Why not more DIY “big eyes”?

[Sierra Hunter]

Why don’t I see more folks creating their own big eyes? Am I missing something? It seems like you could throw together a couple older razors and have a solid value “BTX like” set-up. Please school me on what I’m overlooking, other than weight.

 

[rayporter]

is this what you want?

 

[MattB]

Probably because most people don't have the expertise or equipment to machine something that would allow for the proper collimation to make it useable.

 

[Sierra Hunter]

is this what you want?

I want BTXs but am thinking about a lower cost option

 

[Hatchet Jack]

I made my own bracket for Kowa 66s out of aluminum using a grinder, hole saw, sawzall, thread tappers and some pure redneck ingenuity. Been going strong for 4 years and they’ve ridden a lot of miles in my pack. They are my favorite optic I own. I’ve glassed a brown elk shed at a confirmed 1.4 miles with them and glassed my coues this year at 1700 yds mid day in the shade. No way I’m doing that without 30 power. And At 7 lbs I don’t mind packing them a few miles.

 

[rayporter]

those are Orion 30 power and they are absolutely fantastic. far above their cost.
i have a pair of 25x because they quit making the 30's. the 25 are also awesome and quite cheap for what you get. you can count the flies around a dogs butt at an unbelievable range.
their only drawback it the necessary tripod. you need a very solid tripod. that is a used 22 lb movie camera tripod. elk at a mile would be easy. cost is under $350.

 

[Sierra Hunter]

I made my own bracket for Kowa 66s out of aluminum using a grinder, hole saw, sawzall, thread tappers and some pure redneck ingenuity. Been going strong for 4 years and they’ve ridden a lot of miles in my pack. They are my favorite optic I own. I’ve glassed a brown elk shed at a confirmed 1.4 miles with them and glassed my coues this year at 1700 yds mid day in the shade. No way I’m doing that without 30 power. And At 7 lbs I don’t mind packing them a few miles.

Love that, how much do you have invested if you don’t mind me asking

 

[SomeJackassOnAForum]

Improvements in optics have basically resulted in larger and larger ocular lenses. Hard to make a good "Big Eye" when the lenses push the exit pupils too wide apart for a human face.

 

[BBob]

Twin Swaro 65's will go pretty small IPD with the fat 25-50's. They are actually limited by the bodies not the ocular's.

 

[SomeJackassOnAForum]

Twin Swaro 65's will go pretty small IPD with the fat 25-50's. They are actually limited by the bodies not the ocular's.

That's a 20 year old design.

 

[BBob]

That's a 20 year old design.

Still awesome for Coues deer or desert sheep and keeps up side by side with BTX users sitting next to me so there's that. The insta zoom function kicks A over the BTX too.

That also brings up the point that S&S has noticed with recent manufacture ATS 65's. One of the last reviews showed they found it did better than an ATX 65 if I'm not mistaken. I'll have to go back and watch it again for more details I've forgotten.

 

[BIGEYES]

Spotting scopes assembled as binoculars have been a staple for long range hunters in Pennsylvania for many years. Many years ago, Meischner (sp?) instruments in New England made a bracket to hold two B & L Balscope srs. Later a superior combination was two Bushnell Spacemaster IIs (many made by Kowa for Bushnell) in brackets machined by various machiists. Stepping up in glass quality and price, two Swarovski STSs
have been assembled to make an incredible "binocular". The negatives to all of these has been cost and weight.
A sturdy tripod is definitely a requirement.

 

[BIGEYES]

Forgot to mention that the Swaros were 80mm.

 

[SomeJackassOnAForum]

Still awesome for Coues deer or desert sheep

That's true, but as far as why newer designs aren't used in these applications, see my original post.

 

[BIGEYES]

I have not checked on the physical size limitations of : say a 95mm or 115 Swarovski with STX oculars that might prevent their assembly into "binoculars". I'm too old and financially challenged to do it, even if possible. It would be awsome glass though, as would the big Kowas.

 

[Hatchet Jack]

Love that, how much do you have invested if you don’t mind me asking

I got great deals on used scopes and ended up around $1600 for glass including both 30x wide angle eyepieces and a 20-60 variable. I spent about $40 on the material for the bracket. I have spent many hours glassing next to the kowa highlanders and my twin 66s give up very little to the 32x82 highlanders. The Highlander 32x eyepiece on the prominar 82 mm lenses are THE best bigeye binocular on the planet in terms of optical performance, and my 66s hang very close to them at 1/2 the weight and 2/3 the $$. Also, the kowa glass makes the razor glass look like Big5 bargain bin garbage,

 

[barn_owl]

I've always liked the idea of creating your own big eyes from a pair of scopes.

I imagine you'd have to collimate them with every use though, right?

 

[Brian Fahs]

I recently purchased the set of twin kowa 664s on here in the classifieds. To say I am impressed is an understatement. The setup I bought is sold by adams adapters and is extremely well designed and built.

I reached out to many members on here and every one raved about the twin kowa setup. It took a lot of convincing to purchase the set but I'm glad I did. Thanks Hatchet Jack and Essau.

When we purchase optics for hunting there is never a perfect optic for every person and situation. That's why most hunting nuts own multiple optics. The size weight and cost of quality big eye build keep most out of the game. The information and equipment is out there to build just about anything you want in a set of bigeyes. Rokslide and coueswhitetail.com are ground zero for everything you need to make it happen.

 

[SikaSeeker]

I got great deals on used scopes and ended up around $1600 for glass including both 30x wide angle eyepieces and a 20-60 variable. I spent about $40 on the material for the bracket. I have spent many hours glassing next to the kowa highlanders and my twin 66s give up very little to the 32x82 highlanders. The Highlander 32x eyepiece on the prominar 82 mm lenses are THE best bigeye binocular on the planet in terms of optical performance, and my 66s hang very close to them at 1/2 the weight and 2/3 the $$. Also, the kowa glass makes the razor glass look like Big5 bargain bin garbage,

The eyepiece on the highlanders is exact same as 30x one used in 66s. Incredible edge sharpness on those. I’ve got the 82mm flourite and 66 Kowa.

Know a guy with broken 82mm and wondering how difficult it would be to reverse engineer the prism housing so you could “mirror” the casing and turn two 82mm scopes into a “Diet Highlander”. Of course you’d then need to build the bracket to able to adjust IPD using a screw system of some sort.

 

[SikaSeeker]

Why don’t I see more folks creating their own big eyes? Am I missing something? It seems like you could throw together a couple older razors and have a solid value “BTX like” set-up. Please school me on what I’m overlooking, other than weight.

If you’re not fairly competent you’ll just cause yourself more grief with a DIY bracket. The guys who make them have ironed out the issues for you, if money is issue look out for used. Otherwise it’s a fun weekend project.

I’m currently after 664 big eye bracket.

I’d like to see some guys do field tests with various brackets , testing how well they stay collimated.