Guys who only carry a 10x bino…

[jimh406]

Tripods are obsolete with binos now and they will be with spotters very soon.

I don’t agree. I doubt everyone wants the dependency on batteries, and there is quite bit less fov for a weaker chassis.

 

[fatlander]

I don’t agree. I doubt everyone wants the dependency on batteries, and there is quite bit less fov for a weaker chassis.

You hunt without a cell phone, gps, range finder, head lamp, and truck too?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[shomi]

I still want a tripod to get binos out of my hands for long glassing sessions and to lock them in place so a buddy can see the same spot I’m seeing.

 

[nphunter]

Good quality 8's with a large FOV are better than stabilized 10's IMO. My Zulu's live under my seat in my truck and only get used when a buddy doesn't have high mag glass.

You can pick up NL8x32's or EL8x32's for about the price of the SIG's and the EL/NL's blow them away. I carry 8x32 NL's always, 14NL's sometimes and a Spotter sometimes. I probably spend 100+ days in the field every year and my NL's are there 100% of the time. The only time I have chosen to take the sigs over my 14NL's is when I was riding a motorcycle and didn't want to take my tripod or damage my good equipment if I crashed.

From early elk all the way through late mule deer I only used the Zulu 6's I have like 5 total days and let friends borrow them a few times. When sitting side by side glassing elk I can see way more detail with my 14's on a tripod than the Sig 20's. The glass in the SIG's is comparable to a vortex viper at best, if swaro or someone else ever comes up with a good quality stabilized bino I would consider that but when spending hours sitting and glassing I'm choosing a tripod and good bino 100% of the time.

 

[WhoGarrDen]

I carry 18s stabilizing sigs on my chest. More magnification when I need it!
Curious what the FOV difference is between their 10s and 18s at like 100 yards? Anyone know?

Zulu6 HDX 10x30 - 5.2* (27.2ft @ 100yd?)
Zulu6 HDX Pro 18x50 - 3.7* (19.4ft @ 100yd?)

 

[Russ]

I definitely would NOT give up my 18s for 10s for a gain of only 8ft at 100 yards. Being able to handhold 18s is the best thing since sliced bread!!! I leave the spotter in the truck most times now!

 

[WhoGarrDen]

I definitely would NOT give up my 18s for 10s for a gain of only 8ft at 100 yards. Being able to handhold 18s is the best thing since sliced bread!!! I leave the spotter in the truck most times now!

I hope someone steps in and corrects me if any of this is wrong (I'm not an optics expert), but those 8ft means the 10s have 40% greater FOV than 18s ((27.4-19.4)/19.4) Would you give up 18s for 40% more FOV?

 

[TravOC]

I have used the vortex viper HD 10x50 for close to a decade now with few complaints other than they can be tough to glass off hand. I carry a tripod for long glassing sessions and a small vortex razor 13-39 spotter which gets used much less than my binos. My dad has a pair of the 16x42 zulus and loves them, my other hunting buddy has the same pair and loves them too. Neither of them carry spotters unless looking way out past a mile. They both prefer magnification over field of view as they prefer mature animals. Where as I prefer field of view and am more than happy with a rag horn. Species like elk are so big they are like yellow school buses on a hill side, so I prefer field of view in the hopes of seeing more animals instead of more detail.

Like other comments have said binos are very subjective, you will likely have to experiment with a couple before you find what works best. If you are carrying a tripod anyways I would buy the best 10x/12x you can afford. 8x if no tripod or sig zulus if you want the magnification of 12x/16x without a tripod. I have never used the 10x30’s zulus but would never consider buying them due to their small exit pupil and likely sub par low light performance.

 

[43.6N]

Good quality 8's with a large FOV are better than stabilized 10's IMO. My Zulu's live under my seat in my truck and only get used when a buddy doesn't have high mag glass.

You can pick up NL8x32's or EL8x32's for about the price of the SIG's and the EL/NL's blow them away. I carry 8x32 NL's always, 14NL's sometimes and a Spotter sometimes. I probably spend 100+ days in the field every year and my NL's are there 100% of the time. The only time I have chosen to take the sigs over my 14NL's is when I was riding a motorcycle and didn't want to take my tripod or damage my good equipment if I crashed.

From early elk all the way through late mule deer I only used the Zulu 6's I have like 5 total days and let friends borrow them a few times. When sitting side by side glassing elk I can see way more detail with my 14's on a tripod than the Sig 20's. The glass in the SIG's is comparable to a vortex viper at best, if swaro or someone else ever comes up with a good quality stabilized bino I would consider that but when spending hours sitting and glassing I'm choosing a tripod and good bino 100% of the time.

Agree. 8x is best X.
The only reason I have a pair of 10x is because they are a LRF with integrated ballistics.

As soon as Revic or another company puts a quality 8x42 LRF ballistic bino they will get my business.

Frankly, I think it would even make up somewhat for the slightly worse image that lrf binos typically have.

 

[Aperventure]

I carry the Maven 9x45 on my chest which I love for low light. 18x56 in my pack with tripod. I hunt mostly open country and those 18s on a tripod will pick out bedded game in middle of day from a mile or more away that I could not see with 9x45

This is very useful, thanks. Are your 18s also Maven? Deer or elk?

 

[Mish-pop]

This is very useful, thanks. Are your 18s also Maven? Deer or elk?

The 18s are Vortex Razors. I compared them to Maven 18s and it wasnt much difference but I slightly preferred the Razors.

I use them mainly for deer and antelope in open country. Deer to find bedded and judge size. Antelope to judge size

 

[BarrierBuck]

I only have 2 seasons of experience with elk but I dragged a spotting scope all over hell and back on several backcountry hunts and never used it once. A pair of 10s did everything I needed. The sigs are nice for covering a lot of ground, but they suck in low light and the detail/color isnt good. And then you have to carry a separate LRF. Think going forward i will carry the el range 10x42s and a second set of binos at 15-16 for extended glassing/spotting shots.

 

[tracker12]

Maybe I should’ve been more clear with the title. I meant “guys who carry only low power binos and no spotting scope to back it up”. Is that normal? Like you guys that are commenting that you carry 8x or 10x, do you also carry a spotter like mavinwa2 said?

I carry a pair of 8x42 Swaro SLC and a Kowa 554 in the pack. My style of hunting mostly archery does not lend itself to a lot of sitting on a hill using a spotter. But I do find times when I want to use one so keep what I think is one of the 2 best compact spotters in the pack.

 

[buffybr]

I've lived in elk country and hunted elk most years since I killed my first bull back in 1966. I now have 3 spotting scoped, but have never taken any of them elk hunting. For many years I only carried my Nikon 8 or 9x pocket binoculars on any of my hunts including multiple bighorn and Dall sheep hunts, and on multiple international hunts.

I've gone on at least a dozen successfull elk hunts (including archery) where I didn't carry or need any binoculars, which is also true for some of my deer, antelope and 3 successful moose hunts. And no, I didn't use my rifle scope on those hunts to glass or look for the animals

After my New Zealand hunt about 10 years ago, I upgraded my binoculars to a pair of Nikon Monarch 10x42s that I used on most of my hunts until a couple of years ago when I bought a pair of Vortex Ranger 10x42 rangfinder binos. They weigh about the same as my Nikon 10x42s plus a separate rangefinder, but they are quicker and easier to use.

 

[Buglebrush]

I have 8x32, 10x32, and 18x56 Razor UHD. The very best Mule Deer combination in open country is 8x32 on my chest and 18x56 with tripod in my pack. If I could have only one optic, it would be the 10x32. However, there's no such thing as a single optic to do everything. The massive field of view on the x32 UHD is insanely valuable. People are missing a lot of game with the tiny field of view on the image stabilized optics.

I sat just under the skyline on a highpoint 2 miles from a little atv trail watching a group of bedded mule deer bucks in Montana. There was a couple 140-150 class 4x4's in the group. I was looking for something bigger, but I watched a couple pairs of hunters hop off their side by sides to scan with handheld glass for a while and then motor on. None of them showed any sign of spotting the group of bucks that were totally exposed to them. Learn to sit behind a tripod with high powered binos and carefully pick apart open country. Nothing compares for finding bedded game.