[Boilerjack22]

I getting old, there are times at 50 feet, I can not see hit on a target, so out come the binocular. I had a pair of $20 Tascos, that I got at Walmart, but they were junk, last week the left side just stop working, so I broke down a started looking for a new pair. I ended up with a pair of Vortex Crossfire HD, 10 x 42, they work a lot better and are a lot better made, than the Tascos.

 

[podenco]

Nice. I was looking at these sort of bins lately too, and I ended up with their Diamondback HD 8x32s, which seem pretty great for the money so far. For general use without having to baby them or stress about anything, they're basically perfect.

 

[gmd1950]

Won a set of Zeiss bino's from Grateful Doug's place several years ago, the difference between good and great bino's is amazing but for the price most of us are happy with good. I have a pair of Carson's 10x42'a that are good, the Zeiss HD's 10x42s focus down to feet not just yards.

 

[podenco]

@gmd1950
Yeah, it's definitely a case of diminishing returns when it comes to glass. 10X the money doesn't even get you close to 10X the performance; sometimes it feels more like 10% as long as you stay away from the absolute crappiest stuff.

The nice thing about decent optics is that they tend to keep their value fairly well, so you can buy used and it's basically a deposit on a free rental. Or at least that's what I tell myself, because there's no way I'm selling the Zeiss HT on my big-game rifle.

Binocular-wise, though, the cheap-ish Vortex does the job just fine for now. Maybe I'll upgrade to something fancier if I ever start doing some serious glassing, but I've tried alpha glass and I don't feel I'm giving up that much under most conditions.

 

[gmd1950]

Trust me I'd be very unlikely to spend a grand on bino's but the difference in low light and even fog is quite amazing, sitting in a box blind one morning at first light in a fairly thick fog I was watching 3 deer come into a field 300 yards away and my partner swore I was crazy as he saw nothing in his Leupold 4.5-14x scope.

 

[Rocinante]

I suppose bragging rights has a lot to do with people who buy the big name binoculars.

I find that the 8X42 Vortex Diamondback meets my needs just fine.

I think this binocular cost me about $180.

I'm bragging about that........(more money for guns and ammo).

 

[podenco]

I mean… you do generally get what you pay for when it comes to optics, it’s just that the gains start getting expensive real fast. If I were buying something strictly for the bragging rights, I don’t think fancy binoculars would be my first choice.

 

[Cold Iron]

I gave up on Tasco in 81 or 82 when I lost the opportunity to shoot a black bear in Wa. State. Took a spill in the river while I was fly fishing for Steelhead and wearing a Big Bore 94 .375 on my back with a sling. Came around a bend and there was a bear and my scope was half filled with water when I went to shoot it. Haven't touched a Tasco since.

Have a Vortex Crossfire scope on a Springer .22 from back when Vortex first started out and never had any problems with it.

In 2014 bought a pair of Diamondback HD 10x42 binoculars for a lady friend, pretty decent glass for the price. I paid $165 for them back then according to Amazon. I have a pair of Viper HD 12x50 for myself which I really like there is a marked improvement over the Diamondback binos. But wish I would have gotten the 10x the 12x require me to use a harness to steady them. The more time you spend behind glass the more important better glass becomes. I shoot a lot of Eagles, I heard they taste like chicken.

Until the end of the month EuroOptics is giving 50% off MSRP on Vortex optics to Military\LE. Which puts the Vortex Golden Eagle HD 15-60x52 ECR-1 at $1,250 but have a hard time justifying it to myself. Today a new Athlon Argos BTR 10-40X56mm is scheduled for delivery. Not even going to mount it at first and if I am not happy with it will order the Golden Eagle and send the Athlon back. I've been very pleased with the Vortex glass that I have so far.

 

[Boilerjack22]

I’m on my second pair of the Vortex binoculars, the first pair had a lenses failure. Apparently they do not bounce. About a week ago, I was at the range, the guy next to me asked to use them, he had just took some shots and wanted a better target view, it was not to his liking, so he threw the binoculars against the floor swearing. They hit with a loud whack, he immediately realized the serious error, he had made. He asked where I got them, I told him, he send his kid to the LGS, 5 miles away, picked a new pair and returned. He apologized profusely, packed up and left. I talked to the range maintenance guy, the guy who threw them is the brother of the club president, he said as it all was on tape, that he would be severely chastised. This has been a great month

 

[crankythunder]

Oh man.................

Picked up a used pair of 8 x 40 Swarovski's and the **** things are strapped to my belt. hardly ever leave the house without them.

Simply breathtaking.

From three feet with the ants picking up potato chips to 300 yards the eagle grabbing dinner its like 'oley "Merde!.

Convinced myself I needed them for hunting to pick out the shooters from the wanna-bees. Its really for the beach for that serious tan line investigation.

Regards,
Crankster

 

[Cold Iron]

Oh man.................

Picked up a used pair of 8 x 40 Swarovski's and the **** things are strapped to my belt. hardly ever leave the house without them.

Its really for the beach for that serious tan line investigation.

Regards,
Crankster

My Grandfather made me give his slide rule back when I decided to not follow in his footsteps at Corning Glass and eventually dropped out of Ceramic Engineering in college for Nuclear Engineering in the Navy.

Swarovski makes some good glass no doubt about it. But for tan lines or lack thereof when pulling into the French Riviera we would fight over the Big Eyes topside.

Made by Kollmorgen Optical in the US but they left Germany when things started to go down downhill before WWII. Very decent glass to say the least.

Not all tan lines or lack of should be seen, don't care how long you have been out to sea. Then again I was young LOL.