Originally Posted by
NY Bowhunter
If you cant clearly see a deer at 50 yards in a wide open field with your bare eyes, you should be on your way back to your vehicle and not shooting.
And there is no extending your hunting hours. They are what they are.
I didn't say wide open field. I said in the open. As in, not in the forest. And I didn't say at all times. I said at Dusk.
Actually, here is precisely what I said:
Get a pair of binoculars. Deer come out at dawn and dusk. They are well camoflouged. At dusk, even at 50 yards, you might be hard pressed to see a deer standing still in the open with your bare eyes. Decent binoculars will help you see them better and extend your available hunting hours. As will a scope.
Some days the light is flat. Some days its bright and sunny. Sometimes they are in the shadow, sometime they are in the light.
Not sure about your eye sight, but mine is 20/20.
And if a deer is standing still, 50 yards from you, on the edge of a field (or in the field but in a shadow) at dusk or dawn and the backstop is a supply of rolled hay, your going to be hard pressed to see him if he doesn't move. That's his natural camaflouge, and it works.
Here in Virginia, we can hunt till 30 minutes past sunset. With a pair of decent binoculars and/or a decent scope you have no trouble seeing a deer in any conditions 30 minutes past sunset on most properties I hunt.
Without them, especially in the woods or in the shadows (even shadows out in the open), you may not see the deer.
Hence, having good glass WILL EXTEND THE HOURS YOU ARE ABLE TO HUNT ie: your hunting hours.