Binoculars and Spotting Scope or just Binoculars?

[Breeves1]

I’m new to mule deer hunting and new to hunting out west in the mountains. I’ve lived in Kansas my whole life chasing whitetails. I will be headed west to Colorado hopefully this year and can’t decide what to do about optics. This year I will only have an $700-$800 limit for optics. I’ve got a lot of other things to buy too just starting out. I’m planning on hunting high country just so you know. Should I buy one set of 12x50 mid grade binoculars such as vortex razor hd or Meopta. Then I would purchase a spotting scope probably next year. Or do I buy a level down maybe a vortex viper 12x50 and also a viper spotting scope this year. Then sell and next year and move up in quality. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks everyone.

 

[tdhanses]

Do not go down, buy the best bino you can and personally vortex I wouldn’t have on the list. Meopta is a great choice. I would go 10x42 though.

 

[Copen1822]

Buy the best binos you can plus a tripod and head setup. Then just rent a spotter to take.

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[ResearchinStuff]

Sounds like you should be shopping for a great deal on a ~1200-1500 pair of binos used or demoed for 800. Cameralandny is forum sponsor and a great source for that type of deal, as are a few other sites you can find mentioned in various threads. Meopta (new), Kowa prominar (new), Nikon top tier (new), used/demo Zeiss, Swaro, Leica, should be what you're holding out for. Hunting season is a few months away, don't buy something cheap just because you want to have it in your closet for the summer. There's great deals to be had when you use time to your advantage, I purchased my bino's for $1400 below street price by being patient and holding out for a deal.

You can get by with a very cheap (or non-existent) spotting scope for a year or two, it's main purpose is judging quality and you can deal with the poor optics for short chunks of time. Game location is best done with binos on a tripod.

 

[gr8fuldoug]

We posted these this morning:

Leica Trinovid 8x42 HD Binocular #40318 reduced from $949.00 to only $749.99

Leica Trinovid 10x42 HD Binocular #40319 reduced from $999.00 to only $799.99

I think the 10x42 would be a great choice for you

 

[Sleeperls]

Check your pms

 

[manitou1]

Go for the Meopta Meostar 10x42 and get a spotter later, if you still feel you need one.
I don't use a spotter, but use binos on a tripod.

 

[gr8fuldoug]

Meopta MeoStar's are excellent binoculars. We've got some great deals on "open box" units. Give a call, 516-217-1000, to discuss it
Doug

 

[idahohikker]

Do you want to find deer over two miles? Do you want to judge game over a half mile away? If so, get a spotter. If not, get some good binos and all it good.

Maven binos are awesome. I have the C1s and am very pleased with them. If you have the budget for $800+ binos then look at the optics mentioned and Maven B series.

I have a Vortex Viper spotter. Good quality for the money. Athlon Ares is probably better now for weight and view. I'd have no problem recommending these options.

Obviously higher budget is great but you will not be significantly limited hunting with the items I mentioned.

 

[rickjames80]

Buy the best bino's you can first, then after a hunt or two you will have an idea if you need a spotter. There are a lot of good bino's to choose from in your price range. Everyone is different, so try as many as possible and pick what you like best. The Meostar HD's in 10x are great and you can find them in your price range. Mount something similar on a tripod and you will be surprised what you can see.

 

[SHTF]

Sad, that is a horrible manufacturer spec write up and seriously 5 of the best, you put a vortex diamondback as one of the 5 best!

Diamondbacks for Life!!!!

 

[willfrye027]

Aim for the $1000ish class of glass for your binos. There is not much gained going up to the next level. For spotting scope depending on the country you hunt, and if it’s more for judging animals or for spotting game, you can get away with cheaper glass that will get the job done nicely.

I have some conquests in the classifieds right now for $550. I found my kowa 602 scope with 20-60x for $500 on eBay. It would be hard to go wrong with a combo like that, and you have plenty of time to shop around for deals and scratch together some more cash.

 

[Ariettabob]

Here’s my suggestion, which is exactly what I also plan to do next year for my 1st sheep hunt. Buy great binos from Cameraland, maybe an “open box” set so you get better glass than you normally would for your cash. Then, for this season, rent a spotter. This spreads the cost of your total glass package over a couple of years.

 

[LightFoot]

Don't overthink it.
Buy the best binos you can afford and roll with them.
Rent, borrow, or go without a spotter until you can afford one.

Don't forget the tripod. I would go binos and tripod first and add spotter later.



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[Elkangle]

Maven b2 + tripod+ doubler+ phone scope....deadly set up for majority of hunting...

You need to find your game and then determine if it's a target you want to take...up to you on what tools it's going to take to get that done...I know for me it varies on every hunt

Good luck

 

[mocohunter85]

running just binos right now but plan to get a spotter as well. A lot of good info on this thread.

 

[Sportsman]

I rented a spotter this year from lensrental.com. Good deal for one week hunt.

 

[AZ SpotStalker]

I’d go 15s until you can afford a high end spotter.

 

[Jardo]

I have almost stopped carrying my kowa spotter. I have a great pair of zeiss victory sf binoculars that go everywhere with me. I’ve replaced my spotter with high magnification rifle scopes from zeiss. I converted to long range capable rifles and bought zeiss V6 scopes. My 300 win has a 5-30 Magnification and so I stopped packing around the spotter. My 280 ai is a cooper backcountry and is my lightweight rig so it has a 3x18 but I can usually make due with judging deer within 500 yardscwith this scope.

My kowa 883 will go up to 60x, but I just can’t justify packing it around when I have a 30x zeiss rifle scope that works fine for field judging 90% of the time.

I think we are going to see more western hunter moving towards long range rigs with powerful optics and the spotters will be left behind and used in the trucks only.

Jmho



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[WI in the west]

I am in the same boat as you, i bought some maven B-2's this winter and a tripod then recently bought a $400 spotter. believe people when they say a good pair of binos out do a low end spotter any day. theres just no comparison espeacially on a tripod. espeacially being new where size or inches probably dont matter so much id definatly put every penny into your binos and some on a tripod. but im new to this game as well.