Thread: Binoculars?

If you are hunting open tops then get 10x42's, if you are hunting broken country and more bush with shorter sight lines then get 8x42's. It is counter productive to buy shit bino's because you will not enjoy looking through them, therefore you won't use them much at all, then whats the point having them?

Redfield Rebels are the same as Leupold Arcadia's in quality - crap. May look okay in a shop with good lighting, but don't cut the mustard in the field, (from experience with having used/trialled a lot of different bino's over the years). Minimum I would recommend is Leupold Cascades. Speaking from experience, for every $100 you spend (up to approx $1k) you get significantly better optics, after the $1k mark the quality difference vs additional costs reduces.

When looking at optics in a store, try and do it when the light outside is fading (i.e. closing time through winter). Take them outside (with the salesman) and look into the shadows and try and make out objects, the further away the better as looking at something 20m across the road won't show you enough of a difference. You will soon tell which ones are quality and which are not.

Also Looking at one point through binoculars in the store is very different to scanning a hillside. Move them around as you are trying them (as if you are searching), you will soon see that a lot of the $300 bino's will have quite a lot of divergence around the outside edges of the lenses and your viewing picture will distort a lot as you scan. This will cause a lot of strain on your eyes and lead to headaches.

You don't need to spend $1000's on bino's ($500 will get you a very good pair comparative to $ spent). But the difference between $300 and $500 is substantial. Save just a little longer...

my 2c worth (and rant of the day over)