How many of us have been using the same old binoculars or spotting scope for the last decade or two? And have gotten so used to them that we don't even notice how crappy they truly are.
I have and when I upgraded I quickly learned what I had been missing out on and what a huge mistake I had been making.
A few years ago I was elk hunting with my good friend.
We had been sitting in the same spot for a few hours since sun up.
So we decided to glass the area to see if something might come out for a noon feeding.
We both had our own pair of binos.
Well my friend sat his binos down and went off to do some business.
I looked down and saw that he had left his and out of curiosity I decided to look through his and see if they were any good.
When I picked them up and looked through them I couldn't believe how clear they were.
Even though they were the same power as mine I could see things 100 times better than mine.
I had been using the same pair of binoculars for about 8 years at that time and thought that mine were good enough.
Well not after I looked through my friend's.
And I imagine that his costs about the same as mine.
Mine had been a gift and I just had never thought about checking out some other ones.
It's hard to say if the lenses had been scratched too much over the years from wiping the dust and dirt off.
Or if they were never very good from the beginning.
Glassing for mule deer and elk is very important.
I admit that when I was younger I never really had the patience to sit and glass for a long time.
But when I finally embraced it and started to seriously glass the mountain sides.
I found out that I had been missing out on a lot of deer and elk.
I realized that I had probably passed up a ton of animals over the years because of my impatience.
Having good binoculars is very important because if you have clear, quality binoculars then glassing becomes fun and beneficial rather than a burden.
Part of the reason I probably didn't like glassing was because I couldn't see things clearly.
And it never dawned on me that my binos might be bad.
I've always made sure that my rifle scope was up-to-date, clear and always functional but never cared too much about my other optics.
Elk and deer have to bed somewhere and if you glass good enough and with intent then you'll find them bedded down.
Having quality optics is very important whether it's a spotting scope, binoculars or a rifle scope.
Good optics allow us to see things that we could never see with our naked eyes.
Thus allowing us to be more successful and harvesting more animals.
If the last pair of optics you bought was 10 years ago, you'd be very surprised at how far they've come.
Even ones that are decently priced and not expensive.
Be safe and good hunting my friends.