“Glassing” set up for the house?

[rayporter]

Orion Giant View 25x100 Astronomy Binoculars | Orion Telescopes

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i have had these 25x orions for a while. great buy!!!! under 400$.
you have to spend 4x as much to get a better glass.

the tripod is very important - get a sturdy tripod. this one is 20lbs,

if you ever see a set of 30x for sale let me know, i want some to replace stolen ones.

 

[ztc92]

Thank you all for your thoughts. I spent some time on Basemaps and with my rangefinder at the new place and it appears I over-estimated the distance I’ll be looking. It’s more like 0.5 - 1.5 miles where I have been seeing wildlife and hope to focus on with the home setup. Also have a lead on an older Swarovski spotting scope that a family member is no longer using so will likely start there. Waiting to hear exactly what model/power but I’m sure the price will be right and it will be hard to pass up.

Family owned spotter aside, for these distances that are closer than I initially thought, I’m now thinking some 15x binos may be better since they’ll be far more versatile for hunting I was watching elk comfortably at about 1 mile with my 10x leicas on a tripod but it was hard to see details like size or antlers. Makes me think with 15x binos it would have been about perfect.

Here’s a very poor quality photo through the 10x binos with no phone adapter for reference:

 

[Blockcaver]

We have a great view of the mountain that starts right behind our house. Critters are a 100 yards to a mile away. We see mule deer, California bighorns, black bears, coyotes, chukars, eagles and even one whitetail and a pair of California quail.

We have a set of Leica 15x56 HD Geovids on a big Manfrotto/Bogen tripod (we bought the Geovids from Doug at CL in 2012) that stay set up at all times. Love the 15X for viewing distances I mentioned.

I do bring out the Swaro 20-60x65HD when we want to digiscope, or really census the sheep herds that pass through. Being able to magnify the view and the photo with the iPhone is a game changer.

But our most used optic is the 22 year old pair of Swaro 10x42 EL binos. They reside on the pantry shelf and get used daily, many days more like 4 or 5 times. Good that looking through them doesn't weear them out, or they'd be totally worn out....but are in excellent shape despite spending their first decade as my primary hunting binocular.