Traditionally a surrendering military officer hands over his sword or, in more recent times, sidearm. But when U-Boats were captured during World War II, victorious allied naval officers often demanded that German captains relinquish their binoculars instead. After long months of playing deadly games of cat and mouse, they recognized the German’s superior optics for, Read More

Humans are decidedly visual hunters. Sure, we’ve got four additional senses, and when we’re performing at our highest levels they all contribute. But relative to most other terrestrial mammalian predators, we are disproportionately reliant on sight to find and follow game. That fact is so fundamental that we often fail to (ahem) see it., Read More

Turns out I’ve only owned one pair of binoculars and I lost those in a horse wreck in Wyoming’s Red Desert circa 2003. As a kid I borrowed a compact pair of Nikons from my dad. Since the horse wreck, I’ve had some 20 year old 8×32 Pentax’s, on semi-permanent loan from my brother., Read More