maritime363

heading to wyoming for elk, mulie in fall. have pair of nikon monarch 8x42 love them. need another pair, as my son will be joining me-- thinking about going bigger, nikon 10x56-- a lot heavier, but want some advise onweather the extrapower and lightisworth the extra size,weight? We;ll be on horseback, buthiking quite a bit too. Glassing appears to be much more important in the woods here in new england-- already have a spotting scope, so we'recovered there. Would welcome any advice, suggestions. thx.

nksmfamjp

You might consider a spotting scope. Out west, it is nice to be able to see and judge game at distances which only a spotter can do. If you have a pair of bino's to share, you might find a good spotterwould really add to your ability to spot and judge game. When I was out west with my dad and unckle last year, I had my Leupold spotter on a monopod. It helped us quite a bit when hunting for theirantelope. It is hard to judge antelope >500 yards away without a spotter.

Also, IMHO, I would buy binos, where I will primarily use them. I use 7 x 42's because I normally hunt in the woods in Ohio. I didn't find myself at a disadvantage to my dad and unckle whom have 10x binos.

In reality, lens quality is much more important than magnification. I can see as well or betterwith my 7x binos than a slightly lower quality 10x. I would guess moving up to Swaro 8.5x EL'swould be like turning the lights on compared to my 7 x 42 Bushnell Discoverer's. Trouble is, it is impossible to tell at the store because the lighting and colors are so different than outdoors.

skeeter 7MM

I find 4x to be the comprimise between size and usefulness for bins. The bigger and heavier they are the less likely they'll be around your neck! As far as the Monarchs are concerned the 8x are great however to my eyes 10x shows the quality or optical flaws. I suggest going a step or two up when considering 10x's as a rule. You'll find the low light performance better as well as other gains in optical perfromance. You may want to consider in 10x something like: Minox HG's, Vortex Viper or Razors, Zeiss Conquest, Swaro SLC's, etc. However these all run in the 500 - 1000 ish range.One other thing you'll notice with better optics is on a hunt wear you feel like your wearing them, eye strain will be less. Personally that is want led me to breaking out of the mid range bins. I have come to enjoy other nicebenefits with my 10x43 Swarovski EL's.... They are spendy but the way I was ripping through bins, cheaper in the long run. I use them much more then my spotting scope, before my spotting scope was a constant during pre-scouting...they are that good or maybe my spotter is that poor...

oldelkhunter

It's easier to hold a pair of 8x binoculars steady then it is a 10. You start getting bigger then 10 and with 56mm objectives and you start needing a tripod and that complicates things. I have used 7x42 and 8x42 binoculars for all of my hunting and am very pleased with that power. Not all your viewing may be in the open. Good lowlight performance and the ability to hold them steadier without help and they sometimes weigh a little less then the larger magnification . You might want to invest in a quality spotter because that will be the workhorse for judging whatever animal you see with the bino at long range. Buy the best you can afford ..I went thru countless pairs of cheaper binoculars before buying an expensive pair and had I taken the initial hit been much more happy.

Jeff Ovington

I'd stick witha quality pair 8 and 10 powers myself..
Over 90 % of your hunting can be done with these, stable , bright clear, greater field of view.
Besides, it takes alot of practice to find gamethrough a pair of binos,most rookies find the animal with their naked eye before they even bringthe binosup to their eyes..
I hunt with a guy who uses a pair of Swaro (cause he bought the best he can afford) but can't find squat through them cause he doesn't know what to look for when glassing..
He figures the deer will be game will be right in front of him, where as all you be able to recognize is a bit of an ear some face, antler movement etc..
I'll never forget last year he glassed an area took him 1min [:'(]min he replied saw nothing I grab his binos and saw4 bedded bucks bedded down in amonst a huge boulder pile
1 was a shooter but neverdid get it..
But if you chooseto go higher magnification than 10 power,( this is the only time I'll everadviseit,> 10 power,) find a pair of binos that uses ED(extra low dispertion) or equivalenton their lenses, the image will be bright and clear, as opposed to say a 12, 15 powerwithout it..

PABowhntr

This is where I was going to go with this as well. You guys are on the ball!

Under most conditions, and assuming handheld, a pair of 8x binoculars will show you everything that a 10x will and, in many cases, might actually show you more detail because of the decreased amount of handshake in the image.

A higher quality binocular, like those suggested above, would serve you better than just increasing the magnification.

...and for what it is worth those 50 mm Monarchs were a bit too unmanageable for my tastes both in terms of overall size and balance. If you want better performance and a step up in terms of quality then maybe the 10x50 Pentax SPs would suit your needs better. They are more compact than the Monarchs and are optically quite good.

nksmfamjp

Yea, my 7 x 42's are about as much as I want to carry anymore. The larger the bino, the higher the chance of them banging around making noise. Ask me how I know. . .Pentax 10 x 50 porros. . .Great lens, but I clanged against evertything with them!