All posts tagged Hunting binoculars

Target identification and scanner terrain

There are many reasons to have a good pair of binoculars around whether you are boating, camping, stargazing or hunting, being able to identify things in the water can help you in many ways.   Bushnell Binoculars come in compact or large objective lenses and the Leupold binoculars have the same quality as the Leupold rifle scopes. Zeiss binoculars and Konus binoculars give you a different style and it’s up to you on what you think you need.  There are differences in clarity and light gathering abilities, but it will depend on how much you need and what your budget is.  The real differences are noticed on cloudy days or low light.   There are many smaller compact optics that are very good and have a wide field of view.

I do think it is a good idea for anyone that is serious about hunting to bring a small pair of binoculars.  Many binoculars like Zeiss binoculars may seem expensive at first but peering through binoculars to identify a target is easy and safer to do than using your rifle scope.   Yes, you will be bringing slightly more weight with you but being able to constantly scan your territory might mean more opportunity for taking game.   If you use a good pair of binoculars you may see things in the sky that were just out of  your naked eyes visibility and you may see passing satellites or shooting stars.

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Something to pack in a range bag, but nothing too expensive

There are a lot of really nice gun bags out there made by Tuff Products, Blackhawk gear, Elite Survival and even Uncle Mike’s.   At first it might seem expensive to drop $100 or more on a range bag but considering how organized your shooting or range gear will become you’ll eventually get your money bag when you realize that you almost never forget to bring something to range with you.  In the age of the M4 Carbine and close up gun fighting optics, sometimes we might forget that you really can’t see the targets at 100yds-300yds with an Eotech or red dot gun sight.   Sometimes I would bring a hunting rifle with me that had a 3-9×40 scope on it and basically use it as a spotting scope.

Now that I have a 3x Eotech magnifier on my M4 Carbine, I haven’t had some of the issues I previously had, but if I am taking a new shooting to the range and starting them off with iron sights, sometimes its nice to be able to call the shots as they are fired.  You need a good pair of Bushnell Binoculars to be able to see that.   I have optics that cost less than $50 that fit nicely in my range bag and get the job done.   The less expensive binoculars tend to not work very well on cloudy days or low light, but they’ll be a good asset to have in your range bag at all times.

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Are there still reasons to carry binoculars?

I’ve questioned whether or not it was worth packing up my binoculars for range trips from time to time, and now that most of my rifles have some level of magnification, I really don’t have to guess if I’m hitting my target anymore.   Shoot N C targets help, but sometimes even magnification doesn’t help you in those regards.   I learned my lesson the hard way when I took a 6.5x50mm Zeiss Conquest scope to a 500yd rifle range and thought that I was going to have a fun day shooting because I wouldn’t need to do as many target changes since I had high magnification on my rifle.   Does anyone know what a mirage is?   When that hot sun starts beating down, you might as well have zero magnification because you won’t see you’re holes on paper beyond 200yds even with high magnification.

The real reason to still pack a pair of binoculars in your hunting or shooting bag is for target identification and field of view.   If you are using a rifle to identify targets you may be violating some of the basic firearms safety rules of not pointing a firearm at anything you don’t want to destroy.  I have had very good experience with Nikon binoculars and their rifle scopes are top notch.   The 7×35 Nikon Action are still my favorite because they don’t cost very much, aren’t very big and still give a good field of view.   There are better binoculars, but I have always had a hard time spending more on a scope than the actual rifle costs, some people don’t have that issue, but I do.

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Magnification and tracking movement

binocularsRifle scopes and spotting scopes each have their intended purposes.   A good rifle scope and act as a spotting scope in some situations, but not everyone wants to have a 50mm objective lense on their rifles.  Sometimes when I’m going to be shooting an AR15 that is setup with iron sights, I use to  bring one of my rifles that had a 3-9×40 scope and just use that for spotting.    The more I’ve progressed as a shooter, the more I realized that it would be nice to be able to just setup a spotting scope on my target and after pulling the trigger on my AR, I could just roll over and see the holes on paper since the spotting optic was already sighted on it.

I thought the need for using binoculars when going target shooting was unnecessary, but after taking a long range shooting course, I realized that the guy with the binoculars, even if they did not have a lot of magnification, usually high more visibility, a better field of view, and could identify movement faster than the guy with the high magnification on his rifle scope.   The problem I still saw with some binoculars was that they were heavy and can easily reflect a lot of light.   There are tacticals that can  help you avoid portraying a lot of reflective light from your objective lenses, but the better option is to only use binoculars that get the job done, and not something that is an overkill.  I’d recommend using binoculars that are atleast 25-30 mm as a  minimum.

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