Big Binos vs Spotter for Desert Hunting

[ZackW]

Hi everyone,
I recently moved to Oklahoma, which doesn’t offer much in the way of public land. But New Mexico is right next door and so I was planning an Aoudad hunt for next year. I’ve currently got a set of 10x binos that I keep on my chest, but I’d like to get something bigger for glassing wife open areas. I’m torn between a set of 15x binos and a medium sized spotter (20-60ish). I’ve already got an old leupold gold ring straight 25x spotter, but it’s old and just not as clear as modern glass. Any ideas?

 

[Jason73]

I'd suggest the Votex Diamondback spotting scopes. Lifetime warranty, fair priced equipment.

 

[rustednuts]

Unless you’re counting inches go with big binos, you’ll have a larger field of view and better clarity unless you’re open to spending 2k+ on a spotter.

 

[brymoore]

15s will spot more game. Spotter helps identify the quality of what you spotted.

 

[jeremys4]

I love my binos it’s a shame I have a 95mm btx but prefer my 10x50 slc I’m going to get another set of binos in larger magnification for a tripod set up. I’m not trying to degrade anyone’s glass but vortex is not a brand I’d put my money into.

 

[Sawtooth]

If you decide to go the spotter route, this is a sweet deal. https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/athlon-cronus-compact.301615/

 

[Art Vandeley]

I wouldn't waste your money on a Vortex Diamonback.

What budget are we talking here?

 

[Valgrego]

I use the Vortex Vulture 15x56 binos on a tripod. Great field of view, very clear glass. They're heavy, but you can cover a lot of ground from a high vantage point. They're around $400-$500 depending on where you find them. A spotting scope would obviously reveal more detail at longer distances, but big eyes are a great option.

 

[WI2AZhunter]

I have the Vortex Viper HD 15x50 and love them

 

[Mark1970]

My experience is that high quality glass is more important than high magnification. I guess you already discovered that with your older Leupold spotter.
As you go to higher mag, you become limited by other things like stability (need a bitter tripod), Brightness (need a bigger heavy objective lens so that image does not become dark) and heat waves in the air if you are hunting in hot weather.
I took my 20-60x65 spotter on a pronghorn hunt, with a big heavy tripod. It was rock solid, but it was also super hot and sunny and due to the thermals, most of the time I was just as well off with my 10x binos.
Also, since binos have two eye cups, they make contact at two points on my face, which helps stabilize them.
I have found that the low dispersion glass advertised in some brands really does make a difference.
I did a little experiment by setting up a tripod and looking at the detail of a distant object.
I compared two 20-60 spotters (Vortex Viper and Bushnell Elite) and a 11x Maven bino (which are heavy and kept in the car), and some 10x Tract binos (these are my primary field binos).
Those all have low dispersion glass and of good design. Though the spotting scopes produced bigger images, I could see just as much detail with the lower power binos.
When I then tried some poorer quality binons/spotter the detail was lost.

Heat waves/mirage happen from the sun heating the ground. Air that touches the ground heats up and then rises. The hot rising air is of a lower density than the ambient air and so creates a distortion. This effect is greatest just above the ground, and so looking over long flat distances on a hot sunny day creates a lot of distortion and renders most scopes useless.
If on the other hand you are looking across a valley then most of the distortion is well below the line of sight and the effect is much lower. Overcast also helps, since the soil surface is not being heated as much.
All the pronghorn hunters out there likely have a lot of input on this topic.

So, at least with my limited experience, I would only use a spotter if I was looking long distances over cool air and preferably across valleys instead of over flat terrain.
At least until some innovative company creates an adaptive optic spotting scope to correct for heat waves (just like astronomical telescopes do to correct for atmospheric distortions).

 

[JustinsDad]

I thought I had good binos until I spent the $1900 and got a Swarovski. Now I see better just with my binos than my old spotting scope. The spotting scope is still useful because of the magnification but I know when I upgrade my spotting scope I’ll use it more often again and I’ll be more efficient. Wasting hours on an animal that turns out to be not worthy of shooting sucks. Well it doesn’t totally suck because a wasted day hunting is better than a good day at work. But you get my point. I suggest spending the money to get good binos and spotting scopes. Both serve a purpose and I believe you need both.

 

[Trial153]

Binos on a tripod

 

[mrcowboy]

15x56 binos with tripod.

 

[prhunter]

15x56 binos with tripod.

X2 on the above

 

[schmalts]

15x56 binos with tripod.

I never understood it until I did it decades ago on my first southern AZ hunt. Buddy had a pair of Doctor Optics 15X porro prisms and they were pretty nice for the day. If you spend hours sitting and glassing the big binos are the only way to keep you from eye strain you get from only using one eye with a spotter.

 

[Mtnhunter1]

Big binos truly have their place as does a spotting scope. That said, my pack will usually have a spotter and light tripod for breaking down the distant landscape and to see "whats-what" when a critter is spotted.

 

[kiwi hunter]

i use 10x binos (swaro)and a 20-40 spotting scope which is good on 20 power up to 2k away,the low power is very clear,enough to give me detail on tahr