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I have somewhat different circumstances than most.
I grew up in the Copper River basin and learned to hunt from many of the real
old timers. I also live there during the summer and am only in Fairbanks because of the
very good quality of education both for my son and for my place of employment.

I have six different trail networks into different drainages and I aim to get up on high saddles on a ridgeline and then completely map out sheep drainage by drainage.
I also plan to get a very good set of portable or handheld binos to assess where the rams are as I sneek into the drainages.  The tripod mounted bino system appeals to me because I usually do a huge amount of preseason scouting.

I also believe that I might take the big binos and haul them up on my workout spot. It is
a 3500 ft ridge that I use my B+L spotter to look into three of the six drainages.  The
Minox use FL glass and might be really great to check the ram situation.

I believe that many times a strategy of packing the monsters works if you get up before dark climb with a headlamp and then climb and get above a ridge or knoll and then scour everything as it gets light. If you pick the right saddle usually a divide between drainages you get a pretty good idea about the sheep in the area.

I have noticed that the Ultravids are on the north side of 1600$. Many sites have Trinovids for sale yet many on Birdforum.net claim that their isn't a huge amount of difference between them.  Birdforum.net is a good place to find out about differences in binos.
I just was wondering if there was anybody who had these other binos and used them
in the brush and backwoods.

I know that big binoculars are clunky and rude but many of the old time guides like Bud Conkle and Jack Lee did the same mongo bino strategy to great effect.

Message Thread:

• Getting a brand new pair of binos? kaboku68 Oct 21 2005
  • Yep, tried the Minox DennisM Oct 22 2005
  • need more info Fullcurl Oct 21 2005
    • This is what I want to do! kaboku68 Oct 21 2005
      • Leica Geovid Sheep Hunter Oct 22 2005
  • leica with rangefinder---good combo??? tex-mex Oct 21 2005
    • Leica Geovids bizymocha Oct 22 2005
    • geovids fullkurl Oct 21 2005
      • Thanks again tex-mex Oct 22 2005
    • Leica bino/rangefinder combo Romo Oct 21 2005
  • Swarovski Habicht AkHunter45 Oct 21 2005
  • Leica Ultravids Romo Oct 21 2005
    • 10x42 Leica Ultravids 375ultramag Oct 23 2005
  • Size Snowwolfe Oct 21 2005
    • reply to "size" from Snowwolfe tex-mex Oct 21 2005
      • 10x Snowwolfe Oct 22 2005
    • Forgot Snowwolfe Oct 21 2005
  • Leica Daveinthebush Oct 21 2005
  • leica, swarovski sh Oct 21 2005
  • Optics Michael Strahan Oct 21 2005
  • Check the archives... Doc Oct 21 2005