Fresh start with optics for western hunts

I've gone through this cycle with spotting scopes where I start shopping at the low end, decide its more worthwhile to look at higher-end optics, get confused with so much choice, and eventually decide not to spend the money - resulting in a lack of a good spotter. Currently my only optics consists of 10x42 Diamondbacks, which are kind of my beaters for whitetail hunting, leaving in the truck etc. When I got them I was saving for our first home, and western hunting was not on the horizon.

Now, with the intent of some serious backcountry DIY hunts in the next few years, I'm back to looking at some good glass. Since this new style of hunting requires a bit of an investment in new gear, I'm wondering where my dollars are best spent. I guess my uses are a major factor, so here they are:

- I live in the sticks with a really cool view off the back deck, so recreational viewing up to 3-4 miles, scouting locally, mostly from truck or ATV etc
- Digiscoping - lots of wildlife to take photos of in the off-season and on our upland trips
- Range shooting up to 500 yards
- WY pronghorn, CO Elk, Montana and Idaho mule deer over the next 5 years, the usual range of DIY western hunts
- I wear glasses, so a good exit pupil makes a big difference to me. The Diamondbacks are frustrating in this regard, and I usually take off the glasses if I can.

I started off looking the Diamondback 20-60x60, but seeing the shortcomings in my binos in that range, decided the 11-33x50 Razor would be more wise, in a similar price bracket but with much nicer glass. Then I got into the whole 50mm vs 65mm debate and questioning if 33x magnification is enough - now I'm up around $750-$900 for a gen 1 Razor, which is starting to push the budget, given the horrid CAD-USD exchange rate.

Then got to thinking maybe it makes more sense to upgrade my binos and invest in a good tripod and save the spotting scope for later. Although it would be fun to dink around with in the off-season, the spotting scope would eat up my budget for new binos for at least two years, so its one or the other for now, and for glassing and local hunting, the binos are probably going to see more use.

All that brings me back to square 1. Do I just stick with what I have for now?

Can anyone lend me some sanity in these choices? If you were starting from scratch with a modest budget, where would you put your bucks first?

Get new binos and a good tripod! You will use them much more than a spotter IMO.

cahunter805 said:

Get new binos and a good tripod! You will use them much more than a spotter IMO.

Click to expand...

What cahunter said....

MN Public Hunter said:

What cahunter said....

Click to expand...

Yep!

I’ll echo the same. Get the best Binos you can along with a tripod and adapter so you can mount the binos on it

Anybody use one of these 2x doublers for bino's? I've often wondered how they would do on my 12x50's.

Another vote for the upgraded binos and tripod. I recently got the Vortex Summit and it is really nice. Light and quickly folds out. Plus it can be used sitting on the ground with binos.
I don't take my spotter on backcountry trips anymore. Not really worth the weight vs use.

FWIW, I got the Vipers over the razors as I didn't see much upgrade when I played with them for the money. I really like them. If you are LEO or military, they will get you 40% off too.

I agree mostly with the statement to first get a decent set of binos. I'm not a believer that you have to have alpha glass to have a good experience or be successful. I have been careful to pick up great deals on used optics that have served me well. I currently use a pair of Leupold gold ring switch powers (10,17x42 i honestly do not understand why these are not more popular) that I picked up for $500. I use my binos much much more than my spotter, but I have used my spotter more and more over the years. Several times this year I was very happy to have a spotter when trying to verify if I could see small 6" or 8" patch of hair through a hole in vegitation. I have both a Nikon ED50mm and a Leupold 60mm gold ring. I paid rougjly $400 for the Nikon and $500 for a used 60mm Leupold gold ring. I thought I would sell my 50 when I bough the 60, but I really like the compact size and weight for backpack hunts and I dont feel like I am sacrificing too much. To be honest I think the 50mm scopes are under rated. On a different note, I'm not a fan of 80mm scopes for backpack hunting. If you are considering one see if you can barrow or rent one for a hunt to see if you like it. My brother purchased one this year and its heavy and long. It was amazing how many times he elected to leave it at the truck.

I agree with bino comments re: hunting, but I don’t find 10x or 12x sufficient for 500 yd range use, for that OP probably still has a need for spotter.

Another view (PI). While hunting, almost everyone uses binocs much more than a spotter. However, your view from home would make good use of a spotter almost daily, not just during hunting season. If your current binocs work and you can hunt w them, shop for a used spotter of good quality and enjoy it every day. IMO a cheap spotter is more useless than cheap binocs, having owned several of each. I bought a Theron Saker spotter in the HT classifieds from a Jolly Old Elf for less than the price of a decent used rifle scope, and it does all I want.

You can upgrade the binocs next year, or maybe they break and the warranty helps you.

It may have been mentioned before, but nice binos and a tripod go a long way. If you're looking for a trophy a long way off I'd go with a spotter, but if you're just looking for a legal animal, binocs are usually just fine. That said, I used a spotter for the first time this season and was able to pick out two barely legal bucks amongst a group of does probably a mile away. For that it was nice to have.

Until you have better binos don't worry about the spotter.

Diamondbacks are great for truck binos but you will want more for your hunt. Just depends on your budget. You can improve quite a bit even for under $200. If you can bump that budget to 300-400 then you will have some really good options.

So for hunting it seems like better binos on a tripod are hands down more important. I can see the thinking there for sure. I'll have to get my hands on a few and see where the sweet spot for me is in terms of improved glass over the DBs. Honestly the diamondbacks were such an upgrade over the cheap compacts I had before, I couldn't really see the need to go any higher, but now a few years into them and I can see the room for improvement optics wise, especially when looking through them for longer periods.

We have a vortex spotter at work, I can borrow it over the holidays and see if it's worth having for around the house, looking at the mountains and whatnot. Not sure what model it is, gotta go have a look at it.

Maybe the biggest improvement overall would be to get Lasik, everything would look better without glasses. But i'm afraid to lose night vision, and dry eyes, working in front of a computer most days.

pgidley said:

I'll have to get my hands on a few and see where the sweet spot for me is in terms of improved glass over the DBs.

Click to expand...

1. Be sure to consider Maven, all the optics quality, half the price.
2. I have loved my lasiks for the last 18 years!

I will echo the sentiments here. When the time comes, do NOT go cheap on the spotter. I've owned 2 and I would have been much better off having saved the money I spent on them and got something decent.

MJE2083 said:

I will echo the sentiments here. When the time comes, do NOT go cheap on the spotter. I've owned 2 and I would have been much better off having saved the money I spent on them and got something decent.

Click to expand...

Yep. And I discovered this past season a spotter can save you miles of unnecessary travelling. mtmuley

What will you be hunting out west? My last few years I've gotten by just fine with my old beater Redfields. That's on archery mule deer, rifle whitetail, and WY antelope hunting (and a bunch of midwest whitetail hunts). My advice is that your diamondbacks will probably work just fine for you on your first trip as far as binos go, unless you plan on spending hours and hours behind glass. I just haven't found myself sitting in a spot and glassing for that terribly long.

HOWEVER, if you're set on upgrading, these guys' advice above is solid. I'd trust them.

I've only hunted the east my first two years hunting, about 15 yrs lod and today I'm coming 73. Those first two years I used a mod 93 Mauser in 6.5x55 with open sight's. But I've seen what a bunch of different guy's hunt with and the scope's they use. Why won't the same scope's generally used in the east work in the west? I've never hunted with a bigger scope than a 3-9x and generally use either a 2-7x or love my 2 3/4x

Don Fischer said:

I've only hunted the east my first two years hunting, about 15 yrs lod and today I'm coming 73. Those first two years I used a mod 93 Mauser in 6.5x55 with open sight's. But I've seen what a bunch of different guy's hunt with and the scope's they use. Why won't the same scope's generally used in the east work in the west? I've never hunted with a bigger scope than a 3-9x and generally use either a 2-7x or love my 2 3/4x

Click to expand...

For my first 8 years of hunting, I didn't own a rifle. Bow and shotgun only, and I usually just stuck to the bow season. When I moved to an area with a rifle season, the thick brush and my love of old guns led to a nice collection of old lever guns. They all wear peep sites, no glass on any of them. Perfect for that style of hunting. Now having moved to an area with more agriculture, I hunt with a pre-64 model 70 with an old 4X weaver. Hasn't caused me any issues out to 200 yards, and very enjoyable to hunt with. This year I picked up a Tikka T3x in 25-06 and a Leupold Vx-3i, so getting used to shooting at longer range. All that bow-hunting and brush hunting makes me feel the need to get in nice and close, and that's half the fun for me. But close is relative, and I expect longer shots out west. I'll likely put another Vx-3 r similar on the old .270 for those trips.

OhHeyThereBen said:

What will you be hunting out west? My last few years I've gotten by just fine with my old beater Redfields. That's on archery mule deer, rifle whitetail, and WY antelope hunting (and a bunch of midwest whitetail hunts). My advice is that your diamondbacks will probably work just fine for you on your first trip as far as binos go, unless you plan on spending hours and hours behind glass. I just haven't found myself sitting in a spot and glassing for that terribly long.

HOWEVER, if you're set on upgrading, these guys' advice above is solid. I'd trust them.

Click to expand...

No firm plans yet, but thinking we'll start with pronghorn or an OTC elk tag this year, mostly just to get out there and get the lay of the land. Then decide where to go based on tags cost and availability etc.

I think I'll get the tripod and pan head first, then decide where to go from there.

To me a spotter would come in handy if you were an inch counter or hunting in a restriction unit. For me, when any bull elk will do for my first, binos are all I need.

I only use my tripod for my chronograph. I don't need it for my binos.