Skunked

This morning I found myself without adult supervision, also without grandkid supervision, so I headed for the deer woods. Got to my stand about 6:00 a.m., poured some coffee and settled in. At daylight, I took out my binoculars and scanned the wood line, just in time to see a doe break from the woods and cross the pipeline in two hops. She was loping through the woods, running away or toward something, but moving at an energetic pace.

I sat in the stand till 11:00. Saw crows and squirrels and cardinals. No more deer. That one pilgrim at 7:00 was it.

I've found lately that I use binoculars more and more. Last year I bought a Nikon Action 10X50 on sale at Academy Sports for about $100.00. Back in the day, when I was commanding tanks for Uncle Sam, I used binocs a lot. If I was in the field, I had a pair of binoculars slung around my neck. The binoculars I used in the Army were all 10X50s, either Bausch and Lomb or Swarovski, depending on who had the contract and what the supply sergeant issued. Granted, the ranges in the Louisiana woods are short, but a good pair of binocs helps see through brush and look into a tree line.

Lots of times I'll be looking down the pipeline and see something way down yonder and ask myself, "What is that?". It's easy to lift the binoculars and identify whatever it might be. If I didn't have my binocs handy I might lift the rifle and use those optics, and that's a bad idea for a lot of reasons.

That Nikon binocualar is an asset to my hunting. Photographers have learned to rely on Nikon optics and the products I've seen recently are convincing me that Nikon has great glass at popular prices. If you don't have a good set of binoculars, you might give the Nikon line a chance. They're PawPaw endorsed.