Dec 17, 2016 4 min read

It’s hard to visualize someone walking in the woods carrying binoculars without thinking they are a bird-watcher.

Yet I would say there are far greater numbers of these optical instruments sold to hunters than are sold to those who spy on our feathered friends.

I find it difficult to take a morning walk without the 8x30s dangling around my neck. When driving along a country lane, they are with me, and when I forget them and leave them at home, I worry all the time we are not together. I never said I was normal.

I have always been fascinated by optical instruments and binoculars fall into that category. Even when the spring wildflowers bloom, both my wife, Eileen, and I often used binoculars to locate specific varieties.

Something somewhere looks familiar or the opposite out of place? The glasses will solve the mystery.

I have checked out house numbers using binoculars and have found them handy in locating a shingle that is loose and allowing the rain to enter the living room.

My point is binoculars are valuable tools not only for bird-watching and hunting, they can be used for many things.

The hunter, in particular, should be conscious of quality in the glasses he uses. A varmint hunter might stare through them for hours on end, and I hate to say how many hours I use them when deer hunting.

I refuse to look toward spotted movement using the scope mounted on the rifle. Remember, a deer rifle is loaded and pointing the gun at movement alone means pointing it at potential people.

Binoculars not only make hunting safer, they can tell the hunter if the animal is legal game.

While I might say I have always and will in the future appreciate binoculars, I should really say I appreciate good-quality binoculars.

Cheap glasses are little more than a headache. High-quality glasses offer, when properly focused, a crisp, clear, magnified picture all the way from center to edge.

I once had a fellow say his binoculars were superior because he didn’t need to focus them. Seems they were always in focus.

Not to hurt the man’s feelings but my answer to that is bull with a capital B.

No optical instrument, be it a telescope, spotting scope or binoculars can only be focused at one distance. Change the distance and the darned things need to be refocused. There is no avoiding that fact of life.

Another mistaken belief is the bigger the objective lens on a scope, a sight or binoculars, the larger the field of view. Again, the size of this front lens has no bearing on field of view.

It does, however, allow more light to enter the scope or binocular.

It has been said the maximum size of the human pupil is 5 millimeters. Any larger exit and the pupil is wasted.

While there might be some truth in that statement, an overly large exit pupil makes picking up your image a bit easier. At least, I think so.

Remember, the exit pupil is that circle of light coming back to the shooter’s eye. Its size is determined by the size of the objective lens and the magnification of the instrument.

Divide the power into the size of the front lens, and you have the size in meters of the exit pupil.

For instance, take a set of 8×4 binoculars and your exit pupil will be 5mm.

I mentioned earlier that cheap glasses can cause headaches? This is because the two barrels don’t line up. The misalignment might be slight, but it costs a lot to make them match perfectly.

My suggestion would be to buy the best set one can afford.

Brands such as Swarovski, Ziess and Lietz are awfully expensive but they are a lifetime investment. And when that buck of a lifetime appears far away in bad light, they are worth their weight in gold. Personally, I wouldn’t be without them.

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.