Equipment Review

[kelvo73]

I have recently took up stalking and have had a few trips out. I asked a lot of questions on here about equipment and thought it only right I let you know my opinion on the gear i have been using.

I use a Tikka T3 Stainless lite 6.5x55
Zeiss Duralyt 3-12x50

Can't really fault them, the T3 is smooth but does have some plastic that I don't like but the gun does, it shoots great groups. So if they break i'll replace em with metal if they don't i won't. Common sense?

I really wanted a handmade knife and probably will get one. But as I was not in a position yet I bought a Frost for a tenner. Guess what? I lost it first outing haha just as a lot of you said might happen.

Right, I was really strongly advised to buy sworo's for £1200 because the extra clarity would be worth it in low light. I think you are wrong. Because I don't have a swaro scope so i paid just less than £200 inc p&p for apair of:
Opticron Verano BGA PC Oasis 8 x 42 Binoculars
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110636955084&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
I absolutely love them, and they just out perform my scope when in a high seat as the day ends. I would of been gutted if I could see for an extra 10 mins but couldn't shoot and paid a grand extra for it. So make sure you buy a scope bino match, and consider the performance of both. I could see loads of stuff after my eyes failed with this combo.

Sealskinz shooting gloves are the biz, warm dextrous I just love em.

Next on the list is a BMH lol cos i'm really into this stalking thing

This is me with a Chinese Water Deer I got last weekend from a weekend stalking lot for 2 I won from a gamekeepers charity auction. Great times

 

[jcampbellsmith]

k.

Good to hear of your good progress. My only comment on Swarovski binoculars is that I wish I had bought them years ago. Obviously most of us can't go out and buy the best kit all at once, but I do regret not taking this expensive step much earlier. In poor light they pay dividends. I was sitting spying and spying one dull afternoon recently and eventually I saw something. After watching carefully I saw it was a doe lying down on a grassy bank. Shortly afterwards she got up and I started stalking in. With all my previous binoculars I would not have spotted the doe's head.

Rgds JCS

 

[kelvo73]

JCS,
I am deffo not knocking the quality of swaro's, they are probably the best you can buy, i'm just pointing out that in my opinion you should match the bino's with your scope. I think I have a perfect match, but if I had swaro bino's I would see more with them than I could with my scope and how dissapointed would you be? Eventually i'd love to have swaro scope and bins, but lord I can see well after my eyes have failed with what I have now, so i'm not in a great rush.
But your point is well made as I am talking of high seat and now understand it could pay dividends if you can stalk closer till your scope works again but how often would that be for a recreational stalker. Wow so much to think abaout.
Kelv

 

[csl]

JCS,
i'm just pointing out that in my opinion you should match the bino's with your scope.

I'm not sure I totally agree with this. In many ways you need your binos to give you better clarity than the scope because you are using your binos to spot and identify. As JCS described above, if your binos are good you stand a better chance of spotting something and stalking into it. Also, in twilight you need the clarity in the binos to determine the species and sex and whether the deer fits your cull plan. To do this you need to be able to see all its features in perhaps more clarity than you need to take the actual shot. If your scope is that much worse that you can't take the shot confidently then you still have the option to stalk in closer once the deer has been identified.

Alex

 

[User00014]

JCS,
I am deffo not knocking the quality of swaro's, they are probably the best you can buy, i'm just pointing out that in my opinion you should match the bino's with your scope. I think I have a perfect match, but if I had swaro bino's I would see more with them than I could with my scope and how dissapointed would you be? Eventually i'd love to have swaro scope and bins, but lord I can see well after my eyes have failed with what I have now, so i'm not in a great rush.
But your point is well made as I am talking of high seat and now understand it could pay dividends if you can stalk closer till your scope works again but how often would that be for a recreational stalker. Wow so much to think abaout.
Kelv

kelv ,

well in my opinion you should have a better pair of binoculars than your scope , because you use the binoculars to spot and identify your quary , and then stalk it if its possible !

im quite lucky i invested heavily in my stalking equipment , both my rifles have schmidt bender scopes and my binoculars are leica .

you will soon learn that a top knotch set of bins will pay great dividens in the long run !

cheers lee

 

[caorach]

There is a good biological reason why things viewed with two eyes look brighter than things viewed with with only one eye - I suspect this is the reason many target shooters use a bit of white card rather than closing the non-aiming eye.

So, balancing your binos and scope up is neither a wise idea as you'd be missing a lot of detail in the binos that you could otherwise see nor may it be possible as I know that my eyes vary from day to day and so the "balance" between scope and binos changes.

In the end if you can see it in the binos there is always the chance to stalk in for a shot or to wait for it to move into a position for you to get a shot. If you can't see it at all then these options are not open to you.