Help with Binoculars

[Bitman]

cabela's has these Leupolds on sale for about half price.
Are these a good glass for prairie dog spotting?
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... nos*012510

Thanks, Dave

[Rick in Oregon]

Good? How about "Excellent!"

I've used that exact glass and loved it for both open country mule deer hunting, PD'ing, and ground squirrels. Loved them, but a bit heavy for wearing all day in the field, even with a harness. But off the bench for PD's? Perfect.

I ended up going with Leupold Switch-Power bino's, 7X - 12X variable power. It worked out perfect (for me), as they're lighter, more compact, offer a nice wide field of view at 7X for finding small targets (or spotting game), then the ability to zoom to 12X to really get a better look. Holding a 12X bino all day can cause eye strain if you've ever tried it, so this arrangement seems the perfect fit, at least for what I do with them.

Here's the S/P's on the bench. Somewhere I've got a side-by-side photo comparison of the glass you mentioned and the S/P's if you have interest.

[Bitman]

Thanks Rick,
I was hoping you'd reply. I'll look at both models, but will be ordering one.
Do you recommend the 7-12 x32 over the 10-17X42?
These will be used mainly for prairie dog scouting and some deer hunting.

[Rick in Oregon]

Bitman: Yes, I tried both models, and for hunting/shooting/scouting and the things guys like us would use them for, the 7-12X's are much more worthy of consideration.

The 12-17X's are heavier, bulkier, are much, much harder to hold still without support, and have the anticipated smaller field of view (FOV), thereby making them even harder to use as a primary binocular. At 17X, they are virtually impossible to use without a tripod or similar device. The factory guys told me they are popular with some guides that use them with field tripods, but they're most popular with the bird-watching crowd, which is (believe it or not) their biggest market for binoculars world-wide.

If you have the opportunity to try both, I think you'll come away agreeing with me. They both come with a nice Leupold Bino Harness, flip-off lens covers, and a regular padded neck strap....pretty cool. The optics of course on either model rival the spendy Euro models I compared them to also. This is the last binocular I intend to buy. HTH.

[Critter]

Rick of course has a very good opinion on glass as well as excellent equipment.

However, I find myself in practice gravitating to the single eye laser range finder, even though I have a Leica BRF in my shooting kit.

Why, mainly the handiness and weight which becomes a little more onerous after a day of varmint shooting. The single eye without all the extra glass is smaller, handier and lighter. You can see one on Ricks bench in behind the binoculars.

And...LEUPOLD makes or has recently introduced some models which include angle of incidence calculator for shooting down or uphill. Worth a look in my view.

Interestingly, Leica makes a professional grade system with this capabilitie called VECTOR which I would dearly love to have. It also has satelite uplink interface jack which given the right codes and equipment would allow me to call in 500 pound JDAMS which would give Skippy heatburn, but the farmers who are concerned about collateral damage to their animals would probably be unhappy.

[Bitman]

I have the Leica rangefinder, but I think it's so much easier to spot distant prairie dogs with a good pair of binoculars.
However, I'm no expert, only been PD shooting one time.

[Franco S. Cruz]

Bigger the objective lens better light gathering capabilities mean better low light vision better early morning late evening viewing only drawback is size and weight especially with good glass oh yeah and cost.

https://accuratelyshooting.com/best-bin ... ers-guide/

[Rick in Oregon]

Franco, you do realize this post is 11 years old, right? Chances are the OP has long ago solved his bino issue.

Resurrecting old posts is not always a good idea. Why not just create a new post with your thoughts and experience?

[Stugots]

But RiO, there have been so many improvements in glass/optics in the last 11 years... Time to upgrade!!!

[K22]

You should checkout the Tract Binoculars. Excellent glass.