Your Long Term Optics Setups? Strategic Purchasing....

[Buelrdr29]

Assume you buy optics like layering clothing systems. You have your base setup and added optional items for specific trips or types of hunting or shooting sports. I watched a youtube video of a pro guide discussing his choices. It went chest bino (with built in range finder), tripod bino 15x, and a big spotter. Seems like a good overall setup. It got me thinking about my setup and how I want it to be long term, as I want to buy good stuff but cannot rush out and spend 5-10K on optics, so want to buy strategically to fill my needs and still have gas and tag money each year.

I shoot a lot of local archery comps. Love glassing while camping. Shoot rifle and at times into some 600 yard shoots or further on steel in the mountains. And got into hunting about a year and a half ago and targeting bear, deer, turkey, and elk. Live in western WA so many big foothills with thick brush. I do plan to travel out of state in the future and also frequent Eastern WA, which is much more open.

My setup so far:
Range Finder:
Leupold RX4 Full Draw
Sig Sauer Kilo 2000

Binos:
Vortex Diamondback HD 8x42 and 10x42, one pair for my wife and they are mostly for banging around in a back pack or motorcycle bag.
Maven B2 11x45s, this is my main bino and I am going to experiment with them in a chest harness. Used them with a long lanyard for archery on the regular

Spotter:
Maven CS.1 15-45x65, great light weight spotter that has been useful, but it does have limitations in FOV and overall clarity. An affordable light option to have a spotter for the range

Tripods:
Have a slik and a vortex summit ssp. Both with pan heads and work for me.

So for my next purchase I am getting my wife the Maven B1.2 10x42 (I will do yard work to borrow them, lol) and thinking about either a bigger tripod bino or 85mm spotter. Which would you choose next?

What is your ultimate lineup for covering all your recreation and hunting needs?


And not looking for brand comparisons. Most people will buy the best they can afford and that differs a lot.

 

[Blue72]

nikon 7x42 EDG or Leica 7x35 trinovid

meopta 15x56 or 12x50

nikon ed50 with 27x WDS eyepiece

 

[Trees91]

Current setup at the moment...

Leica 2400

Swaro Ats 80mm

Meostar 8x42 (for sale)

Maven B1.2 8x42

Swaro 12x50 el

Wanting to get a compact 6x or 8x

Also thinking of selling the whole lot for a set of alpha 10x.

 

[dtrkyman]

I am light on optics, 10x42 Steiners, old version predators.

Shopping spotters and 15-18 bino's now. Leaning toward the bigger bino first, Meopta maybe?

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

For big game hunting this is what I have:
Binoculars
SLC 10
SLC 15

Spotting Scope
STX 65/95
Kowa 554

Tripod/Head
Slik 635 CF
Manfrotto 290 XTRA CF
Jim 2.0

Range Finder
Sig Kilo 2200

I can mix and match whatever makes the most sense for any specific hunt.

 

[Buelrdr29]

I am light on optics, 10x42 Steiners, old version predators.

Shopping spotters and 15-18 bino's now. Leaning toward the bigger bino first, Meopta maybe?

Never had the chance to look through meoptas. I really like the Maven items. And of course all the big euro ones. Vortex is a good affordable option and I am considering the UHDs in an 18x bino.

 

[dtrkyman]

Weird thing is my former boss had some 15x swaros, I used em a few times looking for deer and really was not impressed! Obviously they were not bad but they didn't blow me away!

 

[Lionhound1975]

I'm a Meopta nerd due to the incredible MIL/LE discount they offer. Below is my current setup:

Deep Woods and brush country:
Blaser Primus 8x42
Meopta Meostar 7x42

Mountains and Open Country:
Swaro NL Pure 10x42
Meopta Meostar 10x42 HD B1
Meopta Meostar 15x56 HD Plus
Meopta Meostar S2 82 spotter (straight)

Fast and Light trips:
Zeiss Conquest 8x20
Cabelas (Meopta) Euro 8x32 HD
Meopta TGA 75 20-60 spotter

Long range shooting:
Bushnell Elite Tactical 8-40x60 spotter with H-32 ranging reticle
Leupold Rx 1400
Steiner 8x30R

 

[Rock-o]

The two items I have are not fancy.

* 10x42 binoculars - ($150 on the high side, on sale) a gift, came from Bass Pro, I think it's their "house" brand, even though I'm pleasantly surprised with them I'd like something better, however I'm very cheap in some ways and probably won't do it
* Athlon Ares G2 UHD 15-45×65 - 45 Degree spotting scope - bought this myself not knowing if I'd even want to tote around and use a spotter, I like it, I doubt I'll get one bigger but if I do I'll likely keep this one

And a (500 yard?) Bushnell Rifle Hunter range finder. It's old.

Not sure where to go from here. Don't know how to get there. Not mad about where I am though.

 

[bowhuntrben]

My current setup:

Binos:
Swaro SLC 10x42

Spotter:
Swaro ATX 95

Tripod:
Slik CF Pro 634
Sirui VA-5 head

Rangefinder:
About a 15 year old one that doesn't do angle compensation and I'm lucky to get out to 300 yards with

Digiscoping setup:
Tinesup/Scopecam (I have universal adapter and specific but prefer the universal adapter. I have both an actual camera and phone attachment)


I'm happy with my current setup.

I helped my dad recently upgrade his rangefinder to a Vortex Razor 4000 HD. Since I hunt in a shotgun only area, my current rangefinder does the job well enough for me. It'd be nice to have the angle compensation for archery, but it hasn't hurt me yet not having it. When I do a western hunt, I'm always with my dad, and we only get one tag, so we can just use his rangefinder. If that wasn't the case, my next purchase would probably have been a new rangefinder.

As it is, I'd love to get a set of Swaro NL Pures. The 12x42 are intriguing for the extra 2x power, but I don't know that I'd be able to handhold them, and I can't justify the money to get another set of 10x42 when I already have a nice set. Realistically, the next purchase that I would make for myself would be the 65mm objective for my ATX to reduce bulk (less worried about weight than bulk). Again, since my western hunts are with my dad, I don't see a real urgent need to get this since only one of us will be carrying a gun, and the other can carry the spotter.

Probably the most likely thing I will purchase next will be a high quality set of binos for my children. I recently purchased a cheaper set for my 5 year old that I don't have to worry about him breaking, but I'd like to get them a really good set when they're older (if they're into hunting).

I can't personally see myself purchasing a bigger set of binos simply because I can't see that I would want to carry around 3 sets of optics while hunting, and I'd prefer to carry the spotter over a larger set of binos. So, while they would be fun to have, I just don't think I would personally use them enough to justify buying them.


You ask what you should buy next. It wasn't in your list, but I would probably get a good digiscoping setup. Pretty fun being able to take pics and video of critters. I also find it nice being able to have multiple people looking by having the camera/phone hooked up.
Between the larger binos and a bigger spotter for you, only you can make that decision. Between the two, I'd probably get the spotter so that I had a little more reach with zoom and light gathering ability...and because I like digiscoping. However, I would only do that if it were an upgrade in glass quality (since you mention yours has clarity issues...I have no experience with yours). If not upgrading glass quality, I would probably say the larger binos would be better for you.

 

[OspreyZB]

Current set up is:

Binos- 6x30 Maven b3, 10x42 Leupold BX-4

Spotting scope- Nikon field scope ED 78 w/ 30x wide and 50x wide eyepieces

Rangefinder- Sig kilo 850

I currently have only bow hunted whitetails in the east. For what I do, I'm just carrying the 6x30 mavens 90% of the time.

I do plan on adding 7x42 Leica ultravid HD+, and a Kowa 99 eventually. Also wouldn't mind having 15x or 18x binos.

 

[Fatcamp]

8x42 Meostar

15x56 Meostar

20x60 Leupold spotter

ETA:
Leupold 1600 rangefinder-primary tool.
Vortex something rangefinder

This is where I'm at for this season. A part of me feels weird having this much money tied up in a hobby, but it matters enough to me to invest in. Got a bunch of tags this year so I hope these tools help fill them.

 

[Hefe1980]

I live and hunt out west, here is what occupies space in my safe:

Binos = Zeiss 8x42 Victory HT’s

Spotter= Vortex Razor 20-60x85.

Rangefinder = Leica 1600


I’m currently considering an alpha 15x56 for antelope and big country mule deer, but this setup has served me well for quite a while.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Blockcaver]

Binos:
Leica Ultravid 8x32
Swaro SV EL10 x 42
Leica Geovid 15 x 56 HD (rangefinder built in)

Spotters:
Nikon ED50 w/13-30 eyepiece
Swaro ATM 20-60 x 65 (angled magnesium body)

Rangefinders:
Leupold RX1600i w/DNA & TBR...used for 98% of my use...100% of archery hunts
Leica 1000-R, Backup due to very slow angle correction (+2 seconds) and no angle correction in scan mode

 

[saltfork]

Leica Ultravid 10x42
Minox 15x58
Leica 77 20-60x

Hunting around home I mostly use the spotter from the truck. The 15x's come with me every time I go out, unless I'm just out to kill a doe or something. Then I just take my 10's. I have several tripods, mostly use a suiri or a bog pod with different heads.

 

[Firehawk]

Current Set Up

Binos -
Maven B2 9x45 (primary)
Maven B3 8x30
Meopta B1 15x56
(all have the Outdoorsman's Studs and use the Outdoorsman's bino adapter on the tripod)

Spotting Scope -
Maven CS.1 15-45x65 (light and packable)
Kowa 774 (just plain awesome, but a lot heavier)

Tripod -
Slik 723

Rangefinder -
Sig Kilo 2000
Sig Kilo 1250 (archery)

 

[Newtosavage]

Currently using:

Zeiss Conquest HD 8x32 binoculars (w/ Oudoorsman stud and tripod adapter)
Nikon ED65 spotter w/ Pentax eyepiece (25x)
Leupold rangefinder
Weaver K6 (new) 6x36 scope

I've been through about 25 pairs of binoculars ($300-1300) and probably 20 scopes ($200-400) in the past two years, and these are what I settled on and I'm very happy with my choices now.

 

[JohnJohnson]

Binos:
Swarovski EL 10x50
Zeiss Victory SF 8x42

Rangefinder:
Sig Kilo2200

Tripod:
TFCT-34L with Anvil-30 head

Spotting Scope:
None right now but I'll likely get a Kowa Prominar 15-45x55m in the next year or so

 

[HUNT JR]

I currently use SLC 10x42 and an STS 65mm. I do a decent amount of backpack hunting and wanted the lighter smaller spotting scope. I do not feel that it would make a big difference to me in optics to carry the heavy spotter for what I use them for. I also use a Sig BDX 1800 (I think) rangefinder. I really like that the rangefinder gives me correction for longer shots. It is way more universal than having engraved turrets for each area you hunt. I will be looking to upgrade to the better Sig rangefinder soon as the BDX limits correction to 800 yards and used Applied Ballistics Ultralight.

 

[buffsmoker]

Current Lineup:

Binos:
Swaro EL SV 8.5x42
Meopta Meostar 15x56 HD

Spotters:
Kowa 773 20-60x
Kowa 502 20-40x

Tripod:
Promaster XC525C

Rangefinder:
Nikon 550 Riflehunter

Might be looking to upgrade the rangefinder next. Otherwise, I feel this covers me pretty well for high country mule deer, archery elk in thick timber, and late season deer/elk hunts. Just mix and match for the specific hunt.