What Size/Magnification for Calling Binoculars?

Frankly, leave the binos at home! The last thing you need is the movement of constantly picking them up to check out every rock and bush. Unless you are hunting wide open country. Be still and look for movement, if it's something it'll move.

Get the military Stiners in 8x30 power, they stand up to hard use, good glass for the money. I've beat some around for twenty years, still going.
 
While I'm not really sure where you hunt, but in MO, when I was hunting the river bottoms, I never took my binoculars out of the car...I would use them to glass an area before I ever entered it since our Coyotes used to travel in the tree lines along the MO river and I had a levee and about a quarter mile between the levee and the tree lines...

As to your initial question, anything over a 10x is extremely hard to hold steady for any period of time...While I have some compact binos, my favorite is my old Navy 7x50s that I bought many years ago from a Military Surplus store that really sold actual military surplus (including 12 cyl tank engines, still in the crate)... They were made in 1943 and some of the best I've ever seen...

As ninehorses indicated,,taking them on a stand is a cause for problems unless you are planning/have to shoot some really long distances, but I know very few places in MO where they are 'needed'...I can see movement quite a ways off (at least within shooting distance) most of the time, unless it's a Bobcat and they can be pretty sneaky, but their season is pretty short..I seldom use my rifle scope for scanning due to the excessive movement...
 
I just recently purchased the SLC's. The EL's were sharper to my eyes but I was able to take them and the SLC's along with the Razors and Euro's out at dusk. The SLC's were brighter in low light to my eyes, therefore they came home with me. The staff at Cabela's in Allen Tx were all more than helpful and patient with me. The Euro's would have been my second choice, then the EL's, and the Razor's were last by a good margin. The price difference of the EL's also played a part in my liking of the SLC's in 10x42.... I don't regret the decision one bit. I finally solved the problem of not being able to see thru my binoculars at last light when I could still see thru my riflescope. Now I have a new problem of being able to see and judge deer with my binoculars and having the crosshairs fuzzy in my riflescope.... If only money grew on trees around here...
 
I've heard alot of good reviews on Leupold's Yosemite's.Next time Midway has them on sale I plan to order the 6X with natural finnish.
 
If you are looking for a more compact binocular, look at the Leica Ultravid compacts. I use the 10x25 for calling because they are small, light, and crystal clear.
 
Originally Posted By: ninehorsesFrankly, leave the binos at home! The last thing you need is the movement of constantly picking them up to check out every rock and bush. Unless you are hunting wide open country. Be still and look for movement, if it's something it'll move.
i dont agree with this. ive spotted several yotes on the way into a stand by glassing first before i ever head in to sit down. the binos allowed me to see them up close so i could tell which way they were looking, and this allowed me to slip in while their heads were turned away. this is just one instance of binos being helpful i could list a couple hundred more.
 
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I have a chest pouch that i have keep bino's, remote, and gloves in.

I prefer the 8X Vortex. I can spot coyotes out past 1000yrds and the bigger FOV allows me to scan the area i am calling before changing sounds.

I do that because, there are times that i find a face looking at me and watching that i didn't realize was there. Even a bobcat at 125yrds can be tough to spot. Bino's keep you from missing that spying cat.

I also do a quick scan before quiting a stand.
 
I have enjoyed this thread and opinions. As for bino use on stands, I used to be against it. I have taken several people hunting who think they need to be scanning the whole time instead of sitting still.

However, I have changed my opinion with the reasoning of using them before ending a stand. I hunt mostly rough ground sitting up high on a hillside where I can see quite a ways all around. I also hunt farms up on the flat where I can't get the height advantage I can other places. While hunting one of these farms last year, I called in a double and shot one while the other one ran off without giving me a shot opportunity. As it was too near dark to move and get another stand in, I called hoping I could get the 2nd coyote to come back. I was about to call it quits when I decided to crank up the scope and glass the field edges and horizon which was a tall fescue pasture that dropped off 250 yards into a draw. I saw a coyote head through the fescue near the woods to the northwest of where I was sitting. Was it the second one or another, who knows. I aimed for the head and hoped for the best. I heard the bullet hit home.

I wouldn't have got that coyote if I didn't look before I left. Quite frankly, I'm tired of glassing with a rifle scope when I could use binoculars. I wonder how many other coyotes I could have gotten over the years if I had some good binos to glass at the end of a stand. I think they'd come in handy at the close of a bobcat stand as well.
 
The price i paid for a set of bino's was off set with the pelt of the first cat I spotted and shot.

My eye's just are not as sharp, and the example of this was just 3 weeks ago when i was calling and saw what looked like a small log. I was changing sounds, so i did a quick sweep and there was a large male bobcat, masked partly by a tree. I shot that cat at just over 100yrds and a coyote that was in the tree's behind the cat. I wouldn't have seen either if i hadn't scoped the area.

Just think of how many stands you are doing in a year, and even if it's one a day that is sitting there, Bobcat or Coyote, that would make a big difference in your years total success.
 
I have Vanguard Endeavor ED 8x42 and honestly LOVE them, until you look thru quality glass you don't know what you are missing, I paid $250 range last year, think they're as good or better than friends $800 Minox. The Vanguards were voted #1 Birdwatching glass under ($2000 I think). Anyway super happy.
 
Originally Posted By: MOFarmBoyI'm in the market for some binoculars. I'm tired of swinging the gun around to look at things. What magnification do you all like? 8x? 10x? What about size? 32, 42, 50? These will be basically strictly for calling. I don't want anything too big or bulky, but I want performance.

I'm thinking maybe Vortex Viper HDs or lower end Cabelas Euro HDs.

What do you recommend for size and magnification for calling binos? Are there any better binoculars in the $500-$900 range?

I've been fortunate enough to run a few...
The Nikon Premier 8X42 binos, which are VERY good glass but are about 1600.00... I like them, just not as much as what I have now.

I've also ran the Swarovski 10X50's SLC's great glass, very good light transmission and good FOV.

Had the 12X50 EL's, which are flat out Bad A$$ for what we do, in open country, and the glass is superb.

Had the 8X42 EL Ranges, awesome glass fluent scanning with minimal jitter... Just not enough power.

Currently running the 10X42 EL Ranges, with the lower 2X, I feel I'm getting a brighter picture in low light than I was with the 12X50 EL's, I'm also getting minimal jitters while scanning, still have enough magnification to see coyotes well beyond a mile in waist high Switch and Big Blue, all while a crystal clear FOV from edge to edge...

I would say once again, application specific, if your in close quarters heavy cover nothing more that a quarter mile of open area, you don't need much, 8X should work fine. Where I live and having the availability to see a coyote over a mile bedded on a side hill, or coming to the call, or mousing around before we even make a set, is a HUGE advantage to us. What we actually do is have one guy with the 12x50EL's who instantly does LR glassing when set up, the 10x's can pick him up once or if he locates, now add the EL Range to the mix, win win...
 
When this debate comes up, there are always those that say, "I've spotted coyotes when I'm walking to the stand." I don't doubt this, but how many coyotes spot you while your glassing? My main goal after I shut the truck door is to get my butt to the stand as quickly and quietly as possible. I will say that I've only called in a few dozen coyotes since I started 5 years ago, but I try to travel as light as possible. That's a whole different topic, but all I take are the eberlestock mini-me with foxpro and decoy, seat (back problems, I couldn't live without this), a couple mouth calls and my BCM AR15 or the SCAR 17. I never take binos or bipod or sticks. I figure if it's in range, I will see it moving. I hunt in NW Iowa.
 
Thanks for the input folks. Most of what I hunt is less than 350 yards. My best spot is high on the side of a ridge where 4 or 5 valleys come together. There I can see out to 3/4 of a mile or so. I'm sure the 8x will be fine, but it might be nice to have that 10x.
 
Originally Posted By: thebestofindicaWhen this debate comes up, there are always those that say, "I've spotted coyotes when I'm walking to the stand." I don't doubt this, but how many coyotes spot you while your glassing? My main goal after I shut the truck door is to get my butt to the stand as quickly and quietly as possible. I will say that I've only called in a few dozen coyotes since I started 5 years ago, but I try to travel as light as possible. That's a whole different topic, but all I take are the eberlestock mini-me with foxpro and decoy, seat (back problems, I couldn't live without this), a couple mouth calls and my BCM AR15 or the SCAR 17. I never take binos or bipod or sticks. I figure if it's in range, I will see it moving. I hunt in NW Iowa.

This is a perfect example of "application specific". You have your way of getting into a set. I look at it more like, how many coyotes see you getting into your set? driving to your set, etc. We have open spaces to cover, miles for that matter, it pays to glass, locate, then pursue.
In my location, I would get busted much more often if I didn't glass and locate before I pursued my hide, I also find we can set up much more effectively by locating coyotes and having the huge advantage of knowing "exactly" where they are before we call, or what direction they should come from because of a coyote we have located previous to calling. That's not just application specific, but terrain and condition specific as well.
 
Have used swaro for almost 20 years . Have often noticed when hunting with others using leupold,older zeiss and other brands. They just aren't seeing what i can see . I am hunting a half mile or more further out and seeing detail they cannot see.
For whatever reasons .i know they are alot of good choices out there nowadays. I sometimes take binoc to a call stand depending on environment. Often i have seen coyotes way out there at the end of a call series i woild have not other wise seen. May not get them in but can help me get out of the call stand without educating them.
 
I just cant agree with leaving the binos in the truck. I have spotted alot of coyotes by just glassing an area before I enter it. This has given me the advantage of altering how I get to my set undetected. Once I get set down, I already know where a coyote is and I can watch how he reacts to me calling or maybe I just play the waiting game and see what he does. Depending on how far out he is.
 


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