RSSThe Best Binoculars For Deer Hunting
Apr 26
Deerstalking Equipment binoculars, compact binoculars, deer hunting, field of view, magnification 1 Comment
Using a decent pair of binoculars is essential to deer management. The proper use of binoculars allows you to assess the quarry and choose suitable beasts for culling. But there is more to using binoculars effectively than buying the first pair you try, and scanning your hunting ground with the glasses glued to your eye.
How do you tell the power of a pair of binoculars? There are three magic numbers which tell you a lot about what you can do with a pair of binoculars. The first two of these numbers are normally written as 8 x 40, 10 x 50, 7 x 35 etc. The third number is the field of view at 1000 yards. This is the distance in feet that you will be able to see at 1000 yards.
The first number tells you the magnification, so 8 x 40 is an 8 times magnification. Now just in case you are tempted to run out for the biggest magnification you can find, there are several problems you get with a large magnification.
The first problem is shake. If you have a large magnification then every tremor is magnified as well. You know the effect you get with photographs if the camera shakes? It is the same with binoculars. The effect can be much reduced by not going too high – 10 is a reasonable maximum, but 8 will be easier to hold steady.
The second problem with high magnification is that the larger the magnification, the smaller the field of view. This is normally expressed as feet at 1000 yards. This is the width of the view in feet that you will see at 1000 yards.
A third problem with high magnification is that the higher the magnification, the lower the amount of light that comes through the glasses. This is not such a problem during the brighter parts of the day, but towards dusk or first thing in the morning it can make quite a difference.
The second number in the 8 x 40 pair is the size of the objective lens. The bigger the number, the heavier the binoculars. This is the main drawback to a large objective size. Everything else about the bigger numbers is an improvement. The bigger the number, the more light that comes through, and the easier the binoculars are to use at dawn and dusk. The bigger the number, the wider the field of view – this makes it easier to find where you want to look – too narrow a field of view then you only see a smaller area and it becomes more difficult to point your binoculars to the right spot.
A quick test of how good the light gathering of a set of binoculars will be is to divide the figure for the objective lens by the magnification. So and 8 x 40 will be a five, the same as a 10 x 50 or a 7 x 35. A pair of 12 x 25 on the other hand will be a two and hardly usable once the light starts to go, as well as magnifying shake.
I will cover how to set up and use a pair of binoculars for deer hunting in a later article.