Ep. 88: Optics
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As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard-won experiences into tips and tactics that'll get you closer to your ultimate goal, success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is Cutting the Distance.

Welcome back to the podcast. I hope everybody had a great holiday weekend. Last week on the podcast, I answered a few listener questions, but this week, I want to help you prepare for any upcoming hunt and dive into some gear talk while simultaneously answering a question that I get a lot.

And that question is, what type of optics do I need? If I had to pick one piece of hunting gear that has really enhanced hunter success probably more than anything, I'd have to go with optics or at least the advancement in optics. Because optics play a huge factor and a big difference in the outcome of the hunt. Someone who is good at spotting game has a lot better chance of getting into range and punching a tag.

But there are a lot of different choices on the market, and it seems endless with the possibilities. So this week, I'm going to break down the optics category and go over the uses and importance of different features that will help you match what you need with your hunting style. We're going to cover everything from binoculars, spotting scopes, high magnification binos, rangefinders, rangefinding binoculars, and rifle scopes.

But before we do that, I want to share a story of one of the bigger bulls I've taken and how optics in a few seconds made all the difference.

The story takes place in Eastern Nevada and is actually one of my first elk tags in the state. Took me a while to draw and I was really excited about the tag. It was a rifle elk tag, but unfortunately I only had a very limited time to hunt the tag because I was committed to guiding hunters in Montana through the end of the season, which was pretty much Thanksgiving. And then had a few days at the end before the Nevada season closed to, uh, to, to hunt for myself.

So my plan was I packed up my stuff after my last day of guiding, actually tagged my guys out a little bit early and was able to, to cruise down there a little bit earlier and was meeting my parents down there because my dad had that tag maybe probably four years earlier. And I'd actually never even hunted the area. This was way before there was a lot of online map scouting or anything like that. So I was just going to use a little bit of his Intel, meet up with him, and then we were going to go out and start glassing. So

make it down there, drive all day, get set up. First morning that I can hunt, we're kind of taking a look at the mountain from a long ways away. I'd say we're probably five miles from

where we were looking. We actually, we're near the trucks. We set up like, I don't know, like camp chairs and our spotting scopes on tripods and just started covering the mountain, just gridding the areas where we thought we'd find out. Not having a lot of intel. This was kind of the first day in here. We're just trying to get a lay of the land and see what might be around. So we're glassing and

I end up seeing a couple of cow elk move out of it. It's like really thick timber. Just there's one little opening. So I see a couple of cow elk and I'm like, Ooh, cows. I'm like talking about spotting cows. And my parents are with me and they're glassing some different stuff. And like, Oh, I got some milk over here. And my mom's like, Oh, is it by this one pile of rocks? I was like, uh, no, it's more in the trees. It's like, Oh, I think I see one by the rocks. And I'm pretty sure it's a bull. I'm like, wait, what?

So now I'm like, okay, well, does she? I don't know. My mom loves to go. She's always like gone out with us when hunting, but she's not a hunter herself, but definitely loves like spotting. And she's always like a really lucky spotter. If there's going to be somebody that spots something on the trip, it's probably going to be her. And this is like fairly early in the morning on their first day out. So I'm like, okay, let's see.

And I get look through her scope and sure enough, there's a bull in there, but her scope isn't as good as mine. So I get my scope set up, zoom in. I'm like, Ooh, that's a pretty good bull. Long main beams, long,

big six by six spaced out long times. All right. I know the area has some giants, but with very limited time, maybe four days to hunt and having never been in the area before, and now having like a pretty decent bull spotted, I'm like, that looks good enough to me. I'll definitely shoot that bull. So yeah,

Now we're the trouble is we're about five miles away and this bull. So we watch him. We're like, okay, is he gonna, what's he going to do? Because not knowing their patterns in there, I figured he's going to move into some timber and bed. He's all by himself. It's way well after the rut. So the bull it's pretty cold morning. The bull actually moves toward the timber and then kind of cuts through a few patches, watch him. And then he just plops down beds like sweet, but this is just a sea of really thick pinyon juniper trees. Um,

Like, all right, I'm going to go up the canyon. You guys can stay here and watch. I'm going to go up the canyon and see if I can respot him. It's pretty brushy. And I get to a spot where I think I should, you know, from five, what we were looking at five miles away. And it looks about right from the landmarks that I took in my mind. I pop up the opposite side of where the bull is, sit down up against a rock pile and start glassing with my binoculars. And I'm just like looking where it looks like he was nothing.

So I figure maybe he moved, but I just decided to keep looking in there, keep grading it with my binoculars. I'm locked off real well. And then I see something and I'm like, that is not a stick. So I get out my spotting scope, zoom it in. And sure enough, it's just the top few tines of this bull. He's bedded. He must be sleeping as this head kind of down and the back two tines of his whale tail are the only thing sticking up above this pinyon juniper.

I'm like, all right. So I move up the hill a little bit more, get a good position. And now I've got the spotting scope on him. I'm judging him. I'm like, yeah, that's about...

the minimum type of bull I was looking for, but I'll definitely give it a try because I don't have a lot of time and I don't want to eat tag soup on this tag that took me so long to draw. So I make a plan. My dad actually started working up the Canyon behind me and I waved him up. I was like, all right, just keep an eye on the bull and I'm going to go up there. I don't know if I'll be able to see you or not, but if he ends up moving and

stand up and wave your arms. So if I can look back and see the spot, I'll know that he's moved at this point. He's still about a, I'd say probably close to a mile away and a lot of elevation gain to get up to where he's at. So I just decided I'm going to hustle before he gets up and moves off into the thick stuff. I want to get there while he's still bedded. So load up my pack and just start moving super steep hill. And I'm just going

climbing up, climbing up. I've got a good wind. The wind's like quartering the direction. So I go up the canyon further and work into the wind. I just want to make sure I'm high enough on that point where I can pop over and he's there. So I start working into that spot. Everything feels good. I made some good landmarks. The thing that saved me is there's just one tree that was different than all the others, a different type of tree. It was like an Aspen tree coming out of all these pinyon juniper, which gave me a really good idea of where he was at.

And so I get over and I start creeping up. There's like one ridge left to where I can probably get to take a shot. And I'm going to be pretty close because it's kind of tight quarters in here. So I start working my way over there. I'm above where I think the elk is and I've got a good wind. And then I hear just rocks rolling. I'm like, oh crap. Well, I knew there was a scree slide just next to that bull. I'm like, oh man, this is not good. So he definitely spooked. I run as fast as I can to the edge of

to see into the basin. And sure enough, there's that bull boogieing across the hillside, but it's a scree slope, which is just a bunch of small, like loose rocks, just this big, huge scree slide. And that's where the bull decides to take his exit.

Like, okay, well, I, I, I pull up my binoculars. I had range finding binoculars, range him, get down. It was like real fast action because I didn't have a lot of time. So I zoom my scope all the way up. I had ballistic lines in it. So I knew where it hit and the bulls moving across like perfectly broadside across the scree field across from me. And I know that he's working into that timber. And once he hits that it's over, I,

I kind of prop the rifle. I'm laying, I guess it's probably on my legs. It's so steep. I'm kind of shooting downhill. I'm tracking the bull through my scope. I swing just past the bull and I've got a 20 mile per hour wind mark on there. And I just put that right on his shoulder, slowly squeeze the trigger. Boom. I hear the thwap. I look up and the bull's just tumbling down the mountain, stone dead. Perfect shot, high shoulder.

I'm like, sweet. So I radio my dad. I'm like, Hey, I got the bull. You guys want to start working up here? I'm going to work down to it, work down to the bull. And sure enough, one shot down, perfect shot, went through high shoulder, took out both lungs and it was just awesome. But it was one of those hunts where everything came down to

spotting him from a long ways away, getting in position, having the right type of rifle scope and being able to make a tricky quick shot super efficiently, super fast and everything ended up working out. And at the time that was the best bull I'd ever taken.

One question I get asked just a ton is what optics should I use for this type of hunt? Do I need a spotting scope? What do you use for long range glassing? How far are my optics good for like how far should I be looking? Just various things like that. And so what I wanted to do instead of just maybe giving you specific optics that I like.

doing a huge overview of optics in general, running through all the categories of optics, and then breaking them down based on like, when I, when I think about optics, what the uses are for each of those, and then tailoring, making it so you can tailor that toward the type of hunting you like to do. Maybe you're thinking you've got to, I mean, just like everybody, you've got a certain budget. It's like, well, do I spend more money on a spotting scope or a pair of binoculars? Do I get a range finder or a really good rifle scope? I mean,

As you get into hunting, if you're, if you're, especially if you're new to it, there's so much gear, there's so many things that are very expensive. Most of the things that guys acquire is over a lifetime of hunting and, you know, everyone wants to add to their kit in a certain way. So I figured if I give you this big, broad view of optics in general, then it'll help you kind of pinpoint and focus on the things that are important, the things that maybe you might be looking into just for the type of hunting you do. And then maybe some stuff that might just be additional on top of that, or, uh,

maybe aid in certain types of hunts another way. One thing I do always like to mention as well is we're

I work with Vortex Optics. It's a sponsor of mine. I mean, because of that, I get to use pretty much everything that they make. I've sampled in some way, which I think is awesome because it gives me a good breadth of their entire product category. So I can really speak to the different types of optics. But I always like to disclose those kinds of things whenever I talk about gear and other things, because I just think it's important. But also there's a reason that I like to work with them. I think that they've got a really good offering of a lot of great optics that are in a really good price range as well.

I've been working with them for a really long time. So a lot of my experience lately has been with these type optics. So if you hear me mention certain ones that I've used, I can kind of talk about those optics a little bit more than other ones that I haven't got to use. But even when I'm guiding or whatever, if somebody has a different pair, I always like to check things out, try a bunch of different stuff.

But more focus than the specific optic on this is just kind of the idea behind each optic. So we're going to break it down into categories. We're going to start with binoculars first. We're going to go binoculars, then we're going to talk about spotting scopes, high magnification binos, rangefinders, rangefinding binos, and rifle scopes. So let's start with binoculars because if you're only going to listen to a certain portion of this podcast, I think binoculars are the most important.

If I were to split up, let's say you've got a budget on an optics budget. I think that the majority of that budget should go into binoculars. And here's the reason. There's a couple reasons behind it. But first of all, the binoculars are when I'm out hunting my eyes.

I can't stress enough how much I use my optics when I'm out there, particularly binoculars. Everything else is kind of incidental to that. There's a lot of hunts that I go on where I actually just take binoculars because I'm trying to do some weight saving or other things. But binoculars are what I look through. People are always amazed like, oh, how did you spot that? And I think they constantly think that I'm only looking with my eyes. It's like my binoculars are to my face only.

More often than they are not even when i'm in close terrain when i'm moving through the trees i'm putting up my binoculars I'm scanning when i'm walking i'm looking at every hill i'm throwing my binoculars up constantly If i'm driving and checking out a new spot pull over get out throw up the throw up the binos And because of this it's like i'm looking through that glass Almost all day and so I want something that's high quality because high quality glass tends to be a little more clear a little easier to spot and just a little bit more eye relief and

I've talked about it in past podcasts where I say kind of like the varying levels of optics. You can have one company that has something in the $150 price range up to $1,500 or more price range. So what's the difference in trying to find that good balance? I think that you really get what you pay for when it comes to glass. So if I were to pick one category where I want a little bit higher end, I'm going to go with binoculars for that. Now,

Binoculars are broken down into two ways. So you've got your magnification and then your field of view, which is your objective lens diameter. So your magnification is like your zoom. How many times more are you seeing what you're looking through?

So we're going to break down binoculars down into the categories. I would say the gold standard is 10 by 42. So that's 10 power magnification, 42 field of view. So that's how wide you're seeing through that single look. Now, if we bumped that up, the objective lens up to a 50 millimeter lens, we're going to get a lot more field of view. So through looking at one thing, like looking through those binoculars, you can see more out of that peripheral vision. It widens that view.

I think that for Western hunting application, 10 by 42s are just going to be the go-to. If there happens to be a 10 by 50, that's great as well. A little bit wider field of view, but 10 power seems to be kind of that sweet spot. And here's why. It's really good because it's enough magnification to look over long distances. I use my 10 power binoculars to glass legitimately five miles or more.

Now it might seem like, how do you even, what size do they look like from there? Things are very small, but there's certain areas you can look and really start to pick out animals, especially when it comes to elk. 10 power is also really versatile because when you get into timber, it's not too much magnification for those closeup views, but we're going to go over other optics as well. So the next category for magnification, one that's really popular is an 8x42mm.

This is a little bit less magnification than the 10x42s, but the same field of view. Now you got to think though, if you're zoomed in only eight times and you have the same 42 millimeter objective lens, you're going to see a lot wider through the eights. Eight power are really great for a lot of applications.

The nice thing about that wider field of view, but still a decent magnification is when you're looking at a hill, especially in that mid range that like what could be far, maybe up to a thousand yards or closer, you get more of that hill in one glance. And that helps you start to pick things out a little bit easier. Another great thing about the eight power is for guys that spend a lot of their time hunting more timbered areas. Let's say you're, you're primarily a tree stand hunter and

or white tail hunter you're hunting in areas with a little bit or a lot of timber and then you're going to come out west every few years whatever this is a really good pair of binoculars because you've got that more field of view in that timber or even if you're a western hunter that hunts like more timbered areas you've got that field of view it's still plenty of magnification to spot things at distance and you've just got like a little bit wider field of view when it comes to

your other hunts where you're maybe more stationary, but you can start picking things out in the distance behind brush and trees, using them from a tree stand or in a more timbered area. So that's a really great optic to have. And I would say that that's probably the standard one that most guys outside of like Western hunting applications gravitate toward.

Now in recent years, 12 by 50s, I'm going to put these in with like standard chest pack binoculars. So there's high magnification binoculars that we'll talk about later, but I think 12 power is kind of the top end that you would want for a chest, like your go-to everyday carry binocular.

I hunted exclusively with 12 by fifties for a very long time. Now I think they're, they really excel in a quite a few different types of hunts, but primarily like back country, real open country hunts. Some people worry about the 12 power magnification being a little too much in close range in timber, but,

I use them still like when I'm, when I'm still hunting elk hunting, I'll use them in the timber as well. As I'm moving through glassing, it is a little bit more zoomed. You have a lot less field of view. The 50 objective kind of helps you see a little bit more in that field of view.

but that 12 power is going to be a lot tighter when it comes to glassing something close. It takes a lot more time to glass an area that's closer with 12 by 50s than it does eight by 42s. Eight by 42s, you can throw up, you see a large portion of the hill and you can pick things out easier. If you're at a close range and you've got those 12 by 50s, it's going to take a little bit longer, but when you, you're going to be a lot more zoomed in, you're going to have a lot more clarity of what's in what you're actually looking at.

I really like those higher magnification binoculars for Alpine type hunting. So back country hunts, especially where it's, it's high Alpine. I know that most of my glassings might be long distances. I'm glassing in areas that might be more open or highly glass intensive, uh,

hunts where it's like, okay, I'm going to be behind my glass for a long time. That extra magnification is really nice, especially when I put it on a tripod. But I don't think that the 12 power is too high to handhold. I've hand, I handheld them for a very long time with a lot of success. So on those kinds of hunts, I actually preferred the 12 by 50s because it kind of cut a little bit of weight having to bring maybe

spotting scope or something else depending on the type of hunt and we'll get into that next when we start talking about spotting scopes but 12 by 50s are really good especially if you're high alpine maybe places like Alaska where you might be glassing over really long distances of maybe tundra or like open scape

Even things like backcountry hunts in Colorado or open country like Nevada, that more desert arid type stuff where it's really, really glassing intensive and you've got just a higher power binocular on your chest.

on your everyday harness where you can throw those up and get a little bit more magnification or areas where it's maybe you're glassing into real harsh light. So you're trying to glass into maybe underneath patches of junipers from distance or areas where you know you're going to be glassing a long way. 12 by 50 seem to be

So there's three types of binoculars based on magnification, and each one kind of specializes in a different sect of hunting. But I would say that there's not one that wouldn't work for all applications. So what I like to do when I'm thinking about binoculars is...

if it comes down to, okay, I'm getting one pair of binoculars, I would really pick the binocular that fits with the majority of my hunts. Now, most people probably gravitate to the 10x42s because it's the most versatile in a large range of hunting applications. So the next category is going to be high magnification binos. So what that would be is I would say anything over those 12 power binoculars. Popular ones would be 15 power, 15x50s, 18 power or up to 20 power binoculars.

The benefit to high magnification binoculars is it gives you that ability, almost like you're glassing through a spotting scope, but you can leave both eyes open. There's a lot less eye fatigue. They're really good for optics intensive glassing.

I would say that for a lot of hunts, high power binoculars are kind of that in between, between your chest binoculars and your spotting scope. And in many cases, you might need kind of all three. So that does add to the weight, but I will say for very optics intensive hunts, they're really good to have. If you are living in the Southwest or really arid places, high powered, high magnification binoculars are great.

a game changer in many instances. I would put them on the list of needs kind of near the bottom of like that. Once you already have everything else, here's a fun incidental that you can take on those certain trips. Now, if you live in Arizona, maybe Nevada, you've got like your accused deer hunter or one hunt that I use them on more than anything, spring bear hunting. When I'm just sitting all day looking at a hill, that's a certain distance away, trying to pick out something that's about as tall as the brush that I'm looking at.

being able to look through high magnification binoculars. I can just look through them through a longer period of time and it's a lot more comfortable than staring through my handheld binoculars or even a lighter magnification binoculars on the tripod because I can really pick it apart, but it's not as eye straining as looking through a spotting scope. So there are some really, really good hunts that high powered, high magnification binoculars are, I would say an advantage. I

Another hunt that I like to bring them on is I'll have my chest binoculars and there's many hunts where backcountry hunts, maybe more open country where I might not be necessarily trying to nitpick exactly the size of what I'm looking at. I would say, oh, I don't really need a spotting scope, but I do want that extra magnification for verification on what I'm looking at.

at. So there's a lot of back country hunts where I throw those in because they might be a little bit lighter or maybe even the same weight as my spotting scope, but I know that I can look through them longer and I might not know the type of country that I'm getting into, but I know there's going to be some, some good areas where I can use that extra magnification to maybe glass the top of the mountain without having to walk up there or really pick apart some more thick

cover areas with those binoculars for a longer period of time. So there's a lot of hunts where those high magnification binos are really good binocular to have. And I really, I mean, I use that, find myself using those more and more on a lot of hunts where it's really optics intensive. If you live in an area where that's the type of hunting you're going to be doing, maybe this is something that you're going to want to start to look into. And maybe it might even be something that you think about before getting a spotting scope for certain types of places and certain type of hunting.

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Next up, we're going to be talking about spotting scopes. So I think of the spotting scope like this. The spotting scope is in addition to my binoculars.

I think it's very hard if there's, I've, I know guys that do this and it's just, it doesn't really work for me and doesn't really work well for a long period of time. I believe that guys use their spotting scope as their main method of glassing. For me, it just doesn't work because one, you're, you're only one eye focused. So it kind of jacks with your vision a little bit, causes a little bit more eye strain over a long period of time.

And it can be difficult to really focus in. Now, I've developed some tactics where it's a little bit easier to glass with that one eye where I throw my jacket over myself so I can keep both eyes open, but really shade my other off eye so I can focus in on what I'm looking through through the spotting scope. But for me, the spotting scope is primarily eye

Used on hunts where I'm either looking really long distances, being fairly picky when it comes to what I'm looking for, or in an area or a type of hunt that's very glassing intensive. So meaning that I'm using my binoculars a lot, but then maybe I'm at a good glassing vantage and for me to walk over and verify something.

maybe a waste of time when I can just take out my spotting scope and double check what I'm looking at. There's very few hunts where I personally don't take a spotting scope, but the type of spotting scope I prefer to take depends on the type of hunt that I'm doing. Now, I'm very fortunate that I have get to try a lot of spotting scopes and have multiple spotting scopes that I use for various applications.

I would say spotting scopes are similar in the way that you've got your magnification and then your objective lens. And what you're going to get from that is your magnification, you know, have some sort of zoom factor. So some might be 12 to 60 power. Some might be 20 to 80 power.

I would say like a, probably a good mid range spotting scope. We can be like that 15 to 45 power, probably with like a 60 or 65 objective. And what that is is so that objective lens is your outer lens that gives you your field of view.

But what it also does is it's light gathering. So the larger your objective lens, the more light that's going to come in, the better it is at those crepuscular times, morning and evening, or looking into harsh shadows in harsh light. So on the times when spotting scope is really handy, you can

you might think is like morning and evening, but actually I use it a lot middle of the day to look into those bedding areas where I can look at a mountain and say, okay, there's shade right there. Pull out my spotting scope, crank it up to max power and really look underneath the trees, underneath the shadow in that stuff that's real dark, where those animals are going to be at that time of day. I really find the spotting scope helpful for that. So if we're thinking about spotting scopes and their application, like I said, it's more of a verification. So

If I've got a good, a limited entry draw tag, I've got, or I'm hunting mule deer or something that's fairly glass of intensive, uh,

And maybe I'm looking for a certain type of mule deer, maybe a 170 or a big four by four, a mature mule deer. A spotting scope is really going to be key to making that hunt more successful where I can sit down on my glassing knob. I can look for deer. Okay. I see a deer way off in the distance. I can pull out my spotting scope and analyze that deer. Is it a doe? Is it a buck? Is it something that I want to walk over there in stock? Now, should I, can I be able to follow that deer through the spotting scope till it beds and gives me an advantageous time for a stock?

Now, on the flip side, if you're a guy that's like, hey, I'm just here for, I'm on an elk hunt. I just want to kill a legal bull. I'm packing in. I'm going back country. Any bull elk will do. You know, spotting scope may not be necessary because it's a lot of extra weight. And what you're really looking for is for the most part, you can tell the difference between a bull elk and a cow elk from a very, very long ways away, just based on the color of their hide color.

Bulls are a lot more blonde. They're a lot lighter, dark on the front end, blonde in the middle. I mean, I can throw my binos up. I've looked at a lot elk though, but throw my binos up at five miles away and say, yeah, there's a bull in that herd. Now, whether it's a spike or whether it's a mature bull, you know, can be difficult to tell, but

for all intents and purposes, like, hey, yeah, I'm willing to go hunt that. I'll go over there, get closer, see if I can get in on him. And then I may not necessarily need the weight of the spotting scope, but there's a lot of hunts and applications where that spotting scope is crucial to the hunt. It's crucial to being able to identify what you're looking at. Saves you that. Let your eyes do the walking. Being able to zoom in and see what you're looking at can be really key on most hunts.

Now, the weight and the size and the zoom of your spotting scope can vary. So I would say

Let's do the 15 by 45. We'll go 15 by to 45 magnification by 65 objective. This is probably something close to that is going to be kind of like that 10 by 42 binocular. It's going to be the most versatile and you're kind of balancing weight verse light transmission and magnification. So something in that range is probably going to be the right balance for everything from back country hunting to kind of day hunt type hunting.

Now, if you're the kind of person that's like, you're looking for a certain type of animal, every time you go hunting, there's a lot of places, you know, growing up in Nevada tags can be few and far between. So when you get a tag, it's like, I want to make the most out of this tag. And, you know, I spend a lot of time glassing on those kinds of hunts. I actually would just sacrifice carrying a little bit more weight and get something more like a

a 20 to 60 power magnification with maybe an 85 objective where it's got a bigger objective, more light gathering, little bit more magnification where I can really zoom in. I can really focus in on stuff. I can check things out far, far away. I can look into those shadows and really maybe see something in the middle of the day and use that scope and really just put that scope to work. Then that's probably what I'm going to look at. Now there's a flip side. And one thing that I carry probably more than anything is just a super lights, like a 33 mil objective, uh,

I think it's 11 to 33 power magnification spotting scope because for a lot of backcountry hunts, I just need that spotting scope to verify, yeah, that's something I'm willing to chase, but I don't necessarily need to glass through it for prolonged periods of time.

I'm not really trying to pick stuff out in the middle of the day, but if I needed to, I've got it as a backup. So that's always an option as well, like a more lightweight backcountry style spotting scope. And with each one of these, there's just kind of weight ratios that factor into it. Now, also when you're talking about spotting scopes, you've got angled versus straight.

This is a big debate for a lot of people. Me personally, I don't know. I've always just used straight because I like that target acquisition of it's just intuitive. I can look at it. I can be glassing with my binoculars. I can throw the scope up. I don't even have to think about it. I don't have to readjust the tripod. I don't have to readjust anything. It's all just right there.

But I will say like for, if you're glassing real steep stuff, an angled scope is really nice where you can have it a little bit lower to the ground, a more natural head position, especially when you're glassing from a valley floor up a lot. It's really good. The angled can be okay. It can be a little awkward when you're glassing like real steep down, but you can actually on all of them, turn them sideways a little bit. I will say though, it can get very hard to get used to, to find that target real fast. So if you spotted something with your binos,

like, Oh, I'm going to go spot it now. And you got your angled scope. And if you aren't used to it, it can get a little bit tricky to find sometimes, but it, for, for a lot of people, it's, it's a little bit more comfortable to have that angled scope.

eye piece than the straight. If you're a guy that does a lot of like glassing from the vehicle where you might drive glass a long distance, you've got a window mount. I think the straight works a lot better for that, which actually, I mean, that's a really effective way for scouting, you know, checking a bunch of multiple points and looking really far away. A lot of guys have like, especially Western guys that are really looking for a certain type of animal. I mean, I see a lot of guides, some of the guides that kill the biggest animals every year,

It's because of a window mount and a really high power spotting scope. They drive to locations, they cover a lot of country and they let their eyes do the walking. And that's probably, they're probably got a straight spotting scope with maybe a 85 mil objective and something up cranked up to 60 power. And that works really well. So that kind of gives you an overview of spotting scopes. Now we're going to move over to range finders. When it comes to range finders, I think that

you know, you would almost instantly think, okay, the rangefinder that goes the furthest is going to be the best, but that's not always the case because there's a lot of nuances with rangefinders where a certain rangefinder does something, but it lacks in something else. Just like every piece of optics. There's one that's really good for this situation, but has a negative downside. There's a spotting scope that has really high magnification, good light gathering, but it's super heavy, hard to carry in the backcountry.

The same thing happens with range finders. So a range finder, just because it goes really far may not be the best application for you. Now, I like a range finder that ranges a long ways, especially when I'm rifle hunting or for planning a stock. I think there's nothing better. But one thing you want to look for when you're looking at a range finder is, well, what kind of hunting do you mostly do? If you're mostly an archery hunter, you got to make sure that that range finder that goes really far is

maybe calculates within bow ranges. There's some range finders that are really good, really accurate out to far distances, but maybe don't range anything under a hundred yards or maybe don't do angle calculations under a hundred yards and vice versa. Maybe there's some range finders that are great for archery.

but they don't do angle calculations past a certain yard for rifle hunting. So what I like to do is I like to find a range finder that's really got a little bit of both where it can go out to the distances that I would rifle shoot, but also is effective for archery hunting because archery

I primarily archery hunt. And one thing that I would say is a feature I must have in every range finder is going to be angle compensation. So some kind of compensation for the angle when you're, if you range something, you know, it does that a squared plus B squared equals C squared automatically in the range finder. So you don't have to do calculations since range finders have done that. It's made, well, me personally, a lot more successful and have to have a lot less gadgets. When I first had a range finder,

It's like, sweet. It just ranged straight. And I actually had a stick-on inclometer on there that had a thumb button. So I would range it and then I would hit the thumb button and hold this like, it almost looked like a...

almost like a compass. And then it would tell me my angle. This is all like very primitive stuff. And then I had on a cut chart on my wrist, I would have like a wrist guard that keeps the string from slapping your arm. I would have a, I had a cut chart on there and then I had one in my pocket. And so I can look at that and I would look at the range, look at the angle and then follow the chart to see the horizontal compensated distance. Now you don't have to worry about that.

Uh, the range finder just does it all for you, which is really nice. So you want to make sure that for your application, that works for whatever you're doing. So whether, if you're a rifle hunter and you're like, Hey, it's a hundred yards less, doesn't matter. It's just point and shoot. Um,

but out to five, 600 yards, I want to know that angle compensation. I want to make sure that I can get a really good range out at further distances, make sure it's super accurate. Then you're going to want one of those really high power range finders. Now, if you're a bow hunter and that high power range finder doesn't work under a hundred yards, or it doesn't compensate angle under a hundred yards, then you're probably going to want to look for something else.

So that's what I look for when I'm thinking about rangefinders. The next category is going to be rangefinding binoculars. Now you think, okay, rangefinding binoculars. I love rangefinding binoculars, especially when I'm guiding because it allows me to be hands-free. I can be glassing and then also calling out ranges to the person next to me saying, okay, yep.

100 yards, 200 yards, especially when something's moving, you're in the action. I don't have to switch between two things. I've got my range finding binoculars right there. I actually just started testing out a pair of vortex range finding binoculars that have ballistic AB curves and data that can send it to different devices as well, which is really cool because I can click it

have all my input data in there and then know, okay, three minutes of angle. Or if I'm guiding someone, I could say, Hey, give me your, give me your bullet. Give me your drop compensation. Give me everything I can input this. And then right there within the unit, I can either do that or have it sent to my watch or whatever. There's just so many applications for it, especially for long range shooting. They're awesome.

I used range finding binoculars for a very long time, and it's a really fast, efficient way to use a bino and a range. It combines two really good things. There are a few drawbacks, however. One, they're heavier. They can be fairly expensive as well. I think one of the major drawbacks with range finding binoculars is the fact that the

The button for the range finder has to be on one side or the other for most of them. I think there might be some where you can switch the button on whichever side you want, but you have to think of it like this. If I'm bow hunting, right? I'm generally holding my bow with my left hand. So I'm going to want to range finding binocular with the button on the right side. Well, I shoot right-handed. If you're left-handed, it'd be the opposite. So, cause my hand's going to be holding the bow. I could take the binoculars out, hit the range. I had the first pair I ever had

I had to reach over and press the button with my left, like it was on the left side, but I'd hold it with my right hand. So it was like this weird, awkward reach over thing. Now the exact opposite, if you're a rifle shooter, you're going to be a right-handed rifle shooter. The gun's going to be shouldered on your right side. You're going to pull the binoculars out with your left hand and you're going to want to be able to operate that with your left index finger. So just something to think about.

it's kind of like picking a range finder for your application, range finding binocular kind of for your application as well. If you're a bow hunter, make sure that it has the features that you want for bow hunting. And then obviously it'll be able to do some of the other stuff as well. If you're primarily a rifle shooter, you know, kind of think about something around that, that rifle, like range finding binocular for the rifle. And actually the new ones, they can be a little bit complicated with all the ballistic data, but obviously,

Man, if you're into that, if you're into long range shooting, that's, I think that's the best scenario in my opinion. If I'm going out on a rifle hunt or I'm guiding rifle clients, first binocular I'll probably put on is just range finding binocular with ballistic data in it because it just makes everything so streamlined so fast. And it's a really cool technology to have. Plus you've got a good optic as well. Now the last piece of optic would be your rifle scope. And I remember reading an article recently

I don't even know where it was at. It was just a long time ago. And it was like the thought of, you know, for the longest time, it's always been rifles, rifles, rifles. And then it's like, but I think that if you were to spend, let's say you spent $500 on a rifle and then put a $75 rifle scope on it, you've just kind of rendered like this really, really good rifle, quite useless. Most rifles shoot pretty good.

Even like factory made box store rifles shoot pretty decent. And sometimes that accuracy is just comes down to the rifle scope that you put on it. So if I were to pick the two things that I would probably put my money on, it would be binoculars first and rifle scope second, because you want to be able to hit what you're shooting at.

And you want that gun to be accurate and you want to make sure that that accuracy isn't a factor of the scope that you've put on top of it. And people don't sometimes understand how much that can affect the accuracy. Things like parallax shadowing, if you don't have your cheek exactly where it's supposed to be when you, the same time you shot last time and your head's a little bit different and that right, that's that crosshair tends to move. Like it looks like it's moving in scope, which often happens in cheaper scopes that don't have as much

many features or different type of focal plane, then you might think that that rifle is fairly inaccurate when it actually is just the scope itself. I've had scopes on rifles that I shot really well, but handed to another guy. And it's like, they shot completely different because the way that they were looking, their cheek weld was a little bit different. The way that they looked through that scope was a little bit different and there wasn't any way to adjust that.

So when it comes to rifle scopes, there is a myriad of different features, functions. I mean, you can get so specific for the type of, if you are a guy that likes to shoot long range, long distance targets, there's a rifle scope for you. If you're a guy that shoots the backwoods from your tree stand at 20 yards, there's a rifle scope for you. There's different rifle scopes with different types of reticles that light up the dew. I mean, there's more different types of rifle scopes than I could possibly cover in 50 podcasts.

But what I'm, what I do want to cover is just kind of the basic features of some rifle scopes and kind of some things that I think are important when you're looking at a rifle scope. So let's start with the basic rifle scope, uh, rifle scopes, just like all these other optics we've talked about, have the magnification and objective lens. So

Kind of the standard for a very long time would be like a 2 to 10, so 2 power to 10 power, probably by maybe a 40 or 44 mil objective. I think now, for me personally, I like anything in the 4 to 16 power or even higher. I like that 16 magnification. I like being able to bump it up a little bit. Even up to 20 power magnification is nice.

Because for my rifles, I like to be able to shoot a little bit of distance as well. So I think having that, being able to zoom in, even when you're at 100 yards, it's nice to be able to crank that rifle up. Now, when it comes to the reticle inside, we'll just go with like the basic reticle. That's just a standard crosshair.

This is fine for a lot of applications, especially if you're just shooting pretty much fixed distance, the furthest you're ever going to shoot is 100 yards. Then you don't really need all the bells and whistles. A standard crosshair, a 2-10, that's perfect. If you're mostly hunting thick timber, you're probably going to be zoomed out to that 2 power anyways. That's a great scope to have, just a fixed reticle in there, great.

Now, if it was me and I'm buying a rifle scope that I'm going to use for different things, maybe I'm going to hunt mule deer, maybe you live and you hunt white tails primarily, but you might go out and hunt elk, whatever it is, I like any kind of scope that has some form of

holdover or drop compensation adjustment in it. I personally like to use an adjustable turret, but I like a reticle that has some form of drop compensation. So what that is, is I can cite my crosshair in and then there's something underneath it, like a line or mill dot or something that in the scope I can look through and know that at a different range, this is where I hold for that.

If you've got that basic crosshair, you can just use the crosshair and then the post. I used to do the same exact thing with just the primary crosshair and then the post as knowing where that post was and then knowing how far from that post and the main crosshair various ranges were.

That was all well and good, but it's not necessarily precise. So it's really nice, especially for Western hunting applications, to be able to know where you're holding and what your holdovers are and how to shoot it a little bit further distance. Whether it's 300 yards, 350 yards, or out to 500 yards, it's really good to have something to focus on to aim with.

One thing you'll see on rifle scopes might be something called a first focal plane. A first focal plane scope means that the relationship of what that crosshair represents as you're looking through it is the same regardless of magnification. So on a first focal plane scope, you got to think of it like this. As I zoom out, the crosshairs actually zoom out. And as I zoom in, the crosshairs actually get larger because what it does is it makes that whatever I'm looking through at that magnification, the same representation in the scope.

I think some people get confused. They get these scopes that have different lines in them and they can use them, but it might not be a first focal plane scope. So if you're at four power magnification, that scope, that first mark below your crosshair means something completely different than when it's on full magnification, say 15 or 16 power. So it doesn't matter which one you do. You just need to know which system it is and then how to use it. So if you've got those lines in your scope that

First line down is you sighted in for 200 yards. Next one down is 300. Next one down is 400. Bottom one's 500, but it only means that it's 16 power magnification or full magnification. Then when you're shooting it, you need to make sure that it's turned up to that full magnification and you're shooting it for the correct distance with those lines.

So I'd say when I think about getting a rifle scope, I like something that, I mean, it's just like anything. You've got the weight ratio, you've got the functions and the features and the different things you like.

Me personally, my ideal scope has an adjustable turret because I like to adjust for the exact conditions that I'm in. I don't like it pre-done. I don't like pre-numbers. I like to use a ballistics data to kind of adjust that turret. I like one that has the locking turrets on it. So the windage and the elevation is locked. I prefer one. Mostly the only thing I'm going to use in that scope is a windage turret. So that's kind of the scopes that I go for. And then I like something in the four to 16 power range range.

Maybe by 50 mil objective, it's a little bit heavier, but it's a little bit more light gathering. And then something where it's got an adjustable parallax. So at the different ranges, what I'm doing is I'm kind of getting rid of that parallax shadowing that I talked about. So when your head is in maybe a little bit slightly different position, especially for field shooting, you might be in like kind of a weird angle or slightly different position. I can adjust that for the range so I don't get as much shadowing and that crosshair is like

true to where it should be shooting. And those are the features that I personally like. Now, on the flip side, I've got a gun that's a real light gun, and I just put a real basic light scope in it that doesn't even have a first focal plane. It's got different stadia lines for the different yardages, but it has to be on full magnification. It's a really light scope. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles, the parallax. It doesn't have a real like

bad parallax problem after testing it. And so I just put that on a lightweight gun to keep the gun lightweight, to keep everything simple and to not have to think about so many moving parts because it's a gun that I'm not really going to be shooting super far. And in a hunting scenario, it's great for hunting quick target acquisition and works really great. So I think kind of picking a rifle scope for the type of shooting you like to do and the type of hunting you like to do, just like all these optics is

kind of tailoring it to what you are planning on doing, the type of hunting and the style that you like is going to be the first step in deciding, okay, which optic is right for me. And then going from there and picking one that really works. I really hope this optics rundown helped a lot of you. I just get that asked questions so much about optics that I wanted to give this broad overview and kind of help you think about maybe some things that

come to my mind when I think about, okay, what optics would be the good optic to have? And this is a really good way to think about it is making kind of your kit very specific to the type of hunting that you do for the majority of your hunting, but also where it can reach out and, and do things for, if you go on another kind of hunt or you start to hunt in another type of area, you know, for me, I prefer higher magnification binoculars, but I also don't hunt as much

heavy cover. So when I do, my binoculars work great for that because it's not a lot of time spent there, but it works really good for the majority of my hunting purposes. So that's just something to think about. I think next week, I'm going to jump into kind of doing the same thing with another topic, another type of gear that I get asked about as much as anything would be boots and packs. Two things that I think are

It's just weight bearing and a strenuous activity. So it's something that is inherently uncomfortable and you're trying to take a product and make it more comfortable. So I'm going to cover the types of boots and the types of packs that I look for when I'm planning either a back country hunt, a day hunt, a prolonged hunt, maybe a hunt in rocky rough country or a hunt more in the plains. So I'm going to go over the types of packs and the types of gear and the things to look for very similar to the way that we just did the optics. So until next week,

I hope you are looking forward, there's a little pun in there, to what we have in store for more gear selection stuff. I'll catch you guys all next week and see you later. Ha, optics. Ha, optics.

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