The Rangefinding Binocular Battle | Swarovski VS Leupold VS SIG VS Leica VS Vortex

[MTBlazer89]

Say a guy wants to stay under $2k and have a ballistic solver and reliable warranty/decent glass? What's the answer, or are we not there yet?

The Fury 5000s AB if you can still find them, or a second hand set. I am pretty strongly considering selling my Furys to buy the new Vortex

 

[Okie_Poke]

Say a guy wants to stay under $2k and have a ballistic solver and reliable warranty/decent glass? What's the answer, or are we not there yet?

It looks like Eurooptic still has some Revic Gen 1 BLR10bs still in stock and priced at $1650. I picked one up in December and am pleased with it so far (used in NRL Hunter matches and some local club matches). I'm not the kind of heavy user other folks on here are, nor am I used to looking through alpha glass. These were by far the most expensive optic I'd ever purchased (though I now have an NX6 on order . . .). And the warranty may be less than you want. But to me, they are great---point and click for range and solutions, and at one of the matches in which I shot rain was interfering with other RF binos but not my Revics.

Since I don't have time behind other options, I'm not making a recommendation. I'm just sharing information.

 

[Chad Dembinski]

Say a guy wants to stay under $2k and have a ballistic solver and reliable warranty/decent glass? What's the answer, or are we not there yet?

Great question, and I would say we are not quite there yet on the new pairs, but the Talon 10k are really close at $2,299. If you got a Mil/LE buddy that wouldn't mind ordering a pair for you I'm sure you can get under that $2k mark!

You also, might find a new pair of the Vortex Fury AB somewhere that a place still has new. Those would be the best bet for a decent new pair with a good ballistic solver IMO.

 

[menhaden_man]

Great question, and I would say we are not quite there yet on the new pairs, but the Talon 10k are really close at $2,299. If you got a Mil/LE buddy that wouldn't mind ordering a pair for you I'm sure you can get under that $2k mark!

You also, might find a new pair of the Vortex Fury AB somewhere that a place still has new. Those would be the best bet for a decent new pair with a good ballistic solver IMO.

Was I seeing above that the Vortex have trouble in fog? Agree with others it'd be great to see how some of these models work in snow, rain, fog, etc.

I hate buying electronic stuff since it's one of the few things where pricing gets better and quality improves pretty rapidly.

 

[MTBlazer89]

Was I seeing above that the Vortex have trouble in fog? Agree with others it'd be great to see how some of these models work in snow, rain, fog, etc.

I hate buying electronic stuff since it's one of the few things where pricing gets better and quality improves pretty rapidly.

Yeah, real dense fog definitely messes with my Fury ABs. I mean ya can't see far enough to need to range anyway, but it is something I have had issues with when its rolling. They seem do pretty well in rain and snow though.

 

[Okie_Poke]

Most of us here have had a good amount of time behind them to give an opinion on them. While the display and ballistics is great, I think I can speak for most of us, if not all, that the glass quality just does not match up to the ones we tested here. I will post a review we did with western hunter here and its a written article.

Here is a part 2 with a couple of the other binos we were able to get in and test out with the guys. Love the discussion on here and hope people find these helpful!

I watched both videos and enjoyed them, and I appreciate y’all taking the time to do this review and then supplement it with the second. You weren’t kidding, though, y’all don’t like the glass on the Revic Gen 2s. I don’t care as I’m no longer in the market and these are all beyond my price range. But are sig Gen 2s and Vortex Talon’s really better glass-wise? Did y’all post your individual score sheets somewhere? I think it would be interesting to look at the scores in each category. Thanks again.

 

[pjohnson8168]

I am really surprised they amount of flak they gave the Revic Gen 2, maybe my pair was the exception but think the glass was significantly better than the the new vortex talons or the sig gen 2. Both the sig and vortex had great RF capabilities but the glass seemed sub-par for my eyes.

 

[menhaden_man]

Great question, and I would say we are not quite there yet on the new pairs, but the Talon 10k are really close at $2,299. If you got a Mil/LE buddy that wouldn't mind ordering a pair for you I'm sure you can get under that $2k mark!

You also, might find a new pair of the Vortex Fury AB somewhere that a place still has new. Those would be the best bet for a decent new pair with a good ballistic solver IMO.

Let’s say a guy could do without the solver… how many options are opened up for good glass and reliable rangefinder?

 

[dreamingWest]

In no way does this answer your question, but it does remind me of an answered email I received from the GOAT.

A few years ago (probably more like 5), I emailed Swarovski begging them to release a midtier ranging binocular to compete with Leica's Geovid R. I told them "All I want is an SLC with a ranging button. No fancy solvers! I know you will sell at least four of them to my hunting buddies."

I was surprised I got a response: Thank you for your interest in Swarovski Optics. There are no plans to release a midtier rangefinder binocular.

 

[Stinky Coyote]

After experiencing inability to range in light snow showers (inside 500 yards), I sold my Leica’s for the Revic.

Would be nice to see evaluation of laser performance in adverse conditions (hard to schedule, I know). Maybe in a follow up?

long time Leica guy, I added sig kilo 6k 8x32's to fleet, have Leica old crf-1600, had geovid hd-r 2700's and had a nice big snowfall here and got to test around house, could barely see the 600 yard buildings near me through the big flakes fairly stout snowfall, the Leica's crapped out and struggled to give the odd ready in the 125 yard range max, I got readings to just under or right at 600 before it started struggling to return a value with the sig's, the sigs also range through windshield and glass pretty dang far, discovered by accident while sitting in truck and hitting the button while looking through them...surprised the shat out of me lol,

they should all be tested in 'weather' imo...I can only lend that one example, my Leica's vs a sig kilo 6k, I have a 5k handheld also seems every bit as strong but not sure I tested it same time as the 6k's, sold the hd-r's, the little Leica still handy for kids/loaner/whatever, kept both sig's and run the 8x32 full-time primary bino

also, this spring rolled up to range spot in pure fog and had to wait for sun to burn it off before I could see well enough to center reticle on gong at 200 with any kind of precision, but the sig 8x32 was able to cut through it and hit the board behind it an easy hour before I could shoot for groups/zeroing accuracy, could barely make out the board I always set near gong for ranging but it returned range prolly 2 for 3 pushes of the button in those conditions, at least 50% so I know it was struggling there...thought that was impressive performance too! it let me set everything up to start shooting so I could twiddle my thumbs, enjoy a dip and finish my coffee waiting for the sun to burn it off enough, it was about the max limit of visibility at the time but the laser got me there