Gear Reviews

Value means getting more than you paid for, and that’s exactly what you get with Vanguard’s Endeavor ED binoculars. For binoculars with the performance and features they offer, you would typically pay 50% to 500% more.

The MRSP on the Vanguard Endeavor ED 1045 is $499, but I found them on Optics Planet for $399 and on Amazon for $379. Until November 30th there is also a special running from Vanguard that you can get a shooting stick or other accessories free when you buy a pair of these great binocs. The direct link to the promotion is: https://www.vanguardworld.com/index.php/en/os/component/content/article/6-other/137-free-shooting-stick-with-binoculars-purchase.html

The Endeavor provides 10.5 x magnification with 45 mm objective lenses. Typical sport binoculars in this power range have 42 mm lenses. The larger 45 mm objective lenses gather more light with an inconsequential trade-off in weight and size. Compared to the Vanguard ED 10 x 42 binoculars, the 10.5 x 45 add a little more than an ounce in weight and 2 mm (less than eight hundredths of an inch) in width. The added brightness is well worth the minimal weight penalty.

To get the best image quality, binoculars have to basically do two things well: transmit as much light as possible, and focus the image clearly. Glass lenses reflect some of the light from their front surfaces and the inside of their back surfaces, anyplace that glass and air touch. That’s the flash you see if you happen to be in front of someone using binoculars or a telescope. Anti-reflection (AR) lens coatings assist in light transmission and also reduce ghosting and flare. Binoculars designated as AR “Coated” have a single layer of coating on at least some of the lens surfaces. This helps but multiple layers are much more effective. You’ll know if they have multiple layers if they say “Multi Coated.” “Fully Coated” means that all glass to air surfaces are coated, and the very best binoculars have “Fully Multi Coated” lenses, like the Vanguard Endeavor.

The second problem area for light transmission is the prisms. Quality binoculars generally use one of two types of prisms: poro prisms or roof prisms. You can tell if a pair of binoculars uses poro prisms because the objective lenses are wider than the eyepieces; the prisms are mounted side-by-side inside the binoculars.

Roof prisms are mounted in-line, making the binoculars sleeker and more compact, however roof prisms require better coatings and more precise manufacturing than poro prisms, which is why roof prism binoculars typically cost more. The Vanguard Endeavor uses a combination of roof prisms, BaK4 prism glass (which is superior to BaK7 glass used in cheaper binoculars), and special phase coatings, for optimum performance.

Of course, the quality of the lenses is responsible for the quality of the image, and the Endeavor uses ED or extra low dispersion glass which makes the very best lenses. Binoculars with ED lenses actually use a pair of objective lenses, or a lens couplet, in each tube to reduce chromatic dispersion. Chromatic dispersion stems from the fact that the different colors or wavelengths of light which make up white light (think rainbow), focus at slightly different points, creating a slightly fuzzy image. The second lens in the ED couplet corrects the dispersion created by the first lens, resulting in a sharp, clear image with fine detail resolution. That’s important if you’re trying to count the points on a deer at 300 yards or to see anything in low light conditions.

The Endeavor utilizes a magnesium alloy body for lightness and strength, rubber cladding to ensure a secure grip, and is nitrogen purged to eliminate fogging and protect the internals from oxidation. They also incorporate O ring seals to make them waterproof. That doesn’t mean you can take them to 90 feet on your next diving trip. They are guaranteed waterproof to 3.3 feet, which is more than enough to keep the rain out and provide a little insurance in case you drop them in the water at your duck blind.

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This week we are giving away a choice of two optics from Swarovski Optik – a Z5 riflescope and a 65 HD spotting scope. If you haven’t entered the giveaway, it’s easy. Just “like” Swarovski Optik North America Hunting on Facebook and look for the instructions to enter. The full explanation was emailed earlier in the week and is here. As promised, this is an overview of Swarovski products, and our two giveaway scopes.
Quality is not something you can fake with optics, and learning how to buy quality optics isn’t as hard as you might think. There is a boatload of technology behind great optics: patents, design trials, and research and development, but you really don’t need to know any of that to choose an optic that outperforms the rest of the field.
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This is what you’ll get in the mail. The Nitesiters come with everything you need. They are easy to move to precisely where you want them. S&W revolver front sight before centering. NiteSiters Website: www.nitesiters.com. Whether it’s self-defense, hunting or target practice, being able to see your sights is a very good thing. For about [...]

Obsession with accuracy drives you to think up some interesting ideas, one of those is Cartridge Overall Length. It is based on the premise that when a bullet is fired from its cartridge case before it engages the rifling, it is inherently unstable, and that in this “freebore,” the bullet can get cockeyed. When you remove as much of that jump as possible by seating the bullet closer to the rifling, it will eliminate this chaotic “freebore” and hit the rifling straighter and more consistently.
The careful hand-loader or re-loader will try to minimize that jump to the rifling as much as possible.
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Close quarters battle has always been the proving ground for the EOTech line of holographic weapons sights.  You will find EOTech sights mounted on just about every type of small arms tactical weapon made, and they are equally at home on the SWAT team as they are in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. The EOTech 553 is in U.S. military service under the designation SU-231/PEQ and M553 in the commercial market.  I got a chance to look at two new products from EOTech, the updated top of the line version of their battle sight called the EXPS-3, and a new scope that sits in front of the EOTech sight for more precise shots and flips out of the way when you don’t need it. Read More…

Out of the cool closet comes a quad-rail for side by side shotguns from LaserLyte that would make even Doc Holiday come out of his grave and get out his credit card and laptop. The OK Corral would have gone a little different if he had a laser on that there doublegun, and whether you own a Rossi Coach Gun like you see here in the pictures or a fancy engraved high grade upland game gun, your home will be a little safer with this nifty easy to use device from LaserLyte. Read More…

Pellet guns let you to bring your shooting home and AirForce, a small manufacturing company in Fort Worth, Texas, makes some great guns to do it with. We tested their two most popular models, the Talon SS and the Condor, out at the ranch on a typical north Texas summer day.
There are basically three types of air guns: spring guns which must be cocked prior to each shot, CO2 guns which use small canisters of carbon dioxide as propellant, and pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) guns which use compressed air. The advantages of a PCP gun over the other two types are that they can be more powerful, they shoot more consistently, there is virtually no recoil, and follow-up shots are faster and easier since the gun doesn’t have to be cocked between shots. Read More…

See a need, fill a need. That’s the foundation of American ingenuity. While browsing through new ads coming onto GunsAmerica a couple of weeks ago, I happened upon a nifty homemade tool for adjusting the rear sight on a pistol. We’ve all gotten guns that came from the factory not shooting to point of aim, and while it isn’t an expensive gunsmith visit, it’s still a gunsmith visit. I’d rather have a tool I can bring to the range and adjust it myself, and also have to help others who I see dealing with the same issue. Read More…

Bullet drop, and compensating for it, can be extremely confusing, even for those of us who are good in math. But bullet drop itself isn’t that complicated, especially if you always use the same factory ammo with the same bullet from the same manufacturer. Nikon took this realization, concept, whatever you want to call it, to the next level in their M-223 series and designed scopes that are specifically for the bullet drop of the .223/5.56 NATO cartridge. Read More…