Buy Once Cry Once?

[pirogue]

Love my A5, but I’ve always been a Browning brother.

 

[BRTreedogs]

Well the buy once cry once in reference to me comes from the frustration of buying less expensive stuff then loosing my ass on it after I was unhappy with the performance.
Aka $1000 on my leupold gold rings I sold for $450 Yes I rocked that pair long enough to justify loosing $550

But the older leupold spotter my brother told me was good enough?
Looked thru it one weekend and lost about $250

And it just keeps going.

When you get there and look back at eating 1-2k while upgrading you will reccomend the same thing.
So I'm not saying you need Sworo.
But I would recommend extensive research and buying what you will be happy with long term.

When I was interested in high end optics if your a serious buyer most places the optics counter will take you outside with a tripod and let you glass.

Binos and spotter each I went to cabels and hr before dark and they let me glass the hillsides the last 30 min till dark.

 

[huntsman22]

I think a guy is allowed to buy/cry MORE than once.....

 

[Kimber7man]

buy higher quality used bino/spotter when you see a great deal. Use it to determine if you like it, or need something else and what exactly fits you. If you need to sell it you won’t lose much. And you gain experience behind better glass so you can determine what your eyes like.

Once you find what you like, use it for 10 years and you’ll never regret what you paid for it.

 

[RussGS]

Great advice all around on this thread. Like others have said, binos (on a tripod) are the most important.

You mention backpack spotters in your OP. I'd recommend researching the Nikon ED50 with the fixed 27x eyepiece. It's light weight, and with the upgraded eyepiece, the image is great. You can probably buy it for $600.

I think Robby Denning mentioned he still has an old fixed power Leupold that he uses at times. Being new, if you are not familiar with Robby, he literally wrote the book on mule deer hunting.

There are options.

 

[Dobermann]

I think a guy is allowed to buy/cry MORE than once.....

Ah, the aesthetically-pleasing symmetry created by the bookending spotters juxtaposed with the asymmetrical bino line-up ...

the rustic wood juxtaposed with the modern tech ...

and the humor.

That's art, pure art.

 

[Dobermann]

Once you find what you like, use it for 10 years and you’ll never regret forget what you paid for it.

Fixed it for you.

 

[TheGDog]

Buy a nice used top-tier set of Binos and a Tripod. More than likely all you'll really need. If you're just happy to find and take a legal buck. You'll be just fine with Binos and Tripod alone.

Also... you gotta think realistically about how hard you're willing to work to get a buck. Let's say you did manage to score the Mega... Eye of Sauron type of spotter. And.. let's say you're out there... and you're enjoying using it and then.. far off.. wow.. you see this amazing specimen!! Let's say for the sake of argument it's 3mi in the distance. Depending on your terrain... can you really traverse all the ups and downs and mountains in between here and there in the typical amount of time you have allotted for yourself to be at this and be out there? Do you have enough water and food to make it all the way over there and then back? With a set of top-tier binos... it's VERY possible to glass up an animal where you just might not even be able to get over to it within the confines of singular day. Or maybe you could make it over to there by dark. But then.... it's dark. Do you still have enough water and food and tent and bivvy with you to try to attempt camping at this completely unfamiliar to you spot overnight?

This is kinda why it can be helpful to think of each time you go out there during scouting season... maybe think of each outing as you making a single move with a chess-piece on a chess-board. With each move.. you're figuring out more and more of how you're going to come in and go about this when the season starts up.

Also.. re: powerful glass... another thing to consider... does your terrain even ALLOW you the opportunity to make use of glass more powerful than just Binos? The thicker it is... the more a spotter starts to be less and less useful... potentially anyway.

I will say this though... using 15x Binos to scan that ridge way over there, for me...worked much faster than trying to use my compact spotter. And now that I've acquired a used pair of ZEISS 10's... and did side-by-side comparison... I realistically don't see me ever using those mid-tier 15's anymore, because of the difference in the image I'm getting from the top-tier glass. It's all the little things together about that image it presents you with that make your brain go WOW!! YESS!!! LIke the depth-of-field is soo much more.. so if you were to point them both at same location of focus.. the one with much better depth-of-field and edge-to-edge clarity is going to be providing your brain with soo much more data in the FOV, that you'll be able to much more quickly discern that there is or is not something in this area you're pointing at. And the biggie is being able to see into somewhere earlier in first light and later into last light. Especially at beginning shooting time! I was diggin' on just how damn far away I was seeing stuff with the new (to me) top-tier glass. How sharp it was. And with the good glass... you'll be able to see them sometimes even before they've executed any movement to give themselves away. And that's just because the clarity and sharpness of the image is allowing your eye to make 'em out thru that bush at 700+ yds, etc.

 

[idcuda]

Buy once cry once should always come with a qualifier: if you can afford it.

I would say spotting scopes are the highest on the "you get what you pay for" scale. Alpha binoculars are cool to look thru, but it doesn't blow my mind. Alpha spotters, on the other hand, will make you regret every other spotter purchase you've made.

 

[Rob5589]

Buy the best you can afford, whether that is Swaro Pures, Maven C1, or something in between. I'm a mid range buyer. I need my glass to help find animals. I don't need to count every sticker, or count rings at 1.5 miles. It is easy to get caught up in the thinking that every piece of glass has to be Swaro. Keep looking around and you'll find good things on some Nikon, Meopta, Maven, etc, offerings. Good luck!

 

[eaglemountainman]

When I got serious about my optics set up, I researched at a price point that made me feel a little uncomfortable. Then I spent just a bit more. It's been a few years now, and that approach has worked out very well for me. The initial sting completely vanished the first season I used them.

 

[Mt Al]

There's tons of room for mid range glass. You don't have to have it at all to go out and glass a hill side. Is it better: YES!. I hunted successfully with a used Nikon ED50 micro spotter for years because I, being highly morally superior and wonderful, wanted to make sure my wife and kids had stuff before I went all out on a spotter. It had many limitations, especially low light. Finally saved enough and got a Swaro 60mm, but killed plenty of nice deer and antelope in the mean time.

I was in Texas a few weeks ago with a friend at a range and he plops Swaro 15x56 SLCs in front of me to call shots. I brought them up to my eyes and nearly fainted at the magical world of clarity, colors and textures before me - way out beyond what should be possible with binos. He's like "you ready bud?" and had to ask again because I was lost in amazement. I now hate and kick my 15 year old Leica 10x42s because last week they were awesome and I was giddy at having great glass, but now they're junk and not good enough. The pushers (alpha glass manufacturers) make sure the addicts (us) are never satisfied.

You don't need a 6.5 CM, top end scope, a yeti cooler or hunting brand name clothes to go hunt. Getting outside hunting is the key, not waiting until you have the "right" gear so the hunting fashionistas approve of you. Get what you can afford and Git' out!!

 

[TheGDog]

RE: "and nearly fainted at the magical world of .." - Yeah, that's about right!

 

[Glory]

Depends on how much of your life/net worth you want to invest in the sport. I know this who get by with incredibly cheap binos/spotters/riflescopes and don’t have any problems killing good animals every year.

 

[JGRaider]

"Alpha" glass may incrrease your viewing enjoyment, but pretending they are mandatory for hunting success is not being truthful. They definitely won't make you a better hunter or glasser for that matter. I own a couple of Swaro's, some "near alpha" stuff, and a couple of cheap binos, and none of them prohibit me from finding animals to shoot, and I'm not talking about stand hunting.

 

[Hatchet Jack]

I could use my swarovskis for another 20 years and probably sell them for more than i bought them for used. But i'll probably pass them down to my son one day and so on.

However, before i could afford Swarovskis I rocked 10x42 diamondbacks and a 65mm nomad spotting scope. I think a pair of vipers with one of the kowa 661/662/Nikon fieldscope, etc. spotters and guy is set for some good times. Getting out and learning how to glass and hunt will always be far more important than the logo on your binos.

 

[Scooter90254]

In my opinion. The buy once cry once statement couldn't be more false in this scenario. The midrange of glass has come a long way in the last 10 years. 100% with bino's and spotters are getting better all the time.

Now $200 to $1000 is where the buy once cry once comes in. $1000 - $3000 is an individual decision. Unless the type of hunting you are doing really requires you to spend hours and hours glassing then that extra $2000 can be more effectively spent somewhere else.

 

[TheGDog]

There's just this thing... this revelation you get... this "Wow...Now-I-Get-It!" moment... this pleasure you get to experience over and over again... when you use a tool that's the most efficient tool for that purpose.

Like if you've ever done any decent wood-working or metal-working, you know what I'm talking about. That first time you use that high-caliber tool for a specific purpose.. and you're just blown away by how easy and precise it made doing that task... and here you are, you've been frustrating yourself for years and years "gettin' buy" with cheap-@$$ Harbor Freight crap. Dealing with the minor annoyances of it's short-comings. Telling yourself "Meh.. I don't use it enough to justify gettin' that primo one." And indeed, most of the time there is merit to that statement. But then you look back at how many times you've had to buy a new one cause it crapped out. Or how un-precise the cuts are from that low quality one. Or how many heads you've stripped or rounded over with those low grade tools. And finally you're just like "F*ck it... Why not?" and so you go for it. And then you're like "Oh NO WAY!!... Cool!.... NICE!" when you use that new one. And it makes you smile a little each and every time you use it after that.

And in this instance... hunting... it's harder to justify NOT investing in that high quality tool. Because A) You HAVE to glass, you KNOW this. B) Your eyes WILL degrade over time, you KNOW this. C) Once you've gotten that optimal tool, aside from any failure of it, or accidental damage, you know you're totally set in that department from now on. Especially since they have minimal moving parts. And your kid can always inherit it, further extending the service-life and benefit you'll get out of it.

You can get-by with lesser grade, for sure.

But that depth-of-field man... I'm tellin' you! It saves you lots of time. To illustrate what I mean by that. Think of a series of MRI image slices. For you and the doctor to get an idea for what's going on inside you... you have to scroll back-and-forth thru those image slices lots of times in order for your brain to piece together and visualize that thing you're seeing and getting an idea of it's size and placement and width in 3D space within you. Now imagine how much easier it would be to look at those MRI images if there was a way for your eyes to see all those slices altogether at the same time! THAT... is what I MOST noticed in the nicer binos right off the bat, the first time you put them to your eyes. This allows you to pan thru an area and KNOW you've much more realistically seen everything that *could* be concealed within that FOV... because you're not hampered by a thin-MRI-slice type of image, that would require a bit more in-and-out manipulation of the focus-wheel so you can feel like you've verified for sure nothing is there in that FOV. Hence a big time-saver! And it's gonna help you catch things you might not have seen otherwise, in terms of hiding creatures.

ALSO: Another litmus test for spending money on something you're hemming and hawwing about? Ask yourself... Have you spent money on stupid-er stuff? Chances are, the answer is Yes. So why not? As long as you know the expenses of your regular responsibilities are handled. Then go for it. RE: Money - "You can't take it with you." (when you die)

 

[JGRaider]

Note to self......never get emotionally attached to an alpha bino.

 

[Str8shooter]

It should be said, that just because you drop big money on glass/tripods, does not mean you will suddenly see more game than anyone or even necessarily more than what you would have with mid tier optics. It takes seasons of hours and hours and hours behind the glass in different habitats to develop a good game eye and to take advantage of optics. The commentary about big $ alpha glass makes it seem to the new hunter that they are required or that big $ equals Xray vision for big bulls/bucks. This is not true, one of the best elk killers I know hasnt used binos his entire 40 year hunting career! He has spent decades learning the textures/lines/colors of what elk look like in damn near every habitat type at surprising distances. I wish this forum spent 1/10 the time talking about the subtleties of game eye development vs "bino x vs bino y". If you dont have the time or commitment to spend the hours behind the glass, get some mid tier glass and be done with it. If you are truly committed to being the best visual predator you can be, and have the time to spend 100+ hours glassing a year, alpha glass is a no brainer (as is lasik or prk). There are no shortcuts in this game.