Chinese] manufacturer likely concluded that excluding environmental sensors keeps the LRF simpler, more reliable…” which suggests that design decisions for the product were made in China, and the U.S. reps can only speculate about what the Chinese engineers had in mind when they designed the product. If so, that’s a huge downer in our book. It’s one thing to manufacture a product like this in China, but if the product design itself is also Chinese, that considerably reduces the credibility of the Tango Fire4000 WMLRF, and calls into question the honesty of the product’s “Designed in U.S.” labeling.

4. Other product glitches and concerns
Unlike higher end rangefinders from known-to-be-reputable companies like Sig Sauer, the Tango Fire4000 WMLRF has no built-in environmental sensors. Some users report trouble connecting to external bluetooth devices like a Kestrel, you need a phone app to make any changes to the internal settings, it’s capable of storing only 1 profile at a time, and it cannot make wind adjustments.

But all of those issues pale in comparison to the flaw with continuous ranging. The Vortex Impact 4000 also has a slew of problems, but it has a reputable company standing behind it, and at least it doesn’t suddenly stop calculating dope with no warning.

Until the main problems with these devices are ironed out, we would advise shooters to stick with rangefinders from companies with known domain expertise, such as Sig Sauer and Vortex.

And if you have your heart set on a WMLRF, consider pairing a Sig Sauer KILO5K, KILO8K-ABS, or KILO 2800 with the gen 3 Sightlok RF-1 mount, which turns these 3 excellent rangefinders into a weapon-mounted rangefinder.