$400. / What hunting Binoculars would you buy.

[Jchip]

I got a pair of 10x42 meopta meopro for 450 here a couple years ago. Keep an eye on the buy and sell, far more bang for your buck.

[OL_JR]

My wifes Nikon Monarchs are pretty good glass for the money imho. She got them as a gift and I ended up stealing them for half a season while my old razors were in for repair and didn't feel like I was losing to much.

Wish they wouldn't have stopped making scopes to.

[mongo]

Originally Posted by dalewig

I’ll likely get slagged on this forum for saying Nikon , but for that price Nikon monarch 5 are likely the best optics you can get.

I’d also look into athlon , seem to have great quality for the price point and have great lifetime warranty as well.

I have four friends that have vortex diamondbacks and three of them have had issues and had to send in for repair within only a few years …..

Agreed all day long.... Nikon are great binoculars for the cost.

[Battle Rat]

Leupold or Vortex.
They will do you just fine for quite a while.
When you can afford to upgrade, the original $400 binos will become your "truck" binos and will serve you well as backups for the rest of your hunting career.

[NUMBER1HUNTSMAN]

Vortex diamondback HD 10x42. Hard to beat for the money and a lifetime warranty.

[257Shooter]

Originally Posted by NUMBER1HUNTSMAN

Vortex diamondback HD 10x42. Hard to beat for the money and a lifetime warranty.

Could not agree more!
Bought my son his first binos for Christmas last year. Came with the harness/case. For the price point, these can't be beat IMHO

[270person]

At $400 Nikon Monarch 5. ED glass.

Whichever you go for Do Not Buy Based on Test In Store. Get them outside in low light and looking into sun.

[Mr Conservation]

Another vote for the Nikon Monarch 5's. I have a set in 10 x 42 and love them.

Mr Conservation

[DRhunter]

Originally Posted by savage shooter

Leupold bx-2. They’re wonderful and use fluoride glass. They are made over seas, yes. But to their own specs and using their own optical formula. You’ll find that leupold spotting scopes and binoculars outperform their similarly priced vortex competition.

I would second this. I bought a pair of Leupold BX1 Mackenzie HD to keep in my truck, I think for about $300, and they are very very comparable to my pro guide HD Leupold that cost me $1,000.

As far as I am concerned, best bang for your buck is Leupold.. warranty (not that you will likely need it) is conveniently located in okotoks. No overseas shipping delays or issues.

DR

[cowmanbob]

400 bucks is what I paid for a great set of binoculars in 1981. Everybody thought I’d lost my mind.

[ol whitey]

I own both prostaff 7's and monarchs, great binos for that price range, but I would be very interested to look through some athlons. Been reading and hearing good things?

[Mr.Crumbz]

I bought a new set of Leupold BX2’s 10x42mm’s; mine are the Acadias which have been replaced with the Alpines. I’m happy with them; if I ever do decide to upgrade it will likely be to the BX4 Pro Guides.

[Mr.Crumbz]

Originally Posted by DRhunter

I would second this. I bought a pair of Leupold BX1 Mackenzie HD to keep in my truck, I think for about $300, and they are very very comparable to my pro guide HD Leupold that cost me $1,000.

As far as I am concerned, best bang for your buck is Leupold.. warranty (not that you will likely need it) is conveniently located in okotoks. No overseas shipping delays or issues.

DR

Leupold warranty is too notch; bought a used VX3 turned out to have a slightly canted reticle (previous owner had not noticed). Sent it in and it was not repairable so I got upgraded to my choice of VX3i or VX3HD and got a new alumina objective cap as my current one did not fit the warranty replacement scope. Turn around time was about a month door to door. Pretty safe to say I’ll be a future Leupold customer.

[fishnguy]

I bought Nikon Prostaff 7 and used them for a few years. I then bought Zeiss Conquest HD in the same size (10x42). After a few days I sent the Zeiss back because I couldn’t justify the difference in what you see over the price difference. Still using Prostaff. Bought them on sale at Cabela’s:

[dalewig]

Originally Posted by ol whitey

I own both prostaff 7's and monarchs, great binos for that price range, but I would be very interested to look through some athlons. Been reading and hearing good things?

I have the athlon ares spotting scope , and really impressed it. Lotta people say a $700-800 spotting scope is a waste of money , and not claiming it to be a Swarovski , but image quality is pretty darn good . Well worth packing around . Heard good things about there binoculars to

[501s]

About 5 years ago I got my first set of binos, Vortex Diamond Bakcs. Used them for a couple years. They seemed “ok”. They always fogged up. Just “ok”.

3 years ago I got some Nikon Monarch 7s. About $700. Big upgrade. Clearer, don’t fog up and nice quality.

Last year I needed to get my son a 12th Bday gift and put it off till the day before, so I went to Canadian Tire and picked up some Huntshield 8x42’s for him for 1/2 price ($99). They are made surprisingly well and are quite robust.

2 years later and I hate to admit it but I don’t know if I’d ever spend $2k on binos. I always thought when I could afford it I would drop the money until I put these cheap hunt shield against my Nikons and my Friends Vortex Razor HDs. There was BARELY a difference. We spent several evening glassing well past last light and there was NO discernible difference between the $99 binos and the $1500 binos. If I found those same Hunt shields on sale in a 10x42 I’d buy them in a second.

I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t do these tests with my own eyes. I really wanted the expensive binos to way way better but, at least to my eyes and my friends, the difference was marginal at best.

I also have a pot of prostaff 5s in 8x32 and they aren’t great. It seems your eye lashes touch the glass and overall they are a pain to use.

That is my experience over my first 5 years of hunting.

[teledogs]

I have a pair of Bushnell Elite 10×43. I have seen them second hand for that price range. I have had them for over 10 years with lots of field use. Top notch for the price. Good luck with your decision!

[6.5 shooter]

Originally Posted by lambski

Nikon!

Agree

[fishnguy]

Originally Posted by 501s

About 5 years ago I got my first set of binos, Vortex Diamond Bakcs. Used them for a couple years. They seemed “ok”. They always fogged up. Just “ok”.

3 years ago I got some Nikon Monarch 7s. About $700. Big upgrade. Clearer, don’t fog up and nice quality.

Last year I needed to get my son a 12th Bday gift and put it off till the day before, so I went to Canadian Tire and picked up some Huntshield 8x42’s for him for 1/2 price ($99). They are made surprisingly well and are quite robust.

2 years later and I hate to admit it but I don’t know if I’d ever spend $2k on binos. I always thought when I could afford it I would drop the money until I put these cheap hunt shield against my Nikons and my Friends Vortex Razor HDs. There was BARELY a difference. We spent several evening glassing well past last light and there was NO discernible difference between the $99 binos and the $1500 binos. If I found those same Hunt shields on sale in a 10x42 I’d buy them in a second.

I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t do these tests with my own eyes. I really wanted the expensive binos to way way better but, at least to my eyes and my friends, the difference was marginal at best.

I also have a pot of prostaff 5s in 8x32 and they aren’t great. It seems your eye lashes touch the glass and overall they are a pain to use.

That is my experience over my first 5 years of hunting.

Interesting. I definitely saw difference when looking trough Prostaff and Conquest HD, just didn’t think that difference was worth over $1K in price. I may have felt differently if I was hunting the mountains, for example. Don’t know.

I also have Simmons I bought for the kids. Well, those are horrible. They actually make things significantly darker at dusk instead. But then I paid $20 for them or something like that. Lol. Just didn’t want them banging mine all over the place and breaking them.

[Sogseal]

I've had them for 2 or 3 years now.

[KazIce]

I have Monarch 3 and wife has prostaff 7 in 10x42 from Nikon. For the price they are great. For $400 I do recommend them.

What I have found though is I am ready for an upgrade. I find the low light contrast is weak. So for example this Saturday I was eying up some deer. One appeared to be a shooter, but without snow we lacked the contrast to be sure. By the time I was sure, he started moving and I lost my shot opportunity. Also noticed the fogging that day.

Great entry level optics, but now I’m ready to spend the extra money to get something that will deliver better contrast without snow at first & last light. Has it served me great? Sure has. And for years too. So if $400 is all you can do for now the Nikon’s are an awesome choice.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[waldedw]

Funny this should come up, I bought a pair of bausch and lomb 8 x 40 way back in the 80's and still have them today, they were very good at the time have served me very well since.

Yesterday we were out hunting for a buddies moose and just 15 minutes or so before end of shooting light we spotted a group of mule deer at about 1,200 yards, a friend of mine said there is a nice buck in the shadow of the trees there, I could see the body but not the horns, I looked through his leupold BX4 HD - 8 x 42 and wow big difference, could clearly see the horns, not sure I'm going to run out and buy them $1000 but I was really impressed by the clarity and quality.

Having said that to answer your question if your budget is $400 you are probably not going to find a great deal of difference between the various brands in that price range, let us know what you settled on.

[sns2]

If you are in Edmonton area, shoot me a pm and you can take my Maven’s out at dusk for a whirl or even overnight. I offer because you can’t look at em in a store. If you steal em, then I got screwed doing something good for someone. On AO, I will take that risk. BTW, Amazon stocks em and you’d have em in a day or two.

[yidava25]

Originally Posted by timsesink

I get the sense there's some optical snobbery going on...

A $400 pair will do 90% of what a a $1400 pair will do. It's the law of dismissing returns. Yes, they' will be slightly better but is it worth that amount money for what you value?

I've worn Bushnell binos for 2 years that I bought for around $400. They're 90% as good as my buddies Swarovskis and I'd rather put that $1000 towards something else.

Nikon, Bushnell, Vortex, Cabelas (not scopes though) all have excellent binos in that range. Handle them and see what you like.

For me it comes down to this: If a $400 pair prevents me from getting a shot at an animal because I couldn't ID it or even find it, and a pair costing 3x as much would have contributed to my success in those same conditions, then the more expensive pair is absolutely worth it. I can't put percentages on that, it's a go/don't go difference, not a 90% difference. But that is so hard to quantify, it always comes down to a judgment call for each individual.

[Faststeel]

There is not much of a jump i quality from $299 to $400...IMHO

[fishnguy]

Originally Posted by yidava25

For me it comes down to this: If a $400 pair prevents me from getting a shot at an animal because I couldn't ID it or even find it, and a pair costing 3x as much would have contributed to my success in those same conditions, then the more expensive pair is absolutely worth it. I can't put percentages on that, it's a go/don't go difference, not a 90% difference. But that is so hard to quantify, it always comes down to a judgment call for each individual.

If you can’t id an animal or even find one looking through a pair of $400 (or less) Nikon binoculars, $1,200 or $3,000 pair isn’t going to solve your issue, in my opinion.

[marky_mark]

Originally Posted by fishnguy

If you can’t id an animal or even find one looking through a pair of $400 (or less) Nikon binoculars, $1,200 or $3,000 pair isn’t going to solve your issue, in my opinion.

This could not be any further from the truth

You obviously don’t know what your talking about

[elkhunter11]

Originally Posted by fishnguy

If you can’t id an animal or even find one looking through a pair of $400 (or less) Nikon binoculars, $1,200 or $3,000 pair isn’t going to solve your issue, in my opinion.

While the $400 pair may let you identify an animal as a deer or elk, or a moose, the much better binoculars may let you make out the antlers clearly, to determine if an animal is legal in the wmu.

[brewster29]

Originally Posted by fishnguy

If you can’t id an animal or even find one looking through a pair of $400 (or less) Nikon binoculars, $1,200 or $3,000 pair isn’t going to solve your issue, in my opinion.

This is totally incorrect. I hunt in an area with antler point restrictions and for that you need premium optics.

The best way to justify any premium equipment (guns, tools, optics) is to consider cost per year of use. Buy $400 binos, hate them for five years- that's $80 per year. Buy $2200 Swaro's, love them for 30 years, that's less money per year to use top notch gear. Think of it as rent. Plus it's buy once cry once, money wasn't wasted on gear you later replaced. Be sure to show this to your spouse!

As Dean2 has pointed out previously, you should buy the best gear when you are young ( even though that's when you can least afford it), in order to get maximum usage.

[Ackleyman]

Originally Posted by fishnguy

If you can’t id an animal or even find one looking through a pair of $400 (or less) Nikon binoculars, $1,200 or $3,000 pair isn’t going to solve your issue, in my opinion.

Wrong.
Expensive , Yes. But a pair of Swaro's , Leica , Zeiss make a world of difference.
I ran Leica BA 8 x 42 for 20 years and worth every cent.