All posts tagged Spotting Scopes

Binoculars in your range bag

I have a pretty good range bag that I keep all of  my sight in tools and magazine conversion kits in it.  All of my hearing protection and sometimes a few loaded magazines.   The one thing I have always kept in there were my binoculars.   I have taught so many people to shoot firearms and there have been times that I totally forgot to bring a rifle with magnification on it when I was teaching new shooters to shoot with a 22LR and iron sights.  It’s good to start people out on iron sights whether it’s with a 22 bolt action or an AR15 A2 style rifle.   If the shooter is old enough and can handle the nose and the recoil the AR15 is a good starting point.

When you try to see those groups at 100yds, sure you can hit a once inch square at those distances and accurately group them, but if your sights are off or you are trying to determine where your novice shooter is hitting, you don’t want to have to call cease fires and check paper.  There are many differences in the light gathering abilities of optics but Bushnell binoculars are reasonable priced and for most practical purposes, they get the job done and won’t cost you hundreds of dollars.  It’s always a good idea to keep your lense clean and this can have a big impact on your light gathering and clarity.

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Dots, Chevrons, Crosshairs and horse shoes

Rifle scopes  and gun optics have gotten easier to use in some regards, but the diversity of the reticles from various manufacturers is something that is starting to give me a headache.   Things were much simpler when it was about a thin crosshair a duplex, European reticle with a pole, illuminated reticle, dot or Eotech gun sight.   Its far more complicated now, but somebody finally realized that not all rifles are designed for the same thing.   When ACOGS started getting a lot of notice and showing up on a firing range I was in awe, but then I realized that the eye relief on them was a limiting factor in close range fighting and you really might want to keep those iron sights on the gun just incase.

I really don’t like deviating from thin crosshairs on a rifle scope because I’ve already seen one too many time that many reticles can obscure your target and what is the point of not being able to see an enemies head pop out behind a tree at 200yds  because your red dot is blocking the entire target.   If you get a CQB optic you may be limiting your rifle scopes ability to see further out and now you’ve got a problem with medium to longer range targets.   The TA01NSN will always be my favorite Trijicon ACOG just because you can quickly transition from glass to iron sights with very little movement.  Mechanical devices like the Eotech magnifier are nice but that is one more thing that can break or come loose on your gun when a simpler approach might be a better option.

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The original spotting scope

I rememeber the days when the vast majority of rifle hunters were using lever actions with iron sights.   In the last decade or so, there have been massive improvemenets in the durability of rifle optics and even the less expensive optics, don’t fog up like they use to.   Some of those $20 binoculars you see work quite well in daylight, but in low light, that is the time you will really know how much your optics cost.    My recommendations when it comes to using binoculars is to get fixed power optics and get the lightest weight ones you can buy.

The biggest argument against packing a pair of binoculars up in your shooting bag or on  your tactical vest is the added weight.   My Bushnell powerview optics are compact and lightweight and for target identification with fixed 12x,  that’s a very inexepensive option.   I’ve held all of the Steiner optics, and those are outstanding, but you may not get your moneys worth if you are only using them a few times a year.   Steiner binoculars imho are the Trijicon ACOGS of binoculars and they are outstanding for the people that need them.

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Binoculars, part of your every day range gear

TA168RB-1Binoculars seem to be getting over looked today now that so many people are using rifle optics instead of iron sights.    I guess I’m old enough to remember that the vast majority of friends that owned AR15 or M16 rifles had them without optics.    If you go back to many of the 1970 and 1980s TV shows, none of the military or police that  used them had optics on them.   I’m sure that there was a basis for that in reality.    Back in some of the old WWII movies,  used see guys toting around with M1 Garands and an Army General with a pair of binoculars scouting the landscape for the enemy, well now that everyone has an ACOG rifle scope, every guy with an M4 can see very well several hundred yards out, still there is a place for having binoculars.

If you are doing taget shooting and still think  you would rather have a spotting scope, well then go ahead and get a spotting scope.    I can tell you that there have been plenty of times I’ve been to long range gun clubs where frustrated plinkers couldn’t see the holes on targets 200yds away with 60X spotting scopes that cost $700 or more.   Well, the reality is on a hot summer afternoon, a mirage is going to obscure your visibility as much as a dark rainy day.    Binoculars are being made lighter and lighter and if you get in a good position,  you can still use them for seeing great distances even without using a stand.  Some of us still like to carry around lever action guns for deer season but it’s sometimes a good idea to carry a pair of binoculars for identifying potential targets beyond what your eyesight allows.

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Use and purposes for rifle optics

Rifle ScopesOptics have multiple purposes.  They can be used for Astronomy, Scouting, birdwatching, target shooting, hunting and military purposes.   With the emergency of combat optics for close quarter combat, scopes used on rifles have gotten smaller, more compact and sometimes have zero magnification.   The point is to give you a good sight pictures and a reticle that is easy to follow.

Many combat optics like Trijicon and Eotech are 4X or less.   DMR or Designated Marksmen are using optics made from Trijicon, Zeiss and Leupold that are combat worth but higher magnification since shooting 300-600 meters is becoming the norm in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.  Rifle Scopes are no longer made with the standard crosshair reticles and may even come in range finding or illuminated reticles.

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How much further can you really see?

Spotting ScopesI’ve seen so many people on firing lines with spotting scopes complain about the optics they have and what they should have gotten or what they wish they knew before getting a scope.   Sometimes people have this idea that having an optics magnify 45x will make things easier to see at great distances and any experienced observer know that isn’t true.  Magnification can become void due to heat and mirage and even zero magnification can cause you to have trouble hitting an object at certain distances.
Expecting to see 22 Caliber holds at 600yds is a hard feat

One thing you may want to consider if you are expecting to use a spotting scope for long ranges is a different type of target other than paper.  Shoot N C targets can help improve your visibility and avoid any frustrations in trying to pin point your point of impact on paper.  They aren’t re-useable so you’ll have to expect to spend more money on them, but they work.  Spottings scopes are as good as the money you pay for them, but make sure you know what you can realistically do with them before you select one.

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Action Binoculars

Nikon BinocularsBinoculars are a very versatile tool.    The reality is this, a good pair of binoculars is just an extension of  your eyes.   What do you use your eyes for?   Binoculars can be  used for eveything you use your eyse for.  Nikon Binoculars come in fixed power from 7×32 – 10-22×50.   When you are looking for a good pair of binoculars, keep in mind that some of the best views are with the medium and larger sizes and they can get heavy real fast.   If you are looking for  high magnification you may want to think about spotting scopes instead since they are normally used with tripods.

Nikon Binoculars are reasonable priced optics.    When you figure out what you are using these optics for think about how you might carry them, whether its in a jacket or in a range bag.   Something as little as 7X magnification can help you ID targets or objects that are just out of your visible sight and this is an extremely useful tool to have.   We see a lot of Nikon optics on firing ranges and very few complaints.

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