You have heard it over and over again about buying the best optics you can afford.  I have to second that opinion with firsthand experience.  Over the years, most of us have slowly upgraded our scopes, binoculars and maybe even purchased a spotting scope.  We all know that optics have gotten better over the years and they have gotten cheaper and a better value for your dollar.  My first Spotting (Spotter) scope was a $49.95 Tasco that I bought at Kmart. I purchased some Jason Binoculars from Kmart also.  I think they went for $29.95….You can tell how green I was back then, but I thought I was in tall cotton.  I gave my Tasco to a guy who was in our hunt club back then when I found a Bausch and Lomb spotter 15x45 at a yard sale (see photo).  Gave the guy $50 for it and was happy with it for years.  Just didn’t know any better.  Then I moved up to a Bushnell Sportsman 15-45X (#1) and finally today have a high end spotter (#3).  I purchased a Burris Fullfield scope and got the little spotter many years ago (#2) See photos….

 We all have dreamed of that monster buck stepping out at 500 yards and having a camera rolling or someone with you to corroborate your story. He steps out broadside and you squeeze the trigger and you nail this buck!  He goes right down, turns out to be almost a state record.  Then you wake up from your nap!  Yea, I have done it too.  Most of us don’t have optics to see a deer at that far much less put a shot on him from that distance.  We have the rifles that will reach out there, but the optics and the ability is another area all together.

I was asked to work a Buckarama back in the middle 80’s and I volunteered for free.  This particular vendor had given me some great deals on rifles so this was my payback to him.  I asked nothing in return for 4 days of hard work. They made me take something for my services.  They offered me a brand new Nikon Scope.  It was the first year Nikon had offered scope.  The MSRP on the 3-9X was a whopping $300.  I said thanks but no thanks, I was happy with my Leupold’s scopes, but I did tell them if they wanted me to get something for my time, could I get a pair of new Leupold compact binoculars?  I think at that time they had been out for a year or two and I have been looking at them in their store.  For 20 years these were top shelf binoculars, I used them year after year under all weather conditions and still use them today.  Nobody knew they were made by Lecia.  Only about 10 years ago, I found out that they were made for Leupold!  Once I learned how to use binoculars properly, they went with me on every hunt. If you don’t have a pair of binoculars, get some and use them.  I even take them with me on turkey hunts.  Cannot empathize how important a tool they are.

Over the years, I learned the names of other (high end) binoculars and scope manufactures while reading magazines. Names like Steiner, Zeiss, Schmidt & Bender, Swarovski, and Leica.  I had never looked or held any of them.  It wasn’t until I started going to something called the Buckarama Show before I got to hold some of these products in my hand and look through them.  The only big name scopes back then were Leupold, Tasco, Redfield, Bushnell and Weaver.  My first Leupold scope cost me $79.95 and carried a lifetime warranty.  You know what brand I purchased for the next 10 years, did not even look at any other manufactures.  Today I have over 30 Leupolds mounted and a few lying around.  Some of my VX2 are better than some of my VX3… and I do have a VXL or VX7.  This scope is unsurpassed as far as optic quality goes, just simply amazing and I purchased it used.  I would put this up to any European scope.

 There are three major factors that you need to considered, magnification power, objective diameter and weight.  Once you have solved what is right for you in those areas and then you got to consider price, manufacturer and warranty.  But the choice is all yours.  You will not get a Swarovski quality at a cheap price.  Somewhere along the line you have to compromise in one or more areas.  The only way you can tell which binoculars, scope and spotters are right for you is to go out and handle them.

If you read articles on optics or go to any optics chart they talk about twilight factor.  Let us say you have a pair of 10x30 binoculars and you want to find out the twilight factor of them.  Simply multiply the power (10) by the objective lens diameter (30) and hopefully you come up with 300.  Now take the square root of 300 which is 17.32 and that is your twilight factor, simple.  If you have a pair of 8x30 then your twilight factor is 15.49 and for a pair of 10x40 your twilight factor works out to an even 20.

Having said that and doing the math, there is more to meet the eyes (sorry for the pun). We can talk about exotic lense coatings, space age frame construction, weight, and prism materials, etc., but your eyes are the final factor, not any specs or anybody else’s advice.  Your eyes and wallet will tell you which pair you should buy.  So look at the numbers, and then look through the binoculars.  Until you get them out in the field and use them for a year then you will realize that binoculars are a very important part of your hunting tools.

I was thinking about going out to Colorado for Elk, distances would be further.  I needed to start shooting at longer distances. The Leupolds 9x25 I had were not good enough for out west. I needed more power and/or bigger objective diameter lenses. So, I will need another pair sometimes in the new future. Do I get 7, 8 or 10 power?  Do I get a pair for western hunting and another pair for hunting in the southeast? 

So by the early 1990’s after I had made a few trips out west and saw the need for good high quality optics.  Was that a 6x6 or 6x7 Bull Elk at 500 yards?  Do we need to put a stalk on him?  Only with good optics you could tell what you would do next.  For Antelope hunting, if you don’t have a good pair, don’t waste your time, don’t even go after them, you will never get close.  An alternate is taking a spotting scope with you….put it in your back pack.  I have a Bushnell 15-45X 60mm (#2 in spotter photo) I got on sale 20 years ago.  It is a good spotter out to about 200 yards.  I took it out to Colorado for many years and it provided a set up for those elk across the valley, but you have to have a very steady rest to use spotters on your hunt. Leupold makes probably the best hunting spotter today with their 12-40X 60mm objective lens. It is small, compact, light weight, but expensive.  After I purchased some Zeiss Diafun 10X 30mm, I left the Bushnell spotter at home. These were and still are very good binoculars. They are not made any more, and they have been superseded by the Conquest line. The Diafuns are light weight (under 16 oz) and you never know you have them around your neck! 

Coating on any optics makes a tremendous difference in clarity.  Are the lenses just coated on the outside?  Are some of the lenses coated or are all of the lenses coated on both sides, internal and external?  What are they coated with and how many coats do they put on each lens? When I got my first Zeiss 4X scope it was coated with something called magnesium fluoride on the outside of the outer lenses. It was very expensive back then and they had applied this coating by hand.  While today it is a closely guarded secret what the actual process is and what materials are used, most have harden, ground, and polished surfaces. They all incorporate a form of anti-reflective UV coatings. These coatings materials and the labor to apply them are reflective of the price you pay for your optics. 

The two hunts that really drove home the point of good optics for me was the Antelope hunt and last year’s Safari. You will spend hours glassing. The guide for Antelope hunt used the 10x42 SLC Swarovski. These are fairly heavy, over 30 ounces.  Antelope hunting you ride around in the guide truck and glass and glass some more. With heavy binoculars you can hold them steadier but not as long as light weight binoculars. In the truck you can put them down. I took two pair with me, a light weight pair and a heavy pair. On that particular hunt I used the lighter ones. I left my Nikons 10x40mm in the motel room.

Last year’s Safari, we walked and stalked a lot and we glassed from the rocks also. I also took two pairs with me and used the lighter exclusively.  They weigh less than 20 ounces and I never knew they were there. We were glassing animals over 500 yards away.  In some ways I wished I had the heavier and better optics but climbing rocks and stalking over long distances, the lighter binoculars were the right ones to take.  But with one Safari under my belt I know what to except.  Shots as far away as 500 yards (or more) could be a possibility, but I have practiced at 600 yards. The photo attached shows the small white target that I was aiming at and on that white dot in the picture; there was a 6” red paper dot that I was aiming at.

 So people tell you that you need 10 or 12 power, others will tell you that all you need is 7x or 8x. If you have used binoculars for years you can go up to 10 power for deer hunting, but only if you are experience.  If you are fairly new to using binoculars then 7X or 8X is your best choice.  Then do you need a 30 mm or 40 mm or 42 mm objective lenses?  40 or 42 mm if you are not experience in using binoculars and 30 to 32 mm if you are.  It sure seems like the more magnification and the bigger the objective lenses are, then the more weight they are going to be. There is no magic method here.  

I would suggest that you go to any sporting good stores and start looking now, and study the reviews on-line from owners.  Asked your fellow hunters to look through theirs and ask them their opinion.  Don’t know about you but it takes me 6 months of studying before I will narrow it down to one of two products then go lay my hands on them before making a decision.  Which every pair you pick, use them, take them to your stand, blind and get use to them. That is the only way you will get to know the value of good optics.

I have some very good optics; it is worth it to me.  My current spotting scope is a Swarovski 20-60X x 80mm high quality (and high dollar) (see photo) and at the 600 yard range a few weeks ago (see photo), we were seeing 30 caliber holes in the target with the spotting scope, set on 60 power. The atmospheric conditions were just right for us to be able to see those entry holes!  I have just purchased my first Lecia riflescope (see photo).  I purchased it at almost half price and put it on my Cooper Model 52 338-06 which I plan on taking on Safari #2 this year (2011).

A few years ago I took all my binoculars to the range to conduct my own random test.  Whoever came to the range I kindly asked them which pair of binoculars they thought were number one and which pair were number 9.  All of the people conducting my test were great. That day there were 7 people that performed the test.  Needless to say the most expensive were the best but were people seeing the brand and it swayed their decision?  What was surprising was the $300 pair was very close to the top. The Zeiss Diafun 10x30 ($350) and the Canon IS 10x30 ($300) tied for third.  I have some old Nikon Classic 10x40, but the Nikon ATB are very good for the money as well as some Leupolds in that price range.  As the photo shows the #1 Leupolds (9x25) are the oldest then I got some #2 Nikons (10x40), then #3 the Zeiss (10-30) that I used on my Antelope hunt.  I got a great deal on some recondition #4 Canon IS (10x30), believe me folks the Image Stabilizer really works.  When Bass Pro Shop opened up, I got a great deal on the #5 Steiner Peregrine (8x42) that I wanted to use for local heavy brush hunting and a year before heading over to South Africa for Safari, I picked up some #6 Swarovski EL (10x30).  Look at the Safari photo and you can see why you need some real good binos for the hunt. And finally I needed a pair for the truck #7.  When a sporting store was closing in the area, they had a dozen or so pairs of $100 marked down to $29.95, so I opened each box and looked at each pair until I found the clearest pair.

 Optics in general is changing every year, so many products to choose from. Some new comers to the market are Zen-Ray, Vortex, and Meopta that you need to look at.  But the old standards like Leupold, Nikon, Bushnell, Burris, Weaver, Steiner, and many others have some very good binoculars and spotting scopes to chose from. The more manufacturers you have out there the longer it will take you to decide. And look at what type of area you hunt in? Open terrain, heavy woods, it makes a difference in which one is right for you. But you have to decide, no reviews you read can make that decision for you.   Also look at the weight and twilight factor.  Whichever you chose, make sure the warranty is a good one, with lifetime guarantee not a limited lifetime which translates into the first owner and after the first owner sells them to you and something happens to them and they need repair, then you are going to pay for the repairs out of your pocket.  Take your time and choose wisely.  You will have them for many, many years to come.

By Miscellaneous Authors

This section is for articles published by a host of amateur authors. Some of these authors are former staff members but many of them are just regular people that had an article in their heart they wanted published. Here at TalkHunting, we believe everyone has a message and we try to accomodate that when possible.

Comments(3):

1. Amen

   Thanks for the great article! This is a topic we should read over and over, each year. Optics are soooo important. Thanks

   Sunday, March 06, 2011 Robert

2. a walk through the twilight zone

   you are the rod sterling of guns and optics bo. excellent article full of great info for the beginner and expert. the best optics do make you hunt better as having hunted out west and classing for hours can be done right punishing with inferior gear. buy the best you can afford is my motto.

   Sunday, March 06, 2011 brad

3. bino's

   I have to be honest, of all the products I buy for hunting the bino's are the most confusing for me. I don't have a big budget and can say that unless you spend some $$ you cannot get good quality glass. Period. In my opinion. I just got a pair of of Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 HUGE binoculars for doing an article for Kraft foods. They are not expensive, maybe $95, and are great for using in my truck or looking at the moon with the kids....but they are HUGE! Heavy heavy heavy. I have a Bushnell 20x50 spotting scope, was also inexpensive. Reason I am commenting, I cannot find a pair of binoculars I like without spending 3 to 4 hundred and since i hunt in the SouthEast I just lug my big ones around. I don't want to waste ANY money buying a cheap pair that I know are just gonna tick me off more than help. i think there are a lot of people in my position. Are there any in the $100 range you would recommend, or would you do like me and just save you money? Thanks, Derek

   Monday, March 14, 2011 Derek