Are High Power Bino's (15s, 18s) Worth It?

[Bobinbend]

I love my 15's, for me it depends on the hunt, elk hunting I will carry my 10's on my chest, and might actually upgrade to 8's or 8.5's. For deer hunting or antelope hunting, the 15's are awesome, I still carry my spotter as well. This fall we did a week-long deer hunt in big open canyon country and the 15's found more deer than any other piece of glass. Meopta 15's, Swaro NL12's, Meopta S2 spotter, Razor 10's, Razor 65mm spotter.

I actually carried my S2, 15's and my Razor 10's on a couple occasions, even when we spiked in, If I could do it over I would have left the 10's. The only place I used the 10's during the trip was at very first or last light. The spotter didn't get used a lot during the spike hunt but it was put to work more than the 10's. The 15's were used a lot! They are unreal for shed hunting, I picked up a dozen sheds this spring on a property I've had sole access to for years, most were sheds I've been overlooking with my 10's and spotter.

I purchased a chest harness for the 15's and they will be going to NV with me next fall in place of my 10's for a high country deer hunt, it will be 15's and my spotter. The extra magnification of the bino's with the larger field of view over the spotter makes them awesome. I did contemplate selling both sets of my bino's and buying the NL12's but honestly for brushwork on deer the extra power of the 15's is welcomed.

What chest harness did you buy for your 15s? Would you buy it again?
Thanks!

 

[nphunter]

I bought a used outdoor vision, I haven't used it yet but the binos fit well. I've just put it on around the house, I think it will work great, it's smaller than a lot of them which is a bonus.

 

[TheGDog]

I made the leap and bought a pair of Maven B5 18x56s here on the classifieds.
Has anyone dabbled with the 2x optical doubler? Seems gimmicky but a guy can hope

The problem with doublers is it's decreasing your effective exit pupil on the optic.

For example for 15x56's, the exit pupil would be 56 divided by 15 = 3.73mm exit pupil. So if you throw on a doubler, you're halving that exit pupil down even more than that. So while I suppose they can be useful in certain situations. You can see how at First Light or Last Light it could be a hindrance on the image that reaches your eye.

EDIT: For reference the average Human Pupil can open to about 5mm. With some specimens going up to 7mm when they are younger.

 

[rcook10]

Wrapped up my muley/white tail season in wyoming with 18x56 maven b series. I have hunted the same area since I was a little kid and have used a very wide array of optics in the area. I can honestly say that the 18xs are some of the best money I have ever spent. For working inside 2 miles and picking brush apart for mule deer tines I don;t know if I’ve ever had such a great tool. Made a huge difference with eye fatigue and I spent far more time glassing than I would have with a spotter and saw more deer than I would have with my 10x binos. People love to yell about exit pupil but from legal shooting light on at over a mile I had no problems seeing deer in sage, pines, and juniper thickets and moving around. I don’t spend much time himming and hawing about antlers; if they are outside their ears and have good looking mass or interesting characters they are good enough, this glass is plenty to see that inside a mile or so and I can tell I want to get closer out to 2+. I am sold on these.