Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Any input on a decent 8x monocular?

I already have some 6x32 Katmais and Yosemites, but always wondered about having a monocular for even lighter use and easier to stuff in a pocket in the deer stand. I don't want those cheapo 8x25 monoculars.

Looking at the Vortex 8x36:

http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/vortex.pl?page=vortexsolo8x36monocular

And the Zen Ray 8X42:

http://www.cameralandny.com/optics2/zenray.pl?page=zenray-zrshd-m8x42

They are within $15 of each other, anyone have any experience with either? I'm thinking the Zen might be getting a little large though....

Haven't used any of the above monoculars. The reviews on the birders' site seem to give Zen ray 8x42 thumb up.

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=180836

I would get the Zen Rays

Using a monocular is an interesting concept. I have never used one or any of my friends. I would believe that the lack of depth inherit with a single tube would be a problem. Yet we all use spotting scopes for long distance viewing. Of course, the Big Eye concept which I have used in Arizona is a step up from a spotting scope. How well do they work?

For long term glassing and gazing, they don't work too well. Your hand is a little too shakey for comfortable long-term viewing. I have no idea how people use those silly 10x monoculars- I wish I could find a high quality 7x or even 6x....

But for bowhunting (which is what I use them for), where all I need is a quick look when I see a glimmmer of horns or something like that out in the woods, a monocular can work really well.

They are smaller than binocs, and they leave one eye unused. Some say using only one eye is a drawback, but for bowhunting I found it can be quite useful. Several times I've had a doe or several deer right near my stand and I want to look 80yds through the woods with optics. With binocs, since both your eyes are in the cups of the binocs, you don't really know what the deer close to you are doing. It is hard to know when the close deer are looking other directions so that you can lower your arms because both eyes are in your binocs. With a monocular, you can use your 'free eye' to easily look around close to you while still having the monocular up to your other eye....

I've long thought about a monocular, if only a reasonably priced one were obtainable. Reason being, even after Lasik, my right eye does not focus like the left eye. Left eye is 20-25, right eye is 20-100, but no matter what, when I look thru binocs, I'm using the left barrel only. This is the reason I won't buy alpha grade binocs; can only use 1/2 of em! This sucks, but maybe a GOOD, affordable monocular would work. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated, pro or con. Thanks again.

Forgot to mention, this problem has been since day one; not really anything can be done. I'm just used to it.