Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Top Bino's for Big Game Hunting

This is not necessarily true. Generally lighting outside stores is brighter than inside, whether during day or night, the second of because of typical parking-lot lighting. Brighter light makes human eyes pupils shrink, which increases the apparent sharpness of optics.

Often the best test is looking into the dimmest parts of the store, which opens our pupils. These are often in the highest, darkest corners.

Another comment: Have found many of today's better, lower-priced binoculars have superior optics to older, used "alpha" binoculars, and are often just as rugged.

I have a pair of tracts and I really wish I would have got them sooner.
The meopta scopes I have are super clear. I wouldn’t hesitate with meoptas either.

Leica Trinovid HD, Kowa Genesis HD and German Precision Optics are all excellent and can be had for a thou or less. Might also look at Tract. I'm currently comparing a new Leica Triinovid HD, Kowa Genesis HD and Swarovski NL pure right now (all 8 x 42) and the difference in visual acuity between the $3200 Swaro and the other two glasses (each around a thousand) is difficult to discern; its negligible and won't make one bit of difference on a big-game hunt. Pay attention to eye-relief if you wear glasses and FOV is also important. The Kowa Genesis HD 8 x 32 is sweet if you want something compact.

I agree with John
Find the darkest part of a store and look into it

And why I went with the Burris Signatures after reading your positive comments about them. I haven't gotten a hold of any "alpha" glass to compare but doubt it would change my mind. Even my cheap Kowa 6x30 porro's are amazingly good, especially at their price pt..

Try tract toric binos. A lot less money than the big name brands. Quality and glass just as good.

I’ve been eye balling those razors cabelas had a really good deal. I read some reviews though so they kind of turned me off to them. Thank you for your input!

Thank you for your input I have never heard of those brands. I will definitely check them out!

What tripod do you use? Can you use bino adaptors on any kind of binoculars?

I would never buy used binos, I don't care who's they are. I had a pair of Leicas that I took very good care of. I was hunting and dropped them from about 3 ft max onto a grassy spot. I picked them up and they wouldn't focus. I wrote Leica and they honored the warranty, but I had to pay postage both ways, cost about $100. Figured it was worth it since they had cost me so much. Well, I got them back and they appeared fine. Probably the second time I hunted with them, I pulled them out and they were all cattywumpas again. Set them up on a shelve to remind me what POS Leicas are. I see these so called alpha binos costing thousands and wonder why you would buy them unless you're Warren Buffet. The lesser $400-600 binos would do everything you need till legal daylight is over, and if you hunt hard and they break you won't cry.

Three feet??

+1 on glass quality evolving. I was a commercial photographer for a while and I used M-series Leica rangefinders. I had a bunch of older lenses, but newer ones beat them hands down every time. Ultimately I sold all of my old glass and replaced it with the newest stuff I could find.

Also, I found that different people see colors in different ways. What you see as green, I might see as more brown. I have a theory that this is why some people swear by one of the alpha makers and scoff at the others--the lens coatings render different colors of light differently.


Okie John

Three feet?? Yes, 3 ft. I wouldn't have believe it if it didn't happen. But more shocking was after repair, they broke from no use. Point I'm trying to make is I could have sold them when I got them back from repair and someone would have thought they had a deal. Why the repair didn't take I have no idea, but I wasn't going to spend another $100 on them. I got a new pair of Pentax for $400, and they been great and have held up.

Lots of good suggestions here. Good binoculars can actually make the difference seeing elk in the oak brush & killing them or scanning & moving on with lesser glass. Took almost 7 years for my Swarovski SLC’s to pay off that way - but got 2 cows my sharp eyed son in law couldn’t see with his binos.

New Vortex Razor, Meopta Meeostar or others suggested.

Used Swaro SLC, Leica, Zeiss.

Take a little time to look through several types to see what your eyes prefer. I like Zeiss glass in scopes better than Leupold but think Swaros are better binoculars for my old eyes & use a Leica rangefinder

Doug at Cameraland is where I look first.

This is great advice. I used to think that trying optics inside of a store was pointless but after reading John's posts and book on optics it made me realize that we often fool ourselves, even though we "see it with our own eyes". Toilet paper tubes to expand the pupils can be... eye opening?!

There are great optical "targets" in most stores too. And not necessarily resolution charts.

Kowa Genesis.
Best kept secret in premium optics, as proven by this thread.

Buy these. I was going to but went a bit cheaper https://cameralandny.com/shop/brand...0138-9ca3-00163e90e196?variation=2775153

Where are you seeing this? It doesn't show that price when I go to their website.

I was lucky and happened upon someone who was selling his one year old Swarovski EL 10 x 42 glass in order to get the same model with a rangefinder and he needed money fast. I know you take a chance anytime you buy used, but the pics looked great, my conversation with him on the phone was spot on, and I am aware of the great reputation that Swarovski service department has. Even if I had to shell out a bit of cash to get them repaired it would have been worth it at the price I got them for. And there are deals like that every day somewhere if you keep your eyes peeled and ask the right questions IMO.

However, I also agree there is an awful lot of really great glass brand new that is easily in the OP's budget that will work well for any hunting you plan to do. Some great suggestions above but the best one is to handle them in the store to see how they work for you before buying. You can compare several in a short time and start to narrow it down before making a final decision- you're going to have these a long time if you pick well the first time. A good example of what I'm discussing is my son tried my Leupold Porro Prism 10x40 binos as I was thinking about giving them to him several years ago and shopping for new glass. Everything about them was fine for me, but I always had a hankering for Alpha glass after trying some of my buddys' glass on different hunts, even though there wasn't much difference to my eyes- what can I say? I'm an equipment loony. My son tried my Leupolds and found the barrels wouldn't adjust enough to line up properly with his eyes for long glassing. He could live with it for short periods, but it was a no go . He bought some Bushnell ED that are very nice glass for the money and they have worked well for him but he dropped them last year and now he is on the lookout for new glass...
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