Have spotter, do I need Binoculars?

[betelgeuse]

If I forget the binos,I come home

I hiked in a long ways in the dark one time, sat down to get my binos out. Oops. Crappy morning, oof

 

[Huntnnw]

for me I do use my Binos 10X more than my spotter. I hunt all over the west and there is no way I wouldnt have my spotter with me. Its almost always used in judging a buck or bull,plus I use it with my phone for video and target shooting

 

[solidstars43]

Depends on what you want and need tbh. I had the pleasure to try a very expensive monocular of a bird researcher friend. Ever since then binoculars don't seem that impressive.

 

[LostArra]

My spotter (mid level) only goes to the range and watches deer and birds from my house. If I hunted goats or sheep where determining a legal animal is necessary it would probably go hunting but those tags are pipe dreams for me now.

Like most, I stair-stepped around with low and mid level binoculars telling myself they were good enough and most of the time they are good enough. Then I came across a Cameraland NY deal on some open box Swaros and I bought them. This occurred many years ago and I still have zero regrets.

What I learned:
Everyone's face and eyeballs are different and some binoculars don't fit your face/eye relief so testing is important even with alphas. In my case Swaros fit me perfectly while my buddy's Leicas do not.

As you age your eyes will thank you for investing in top tier glass. Hitting the gym in your 70s keeps your body prepared for hunting but the calendar will still affect some aspects of vision.

Buying alpha glass actually frees up a bunch of time you once wasted on reading endless reviews and shopping for deals online.

I still occasionally use my mid level compact binocular when deer hunting from a stand since it's so thick I can't see more than 75 yards and I don't score or target specific deer. My first impression of shooter/not a shooter is usually accurate.

 

[MuleyFever]

If you really cant afford to keep the spotter get binos and make sure you have a tripod setup you can use them on. Ive taken my spotter on some elk hunts where I know I will be glassing a long ways but it wasnt really needed. I do think a spotter is needed for deer hunts in the open country because its nice to know if the deer is big enough to go after without waling way over there to get a better look. Now, if you just want to kill a deer the spotter becomes less necessary.