Welcome back to Wise Man Company, everyone. Ben here again, and today we're going to look at a very useful piece of gear, at least it has been in my life, and that is the monocular. Specifically, the Vortex line of monoculars. Vortex was nice enough to send me their lineup to try out to see which one I liked best. You guys might like a different one. They all have some unique features, they all kind of do some similar things, but at the end of the day, you might need one for a specific role. We're going to look at all four of these. They are great pieces of glass. Some of you might ask, Why don't you like binoculars? And I don't mind binoculars, I think they're fine. I just think they're a little bulky, they can be a little bit more time-consuming if you need to use them quickly to adjust everything to get them right. I like the simplicity of binoculars, really that's all it comes down to, take up less space in my bag, that's why.

i like them. Let's start out by going with least expensive to most expensive monocular. Again, covering all the little features and little quirks each one has. I'll tell you which one was my favorite, and at the end, hopefully you can tell me which one you would think would work best for you. Okay, first up, the Solo. And there are four variations of this monocular, I believe. It'll come in an 8x and a 10x. So, this is the 8x version. As you can see, incredibly small, tiny, tiny, tiny. This monocular is going to be the lowest investment. It comes in right around $100 MSRP. You can get some a little bit more expensive versions of this, but most of them are going to be around $100 price point. And the biggest advantage I see with this one is its size. It is tiny, very, very small. So, you do have ocular adjustment here, and you do have focus back here as well. The focus ring is nice and tactile. You can see those little nubbies on it. You can't miss it.

they're all going to come in this green color. It's like a rubberized texture to protect monocular itself. This one, again, is the 8x, and it is perfect, I think. If you're a bow hunter, you're a bird watcher, you're a backpacker. A little known fact about me: I am a bird watcher. I used to get made fun of, used to. I still get made fun of it all the time about being a bird watcher. I love bird watching. This is just perfect because it doesn't have a reticle in it. It's just straight glass, and it's really small, so it's simple, it's easy to use. I let my kids run around with it for a while. They loved it, and it's just a low investment for a great piece of glass that's going to be pretty handy. So this is the solo. Really, really like this one. Not my favorite, at least from the uses I need a monocular for, but I can see a lot of people gravitating towards this one.

next let's move over to the vortex solo rt. And as you can tell already, this is a little bit bigger, but it has more going on with it. Starting at the back here, we do have this ocular flap. I didn't really use this the majority of the time, I just kind of folded it forward to get it out of the way, but you can block out some light with it. It's easy on the eye. This does have two points of focus on it, as you'll see here. So, it has a reticle focus and then it has your actual objective lens focus. So, you can get that reticle real nice and crisp. If you have poor vision, this is probably the best way to go because you can just kind of line everything up nice and crisp to your eyesight. It has a metal clip here, which I didn't use, but I can see a lot of people using it. It is robust, again it's metal, clip it on your belt, pants, backpack, whatever you want. Lanyard loop still has that rubberized.

texture on the outside. This one's a gray color, and that's the only color it comes into my knowledge. I liked this one. It was just a little bit more complicated than I need. MSRP on it is 220, so you'll be able to find these for a little bit less than that. Still a great monocular. Again, I can see someone that has, you know, poorer eyesight gravitating towards this one just because you can tune it up exactly how you want it. The reticle on the inside is a ranging reticle. I'll roll in a picture of that. It is 8x magnification, and for those of you that might be using this for shooting applications, you might say, Man, that's not that much magnification for range use, but honestly, for the majority of us, the ranges we're shooting at, 8x is perfectly fine. It's going to work great. The back to the reticle on the inside, it did work great, so you'll see silhouettes that are going to give range estimation. I used those silhouettes on c.

zone ta target steel, and it got me very close to the range that they were actually at. So I did like the reticle inside for range estimation. This is the Solo RT. Next is the Recce Pro HD, and this is the one I choose if I could only choose one. It just does everything pretty well. It's really easy to use. So this is going to come with lens caps, which I don't really care for. I take those off. They're kind of in the way. It does have your adjustment, your focus adjustment knob right here. It's a little bit slim line, doesn't have those nubbies on it, but still moves very, very easily. Metal pocket clip if you still want that lanyard loop has that ocular rubber piece at the eyepiece, which again I just folded over and got out of the way. It is an 8x magnification with a ranging reticle on the inside again really like that ranging reticle on the inside. It does not have those two focus rings like you saw.

on the solo rt just one focus ring which again i that's all i really need. Is one focus ring. This is awesome. This has been riding in my backpack. It doesn't take up much room. Again, this is the one i'd choose if i could only choose one. MSRP on this 400 bucks. A little bit more expensive but a great quality binocular. So i could only choose one. And i don't have to but if i can only choose one. I think i'd go with this one because it does everything really well. And finally, this is the recon rt. As you can see, a much bigger beefier monocular. This is a 15 x magnification. So there's your size right there. I found myself using this one the most only because my job kind of needs a monocular of this capability. I'm the general manager of jtac ranch. It's a large shooting range. You can shoot out to a mile on it. So that 15x magnification really comes in handy. This has rode around in my range bag just bouncing around in.

there's no cover or anything, and I constantly am grabbing this one. MSRP 700 bucks, much more expensive, but again, you're getting that 15x magnification. You have two mounts on it, so if you wanted to put a foot, you could put this on a tripod if you wanted to to get a little bit more stable. The focus ring has these big tactile flaps on it, so it moves really nice and easily because you can get some good leverage on it. Only one focus ring. It does have a metal pocket carrying clip, of course, if you need to, and it has that ranging reticle on the inside, which man just comes in handy so so much when you're spotting for somebody. So this is the recon rt, again, a little bit more expensive, but you're getting a lot more capability out of this guy. This is perfect for a range bag. If you're a long-range shooter, maybe you're a long-range hunter, I think the recon rt would be the ticket for you. As always, guys, with the Vortex.

products. It is a lifetime warranty, no questions asked. So you break it, someone else breaks it, weather breaks, anything happens to it, you can get these fixed, returned, new ones shipped out to you, no questions asked. I love that warranty, and I always love mentioning it because that is a huge selling point. If you're hard on your gear, if you use your gear, if you've been using gear for a long time, stuff breaks, stuff happens to it. So the ability to send it back, get it fixed, and have that done quickly is very, very valuable, at least it is to me. And I've definitely put Vortex to the test on that warranty, and it's always been easy to do. They make it painless, and they get you back up and running as soon as possible. So that lifetime warranty also applies to these monoculars, which is great, guys. I hope this video helped. Again, I think binoculars are incredibly valuable. I use them all the time. I always make sure I have one in the vehicle. You never know when you need to see a

little bit further range something take in more data from a longer distance. Binoculars are easy to use, they're relatively inexpensive, and I think Vortex has a great lineup here. So leave me a comment down below, let me know what you think. Are you guys a monocular user? Which one did you like best out of before? Love to hear from you guys. Thanks for watching, go over to wisemancompany.com, that's the best way to support us, a lot of great products over there for you guys to pick up. My name is Ben Brown, thanks for watching. Here's a little pro tip guys, if you have two monoculars, you can actually make binoculars by meaning two. Yeah, I don't think that's how it works.

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