Optics for the Hunter

I've only read the scope section so far. It has info that everyone should know but is not commonly known. You'll find out how scopes are built and what makes a good one. It is not always the most expensive one! This book is well worth the price and your time to read.

Most hunters and shooters have a dismal understanding of optics. For evidence, go to a shooting range or hunting camp and pay attention -- you'll see such absurdities as guys with $2K rifles toting $30.00 K-Mart binoculars, guys with short-ranged 30-30s topped with gigantic 4-14x scopes, and guys with European optics that cost more than a well-used car who can't hunt or shoot well enough to remotely take advantage of their gear. This book is the antidote to such maladies. John Barsness is one of the two best currently active hunting/gun writers. (The other is Craig Boddington.) In this book, the best of its kind that I'm aware of, Barsness has done something incredible -- made a treatise on optics (which could easily have become a dry morass of technical info and jargon) that's also an enjoyable read. Barsness does an excellent job of informing the curious hunter about all aspects of hunting optics -- gun scopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, and even rangefinders. He tells you what attributes to look for and why. He also dispels a lot of the myths about hunting optics (eg., that bigger is always better, that optical brightness is the single most important attribute of a riflescope, that ultra-expensive, hard-to pronounce Euro-scopes are the greatest thing since smokeless powder, etc.) Barsness, to his credit, looks not only at the Rolls Royce-level optics that few real-life hunters can afford; he also looks at middle-class and even proletarian products, and points out that many of them are better than you'd expect (just like expensive optics can sometimes be lemons.) This is a book that I've referred back to again and again, and have found extremely helpful when shopping for scopes, binoculars, and spotting scopes of my own. I highly recommend it to any hunter.

In spite of being a little dated this study of optic basics is extremely useful. After reading this book I understood more about optics and their performance than I could have hoped. Barsness has a logical style that begins in basics, describes how American optics differ from European, and how to compare to get best value for dollar (high price doesn't neccessarily mean best). He also writes an enlightening segment on how to use binocular,rifle scope, and spotting scope as a system becoming more aware of all that goes on just beyond our sight. This was an entertaining book to read and a pleasure to learn from.

My friend turned me on to this book. It really does have everything you need to know before buying rifle scopes and binocular. Easy to understand objective opinions on all hunting optics. If your in the market for optics or you need to know where your currently owned optics fit in, then you'll want this book. Highly Recommended. AAA+++

This is one of the best books on optics I have ever encountered. It is filled with knowledge for the layman, but it is detailed enough to satisfy the expert. Barsness walks the reader through the pros and cons of various styles and brands of binoculars, rifle scopes, spotting scopes, and rangefinders. He does not hesitate to make explicit comparisons between various makes and models, and he helps the reader make informed decisions about quality vs. price. Do yourself a favor and study this book before buying another piece of optics-related equipment.