LAST UPDATED: May 8th, 2015
Many years ago the thought of carrying a large pair of binoculars into the woods with me was something I never even considered. Growing up hunting in Michigan I never had to try to determine the age of whitetail buck, the mentality I was taught was to shoot anything that came within bow range.
Some 15 years later as I’m passing multiple 150”+ class deer every season, I can only chuckle as I think back to where this all started. The reality of my current hunting situation is that we are very careful about what bucks we shoot versus pass. To many hunters, we are crazy to be passing all these deer. It is easy to pass a really nice buck if you know bigger bucks are running around. With experience comes confidence in ones hunting abilities. It isn’t difficult for me to pass deer. It is usually a much more difficult decision to decide a buck is a shooter. These moments can be over in a matter of seconds, so it’s a matter of making every second count.
Binoculars play as major of a role in my hunting game plan as my bow does. Close inspection of any buck coming within range is the only thing I’m worrying about as we encounter these different animals. I reach for my binoculars before my bow. Immediately upon getting a good look at a buck, I either go into kill mode; or relax and enjoy yet another encounter with these magnificent creatures.
Ok, you get it! Binoculars play a big part in many of our seasons. The age old question of “what brand” is the next question. Personally, in an industry filled with mega-corporations, I prefer to support the smaller companies that produce a high quality product. Vortex Optics does just that.
Vortex Optics is based in Middleton Wisconsin, and is a company that has been in the optics business for over 20 years. I actually purchased my first pair of optics from Vortex around 7 years ago. In the past 7 years, I’ve used my binoculars! I’ve hunted every-day of the past 4 seasons, and when I add up the days I have spent glassing throughout the year, I use these things A LOT!
Here is my new pair of Vortex Razor’s… I’ve been using them everyday since I got them!
I’ve dropped my binoculars out of the tree several times, dropped them on the floor of my truck, my house, and they have been through more rain storms than I can remember. While I recently got a new pair of Vortex Razor’s; yet, my old pair are just as bright and clear as the day I got them. That is saying something considering how hard I am on equipment.
The best part about Vortex Optics is the range of prices that they offer to allow anyone to buy a nice set of glass. Vortex offers binoculars that range in price from $159.00 to $870.00, which is truly for any hunters budget! You can find the full lineup of Vortex Optics right here at Bowhunting.com. Click here to check out the great deals on some of their binoculars.
Vortex not only offers some of the best binoculars on the market, they also produce spotting scope systems, and quality rifle scopes. I’ve recently been using my Vortex Skyline spotting scope and available digital camera mount to study the deer coming into my food plots. The camera mount allows me to document what I see with digital photos. This is SO cool! I’ve recently been able to capture a couple different bucks behind my house nearly 450 yards away, and the pictures speak for themselves. Just another tool in the bowhunters arsenal!
Here is my spotting scope set-up, a Skyline 80 ED 60x spotting scope mounted on a Vortex Summit STX tri-pod! A sweet set-up for long-distance scouting…
This is the digital camera adaptor that I’ve been using. It works slick…
Here are a couple pictures of a 4 year old 8 that I have living behind my house. This buck will likely have another year to grow, but it sure is cool capturing pictures from 450 yards….
