A while back I bought a pair of Bushnell range finder binoculars. The model I went for was the Bushnell 8x36 Yardage Pro. The idea was that instead of having to carry a pair of binoculars and a range finder I could get the benefits of both in one package.
I have always been a fan of the principle 'less is more' when out stalking perhaps because I like to do most of my stalking on foot but also because I hate having my pockets full of a thousand and one 'bits and bob's' that can get lost and just serve to weigh me down.
That said, whilst the Bushnell's have served me well they are no longer up to the job. Increasingly I am finding that there are occasions when my clients view through the estate rifles Schmidt & Bender 8x56 is better than my own and this can't be good!
As a guide I need to be able to see all that my clients can see and more and I am afraid that the lenses on the Bushnell's are simply not clear enough, added to this their size and weight means that they can become cumbersome.
These bonoculars in fact weigh in at a whopping 1.026kg and are somewhat bulky, the objective lense being just 36m is simply not larger enough for Deer Stalking as coupled with shall we just say not the best lenses on the market means that the set up simply does not let in enough light.
The range finder facility is nice in itself displaying the yardage in the bottom of your field of view at the touch of a botton. That said to be truly advantageous they need to be accurate to greater distances. I find them accurate to around 350yrds which when compared to todays offerings is not great.
All in all this is somehwat of an outdated set up and so I can feel an expensive purchase coming on!!
What to go for? I am leaning toward the Zeiss Victory RF with a 10x magnification. I find a range finder to be really useful, a client of mine had a pair with him the other day and I found them to be excellent, but then again 'Swarovski'?????
