I had 3 bucks come out at 35 and 42 yards in the last few minutes of shooting light. I could see racks but could not make out the caliber. I used my range finder (nikon monarch 800) but not enough light gather to tell if any were shooters. I was wanting to get a new set of bino's that are compact with great light gather ability. Any and all advice is welcome.

Compact and great light gathering ability in the same binos is a tall order , and won't be cheap . At the very least you're talking Swarovski and the other high dollar binos . If you can make a small sacrifice in the compact requirement you'll end up with a lot more choices . A medium to large objective lens and fully multi coated lenses will drink in plenty of light without much loss from glare and distortion and you can find them in affordable models .

Kevin is right on the money. I usethe Swarovski Laser Guide's for bowhunting alot. They offera good range finder coupled with great 8x30 optics but are costly. They fit comfortly in your hands and are light weight. While they do deliver more light than a regular ranger finder a set of good binoculars with at least 40-42 mm objectives are better for seeing in low light.

Here's a picture of the Laser Guides compared to a set of 10x42 SLC's...in which they are not all that big compared to the 50mm's.

Thanks for the reply. Swars. a little to costly for me right now. I plan on looking at Leuopld, Nikon, Burris, Bushnell in the 10X42. Any experience with these.

Thanks for the response. Just noticed your from Ramsey IN. I'm from Ramsey as well. Small world.

I just bought a pair of Hunter's Edge 10x42 about a month ago. I am very happy with them (size and performance). I wanted to spend about $150. I found this pair of binos and they were $180, so I decided to wait a while. Come to rind out, they were haveing a pre season sale, which got me some money off, and there was and instant manufacturers rebate. I spent about $140 tax and all.

Keep in mind, I have only used the cheap Wal-Mart binos before, so that is all that I have to compare them to.

I have a set of Bushnell Legend 8 x 42 and I’ve been very satisfied with them. They're nice and clear but was surprised on how well they gather light in low light condition. I’ve been scouting for deer in my field lately and find they pick up objects very well at dusk. They don’t have the power for long distance but can still see the deer when my eyes have trouble. Take a peek at these binocs. Just might be something you’re looking for and they have the rainguard that also works very well...

I would tend to agree with the others. Low light gathering ability is usually the function of two characteristics, a large objective size and quality lenses and coatings. If you forego the large objective (40-50mm) in favor of a more compact design then you need to rely on quality lenses and coatings to gather the light. That does mean paying more money....Leica, Swaro, Zeiss, etc... My suggestions initially would focus around the 32 mm models of the top 3 (4 if you count the upper end Nikon) but the very least you would spend would be about $900 (for the Nikon 32 mm).

If that is too pricey then consider some of the $500-$800 32 mm models on the market. Zeiss Conquest, Kahles, Pentax SP series, etc.... The next step below that would be something like Nikon Monarchs, Bushnell Legends, Pentax XP series, etc... All can be found in both the 32 mm and 42 mm configuration and in fairly small packages to boot.

I'm not an expert on bino, but I just got an Alpen 10x42 around $65 sale. I tried it early morning in the fog and it's bright and clear enough for me. This is out to about 60-80 yards. Any shooter within this range should be clearly identify. Of course, there are more expensive gold plated bino too.