What binoculars and power are you all using for hunting and scouting in open country

[SO I HUNT]

15X56 SWAROVSKI

 

[KurtB]

10x42 Maven.

 

[danj]

15x56 Swaro's

 

[willfrye027]

Depends on what you mean by open country.

good 10x42s mounted on a tripod are great out to 1000 yards or so. It's amazing how much the tripod helps. Night and day...like open shots versus a scope! I hunt some pretty open country and use 15s mounted on a tripod to find game at long distance. But I would not use anything that cost less than $1000...there's just not much in that price range worthwhile when it comes to high powered 15x binos. $1000 10x42s are great but the 15x requires better glass to be truly useful. Meopta, maven, Zeiss, and of course Swarovski are all good choices. I like my Leica duovids 10-15x50, but that is more than $1000 on the used market.

 

[sp6x6]

I do tons of glassing from the rig and praire carry vortex 15x50.My go to,great for the money,window mnt or tripod.Mountain carry last 15 years 10x32 el's

 

[Tom Erickson]

Leupold 10 x 50

 

[huntsman22]

What other binoculars do you have experience with any Leica, Swarovski, Zeiss for comparison kind of?

Yes. I currently own 2 pair of 10x42 leup Gold Rings, a 10x32 Gold Ring, the 10x42 Tracts I mentioned, a pair of cabelas/Meopta 15x56's, 2 pair Redfield rebel 10x42's, and a pair of Bushnell legend 10x42's. I had a pair of 10x Conquest's and the Swaro 10x42 EL's and the Swaro 10x32 CL's, The Tracts and the Gold Rings are 90% of the EL's optically for a third/half the cost. I sold the swaro's and bought 3 Gold Rings with the proceeds. The zeiss hit the road for the Torics. The only other ones that stack up, to me, are the Mavens and the Meostars. The Mavens are good optically but don't fit ME well. And the Meostars don't have a long enough barrel to use BC covers on the objectives. In my dust country, ig they cant take covers, I don't have a place for them. Personal pref kinda thing from a glass slut.....

 

[huntsman22]

here is the Tracts and the 15x meoptas in use from the truck...

the Leups, redfields and the 10x32 Sigs I forgot to mention....

my pair of Swaro spotters...

 

[Backcountry sports]

I realize that these binoculars are not in the price line, you are stating, but. I sit and glass for hours, and use a tripod to do that work. I now use two sets of binoculars. 10 x 50 Swarovski and 15 x 50 set. I would say on the one side of the binoculars be ? x 50 glass. I find more game and do less walking. I don't scare the game off either. In Nev., I was teaching my oldest son to use his field glasses. We had four herds of Muley bedded down and looking them over up to 1000yds away. Another hunter showed up on the opposite side of the small valley. He looked for about 10 minutes, and walked off. He later stop by our camp and talked to one of our group, and stated about the lack of deer in the area. He missed 5 groups of deer bedded down for a total of about 100 deer. So you have to look near and far. The better the glass the farther you can see. We almost missed the fifth group that was below us. The way I train him and my youngest son was have them look along side of me. When I spotted a deer or group I would say sometime about it. They would look and look. Coming back at me saying there isn't any deer. I would cut down the area they needed to look at, and wait. If needed close the area to look even smaller area. If it was herd for deer,I kind of did the same thing. Then I would make them tell me how many deer there, and how many bucks were there too. They learn and they got there count correct. The hardest thing is to make yourself to stay in one spot and glass. You be surprised and what you will see.

 

[Tex_Hunter]

tract toric 10x'ers....

How have you liked your Tracts? How does it compare to others you have used? (from your follow up post on page 2 of this thread it looks like you have some experience with some pretty good name brand glass)

 

[ducky]

Minox BL 10X44 for the last several years, looking to upgrade to Leica Geovid 10X42 HD before next season. I'm all so hoping to upgrade my spotter to a good 65mm before next year as well. I think getting into the 50mm+ objective size on binoculars make them bulky for wearing and it's time to move to a tripod mount with them.

 

[tomsd]

I realize that these binoculars are not in the price line, you are stating, but. I sit and glass for hours, and use a tripod to do that work. I now use two sets of binoculars. 10 x 50 Swarovski and 15 x 50 set. I would say on the one side of the binoculars be ? x 50 glass. I find more game and do less walking. I don't scare the game off either. In Nev., I was teaching my oldest son to use his field glasses. We had four herds of Muley bedded down and looking them over up to 1000yds away. Another hunter showed up on the opposite side of the small valley. He looked for about 10 minutes, and walked off. He later stop by our camp and talked to one of our group, and stated about the lack of deer in the area. He missed 5 groups of deer bedded down for a total of about 100 deer. So you have to look near and far. The better the glass the farther you can see. We almost missed the fifth group that was below us. The way I train him and my youngest son was have them look along side of me. When I spotted a deer or group I would say sometime about it. They would look and look. Coming back at me saying there isn't any deer. I would cut down the area they needed to look at, and wait. If needed close the area to look even smaller area. If it was herd for deer,I kind of did the same thing. Then I would make them tell me how many deer there, and how many bucks were there too. They learn and they got there count correct. The hardest thing is to make yourself to stay in one spot and glass. You be surprised and what you will see.

I think overall - it's hard to beat a 10x50 - and you can have a second pair that might be smaller - easier to hang around your neck - 7x35 - or as suggested a 15+ power to really zoom in.

Since first spotting the game is the most important - I would get a very good pair of 10x

 

[tomsd]

And LOL - with these old eyes - I will check out 12x next time in a sports store.

The trade off is usually light transmission/clarity and width of field.

 

[msmith57]

I realize that these binoculars are not in the price line, you are stating, but. I sit and glass for hours, and use a tripod to do that work. I now use two sets of binoculars. 10 x 50 Swarovski and 15 x 50 set. I would say on the one side of the binoculars be ? x 50 glass. I find more game and do less walking. I don't scare the game off either. In Nev., I was teaching my oldest son to use his field glasses. We had four herds of Muley bedded down and looking them over up to 1000yds away. Another hunter showed up on the opposite side of the small valley. He looked for about 10 minutes, and walked off. He later stop by our camp and talked to one of our group, and stated about the lack of deer in the area. He missed 5 groups of deer bedded down for a total of about 100 deer. So you have to look near and far. The better the glass the farther you can see. We almost missed the fifth group that was below us. The way I train him and my youngest son was have them look along side of me. When I spotted a deer or group I would say sometime about it. They would look and look. Coming back at me saying there isn't any deer. I would cut down the area they needed to look at, and wait. If needed close the area to look even smaller area. If it was herd for deer,I kind of did the same thing. Then I would make them tell me how many deer there, and how many bucks were there too. They learn and they got there count correct. The hardest thing is to make yourself to stay in one spot and glass. You be surprised and what you will see.

OMG, where do you people Hunt that you need to use Binoculars for hours or for more than 2 minutes?