Optics Heart Attack

[805Bowhunter]

I live near Morro Rock which is both a famous tourist destination as well as a famous birding destination. In the Morro Rock parking lot, it is common to have hundreds of tourist beachcombing, taking pictures of squirrels eating trash etc. Also in the same area are hardcore birders with incredible optics/camera setups taking pictures of Peregrine falcons, crazy migrating birds etc. Two days ago I was taking some friends to "the rock" who were from out of town. My friends were on the beach and I was staying warm by the car. I took note of a couple having a pretty bad argument about 50 yards away. It was evident as they were screaming at each other full volume with little care that there were lots of other people around. Close to the arguing couple was a guy with a ATX 95 on a tripod looking at birds. The birder disappeared behind his car as the girl from the arguing couple angrily got in her car (leaving her partner), threw the car in reverse, backed up out of her spot, smashed the 95 on the tripod, and then drove away. I couldnt believe what I saw. The girl had no idea she even hit anything and drove away with her partner running after her. The guy was crushed. I didnt even know what to say. I couldnt imagine that happening to me. Felt so bad for the guy but he did have his tripod setup in not the best spot. Whole thing made me sick.

Anyone lost any optics to a dumb reason like this?

 

[Finn16]

Excuse me while I go throw up.

 

[willfrye027]

My parents live in morro Bay and I can picture the whole situation!! Poor guy I couldn’t even imagine.

 

[805Bowhunter]

My parents live in morro Bay and I can picture the whole situation!! Poor guy I couldn’t even imagine.

It was terrible. You would have thought that someone shot the guys dog in front of him.

 

[blkqi]

Great reason to use Vortex optics!

 

[Broomd]

Brutal.
I'm gonna sound like a complete hermit, but this is why I avoid humans.
Don't get me wrong, my wife and I socialize occasionally, but one rare trip to any tourist destination and I'm longing for the beaten path and finding my own views.

Like Jeremiah Johnson said, "I've been to a town, Del."

 

[fatrascal]

While climbing up over a cliff I had taken my pack off with plans to reach back down and grab the pack after I got over the edge. As I grabbed the pack it got away from me and rolled down the mountain a couple hundred yards. My Swarovski scope i the pack was no longer round and the eyepiece wiggled. Y fault but Swarovski fixed it free of charge. Fatrascal

 

[Corvus Corax]

I stopped to remove a few layers on a climb, and took my bino harness off. And I got to watch as my Leica geovid hd-b 2200’s that I saved so long for tumble down the super steep hillside about 75yards or so. I was dreading what I’d find upon getting to them. To my disbelief they were completely unscathed. The combo of quality binoculars and a good bino harness saved my stupid ass.

 

[Trigger06]

I decided to start deer hunting in 2017. I like gear so I decided I needed to spend a whole bunch of money on optics. After much pestering, I get my wife on board with the fact that I NEED a pair of Meopta 15x56 binos. Took them out on my first deer hunt here in AZ. Found a buck in range. I got off the binos and got set up for a shot. I hit the buck and was watching him stagger a bit through the scope. As I'm watching him go down, I feel a gust of wind. And hear a crash. The crash was the binos and the tripod hitting the rocks. I'm simultaneously elated about the deer and super pissed about the large scratches in the lenses. That cost me $140 to get replaced. I always put the caps on and lay the tripod down if I'm gonna move away from the binos now!

 

[Brian Fahs]

When I was still in high school 40 years ago I worked summers on the family fruit and vegetable farm for $2.50 an hour. I saved and purchased guns bows and hunting equipment over the years from my earnings since my dad did not hunt and would not buy the stuff for me.
My first set of binos were nikon compact 9x 25 or something similar and cost me about $100. I busted my ass working to buy those things and was proud to own them. My first time hunting with them was an archery hunt in a nearby WMA that had some nice ridges and huge rock ledges.
I met my cousin at noon after an uneventful morning hunt on a nearby rock ledge. I had my binos in a cargo pocket of my pants and as I took a seat beside him they fell out and rolled over the edge to a sudden death. I mean they were destroyed after less than a day afield. I was devastated to say the least.
I now own a bunch of alpha glass and am ultra cautious with it. Almost anal. And no I do not lend them out or even let people look though them. Period.

 

[zion zig zag]

When I was a rookie firefighter I was assigned to the downtown station that housed the battalion chief. That station had an open, second story mezzanine with a good view of the mountains. One day the BC brought in his brand new Swarovski spotting scope and set it up on the very wide wall that surrounded that mezzanine. He was letting guys look through it at the mountain and we all marveled how clear everything was through it.

As I finished looking through it the brim of my cap caught the eyepiece and it started to fall towards the edge. Luckily, I caught the tripod leg before it disappeared to the parking lot below. We all had a minor heart attack. He's retired now and working as a hunting guide, but I ran into him the other day and we joked about that story.

 

[TX_Diver]

Slightly different optic (Leica total station worth approximately $10k) but had an new hire a few years ago who was working with one of our survey crews.

In NM it's pretty windy most of the spring and also hot so the surveyors had an ez-up they'd often put up over their set-ups. The new guy didn't tie it down, walked away for a minute, and watched a gust of wind blow the ez-up down and knock over the total station. He about cried but he also took responsibility and didn't make excuses. Few months later he started working as a crew leader and being pretty successful.

Made all of us cringe when he came in and explained what happened though.

 

[tdhanses]

Great reason to use Vortex optics!

Exactly, they just break without being run over