
Line up the silhouette with a human sized silhouette for immediate ranging or use the Mil-Dots for measurement and you can quickly calculate the range all without batteries. This method also prevents rangefinder errors because grass was waving in front of you while you were snuggled into a prone position. Ahh, good old fashioned manual ranging technology paired with enough magnification power to actually see details that an electronic 4x rangefinder would fail to deliver. In my opinion, this was one of the top optic products of the 2016 SHOT Show this year and after testing, I believe it should be in everyone’s kit.

If you are using a Mil-Dot ranging system, regular scouting optics would require you to find what you are looking for and then get behind your rifle to relocate the target and use the rifle optics’ reticle to measure objects in order to calculate the distance for the shooting solution. With both the Vortex RECON R/T and Vortex SOLO R/T you or a shooting partner can find and range a target and the rifle only needs to be used to deliver the shooting solution. Some people would say “why do I care?” The main reason is that the Vortex Monoculars get the measurement tool off a potentially loaded gun so that you can range all sorts of stuff at football games, golfing, and keeping an eye on that car down the street all without waving a gun muzzle around. The other valid reason is that it gives you a ranging and scouting tool which will never require batteries. Once you start burning into your brain the mil-dot sizes of typical animals, human, and environmental objects, ranging can be really fast without any math involved.
Vortex has though each of these monoculars out very well. Both have belt clips to make it easy and simple to clip to a belt or pack. Other accessories include lens covers, lanyards, and neoprene covers which are compact and protective. The larger RECON R/T also includes a hand strap, picatinny rail, tripod adapter, and mini tripod.
It feels more rugged and is a more featured packed kit compared to the slimmed down Solo. Where I see the primary use of the Recon R/T 10x and 15x models is taking the place of compact spotting scopes in the field while also reducing the weight burden of also carrying binoculars and ranging devices.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It is easy to whip out your laser range finder, but there are many situations where I have found these tools to deliver false or unreliable readings. Mil-based ranging may not give you the perfect accuracy of a laser range finder, but the Recon and Solo do provide a tool which can validate a range and double as a scouting tool. A brilliant idea by Vortex of offering this concept in an affordable package to the consumer markets.
SPECS
VORTEX RECON R/T
Magnification 10 x
Objective Lens Diameter 50 mm
Eye Relief 19.5 mm
Exit Pupil 5 mm
Linear Field of View 280 feet/1000 yards
Angular Field of View 5.3 degrees
Close Focus 12 feet
Length 7 inches
Width 3 inches
Hand Grip Width 2.4 inches
Weight 15.2 ounces
$689
VORTEX SOLO R/T
Magnification 8 x
Objective Lens Diameter 36 mm
Eye Relief 18 mm
Exit Pupil 4.5 mm
Linear Field of View 393 feet/1000 yards
Angular Field of View 7.5 degrees
Close Focus 16.4 feet
Length 5.3 inches
Width 2.3 inches
Hand Grip Width 2 inches
Weight 10.2 ounces
$159
Vortex Optics - http://www.vortexoptics.com
3 comments:
nice blog
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