Binoculars

I received the following by email:

I am not a warrior or want’a-bee warrior, too old at 67 y/o. However I have spent 34 years as a Professional Alaskan Hunting Guide. We use quality binoculars more than any other tool to get the job done. I may have missed it, but when you talk of important gear you do not mention binoculars.

This is a short post I made to a prepper forum:

“Quality binoculars are a real asset multiplier for defense, offense, general security, and survival hunting while minimizing your bodies exposure to danger.

Having spent 34 years as a PH, I early learned that hunters tend to buy small binoculars because they are lighter. And while better than nothing, they are not much better than nothing.

Odd that people spend a lot of money on a firearm, and totally miss the value of quality binoculars and spotting scope. I mention this as I have just upgraded from Zeiss 10X40B binoculars to Swarovski 15X56 binoculars.

Yes, “Quality” cost a lot of money, but good binoculars are way more valuable and useful that a top-shelf firearm”.

It’s a good point and well presented. I mention binos but I don’t make enough of a point about it. I talk in a recent post about forming a hollow square and handing the binos over to the next person filling the command appointment. Binos were the symbol of command because they implied you were going to use them to observe the battlefield.

It’s an affliction I have called ‘CRS” – which stands for ‘can’t remember stuff’ caused by information sometimes falling out of my head or somehow to the back of my mind, until reminded.

I have talked in great depth about weapons optics, and the use of night vision/thermal devices such as NVGs and FLIR. For daylight observation you should consider a good pair of binos. The tendency nowadays is to use a weapon sight optic to scan. This is useful if you have a x 4 optic on your rifle, but a set of binos should have far better magnification than this.

An essential item for either running an OP or for scanning ground before moving over it. You can combine that with a handheld FLIR to key you in on areas of heat that you may not have spotted through the optic. The spotting scope is particularly useful for a static op, the stand will give you better stability and help you scan better for longer.

Any good recommendations from readers are welcome in comments.

Live Hard, Die Free.