Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Which 15x bino!?

bankwalker,

I'm going to dissent from most opinion here over the past 15 years -- buy the glass you can afford when you can afford it and run it. If the time is right, buy it and save no more.

My Minox were less than $600 and they are very good. Why didn't I save for the Swaros? Because life is short, resources are finite, and seasons change. Learning to glass is the key to open country hunting and I wanted to get in the game.

There are only so many days when one is strong and circumstances allow for outdoor enjoyment. It's not about hardware. Hunting with your eyes is a whole new world of fun, and you will observe things you would have never seen otherwise. Things you would have missed waiting for savings to double, and quadruple. Glassing is more about skill than optics, if you start with a glass that is viable. Good glassers will outperform beginners on any glass. And nobody gets good without time behind the optic. Waiting for a heavier purse delays this.

Keep in mind that a 15x bino is a specialty machine which will require a good quality tripod. Like rifles and scopes, they go together. Only you cannot put a good 15 on a cheap tripod and get any performance at all. Tripods are simply a necessity.

So get your gear and enjoy it. If it does not pan out, sell it and recover some of your cash. By the time you know how to glass well, you may be able to afford better. Or you may decide to keep the good glass and buy,for example, a $750 landowner tag and chase an animal you would have otherwise never been been able to.

When my Minox were brand new, my hunting buddy, a new hunter and friend, and I found and chased good elk in amazing country for several days because of that glass. On another hunt it took hours of glassing the same 10 acres of mesquite desert to find a sleepy javelina that we eventually stalked and shot. It was classic American big game hunting made possible because I bought the best I could and used it.

Could I have found more animals with Swaros? Probably not. Would I be a better overall glasser with Swaros? Yes. Could I have gone to Alaska and fished for salmon -- twice -- if I made a habit of buying the very best gear every time? No.

So get solid quality and don't look back, look forward. When affording great glass is no longer such a big deal, you'll probably give these away anyway, and be the richer.