monocular???

[3Feathers]

Anybody use one of these for hunting.Looking for something thats lite to carry.Vortex has a 8x32.Seems it would come in handy .

[LBshooter2]

Hey feathers,
I too am thinking about getting one, I think it would be easier to use then bino's when on stand, less movement and one hand operation. I can think of a few times last year where I could have used them , whats the price pt of vortex mono?

[Orion]

Small ones are difficult to hold steady, poor in light gathering. Compact binos are usually a better choice.

[TSP]

I also have a cheapo brand monocular...they work fine for things like 3D (if allowed) for finding the 10 ring.  But for hunting they aren't so great.  As Orion said, they are hard to steady in the hand and so not especially fast to find and focus stuff in the viewfinder...often a consideration during a hunt.  Much prefer a compact binicular for that.

[Recurveman]

I have the Vortex R/T 15# tactical monocular and I am going to get the smaller 10# for hunting too.  They cannot be beat for use and weight and optical quality.  You won't be disappointed.

[elkken]

I stopped into Cabelas and tried out the Vortex monocular, I have two pairs of Vortex binoculars and really like them. I have ombliopia, lazy eye, so my eyes do not see binocular when looking through binoculars. I only see clearly out of my right eye.

I found the monocular hard to keep steady and not as easy to focus quickly. The optical quality was very good on both. I was trying the Vortex monocular and a Vortex binocular. I had the helpful clerk also let me look through the same power binos as the mono I was looking through. My conclusion was to stay with my binos even though they are a bit more weight and size.

If your able to try this comparison before you buy, it really helped me.

[Machino]

I have the Vortex Solo 10x25 ($55).  My buddy works at the retail shop I got mine at an I had the chance to look through a bunch outside, mostly Vortex.  First off, I wanted this monocular to do one thing for me.  To be able to identify game from stumps/shooters from passers.  I don't need to know how many eyelashes he has, just if I'm going after him or not. The pros of small and light weight outweigh the cons for me this year.  After miles and miles of having big binos around my neck chasing elk in MT, I wondered why I even had them.  You see game or you don't.  Rarely do I really need to study an animal through the glasses.  Granted, it is nice to glass hillsides for game hidden in the brush, but I don't do that often and if I want to I can still do it well enough with the mono.

As far as the models go the Solo's are the way to go.  Offered in 8x36 10x36 8x25 10 x25 Its small enough to fit comfortably in my sitka hip pocket.  Super light weight to give my neck a break. Half the weight of the Recons.  The Recons are sharper, clearer, easier to spot with, but the start to get so large you might as well get small binos.  Might be a good treestand mono.  Again, if you like me and just need a quick identification on animals the Vortex monos are hard to beat.

[oldbohntr]

I have a little Zeiss 5x monocular.  Good quality optics doesn't seem to help much on these things.  As above, I can't hold them steady, and certainly not with one hand.  It takes both hands, braced against something to really get definition, even at moderate distances.  I have not tried one with a bigger barrel  - that may help steady it a bit.  

I prefer my Vortex 6 x 32s. They're small enough and work fine at longer distances as well.

[jrbows]

I like mine, don't remember the brand but it's not hi dollar it fits in a shirt pocket and helps tell the difference between a deer at 100 yards and something else, if you take one out and mess with it for a while before season getting "on target" will be easier they are a good visual aid if you want to avoid binoculars.P.S. I wear glasses and binos can be a pain since one eye is stronger than the other.