The best hunting optics help you see more, shoot straighter, and make every moment in the field count. Our editors picked their favorite binoculars, scopes, and rangefinders for clarity, performance, and durability you can count on.
Best Hunting Optics
Vortex FURY HD 5000 AB Laser Range-finding Binocular
The 5000 AB uses the Applied Ballistics Elite solver for generating shooting solutions. For hunting purposes, we found the ballistics solutions of these binos to be within about an inch of the solutions provided by Hornady 4DOF, Leupold BX-4 Range HD binos, and a Kestrel 5700 Elite, out to ranges of 700 yards. Ranging accuracy was on par with the Leupold BX-4 Range HD binos, which is excellent. Note that no matter whose ballistic calculator you use, it is critical to have accurate rifle muzzle velocity and environmental conditions, or the solutions will be inaccurate.
These binos have sensors to provide some environmental data. Alternatively, we linked the binos to a Kestrel 5700 Elite to provide environmentals. Range-finding binoculars with ballistics solutions built-in save time when you encounter animals in the field. They also are very helpful for competitions such as NRL Hunter. Vortex’s HD 5000 AB is an excellent rangefinding bino, and Applied Ballistics is a popular, proven, ballistics calculator.
Leupold Mark 5HD 3.6-18×44 M1C3 FFP PR1-MOA – FDE (185066)
Editor George Krumm put this scope on his custom 7 PRC using Leupold Mark 4 Rings. The main tube is 35 mm with a 44 mm objective. It is a first-focal-plane scope and George used the PR1-MOA reticle which is very clean—no “Christmas tree” to obscure you view of game, or your ability to spot hits or misses, yet it still has holdover or wind-hold values. It looks much more like a hunting reticle than many of those you see in first-focal-plane scopes. It has a lowprofile throw lever to move through the magnification range.
It has a side focus so you can adjust parallax, and Leupold’s excellent ZeroLock turret system. 3.6-18 is a very versatile zoom range, enabling you to engage at very close distances, yet still be able to reach out to long range. At 23 ounces, this scope is very light considering the capability and quality it delivers. This scope has 80 MOA of windage adjustment, and 100 MOA of elevation adjustment—far more than most hunters will ever need. There are actually 13 versions of the Mark 5HD in 3.6-18, in black or FDE, with several different reticles to choose from in either MOA or MIL.
Bushnell R5 2000 Range Finder
Bushnell packs a lot of features into this modestly priced 6 x 25 mm range finder. The unit can range targets within 2,000 yards, and includes Angle Range Compensation so that users get a true distance measurement when ranging uphill and downhill targets. One of the things we like best about Bushnell is that their optics have less tendency to fog. We deduce that this results from their Exo Barrier lens coating and IPX4 Waterproofing. We haven’t used this feature yet, but the unit includes Applied Ballistics Ultralite so you can determine elevation and wind adjustments for your specific guns and bullet combination. Using the Bushnell Ballistics app and the unit’s Bluetooth connection, you can dial the range finder to your settings, making this a more custom range finder than many. Like we said, there’s a lot of features packed into this value-priced unit.
Leupold Mark 4HD 4.5-18×52 ZL-E (183623)
This first-focal-plane scope has 34 mm tube, and an illuminated PR1-MOA reticle. This reticle is reminiscent of most traditional hunting reticles but also has hashmarks for holdover and windage —a great combination of features for hunters. If you like the clear field of view of a duplex reticle, plus the MOA delineations of a target scope, you’ll like this PR1 reticle. The illumination is activated by a button on the side-focus turret and has 8 different brightness levels. It also has a built-in level, which helps in installing the scope completely level as well as for indicating whether cant is present when you’re preparing to fire. To activate the leveling feature, press and hold the illumination button for three seconds. The illuminated reticle flashes until the scope is level, then it illuminates steadily. The level is sensitive to + or – 1°.
The reticle illumination has to be turned on for the level feature to work. This level works well, but it does not tell you which way you’re canted, so you have to figure that part out. It has parallax AKA side focus that adjusts from 25 yards to infinity. It has 125 MOA of elevation adjustment, and 65 MOA of windage adjustment. It also has a dialable windage turret with zero-lock, so you can either dial for windage, or hold for it. We mounted this scope onto a Savage 110 Storm 6.5 PRC using Leupold Mark 4 aluminum rings and a Leupold Backcountry Cross-Slot Base. They packed an awful lot of quality features into this 27-ounce scope. It has many of the features of the Mark 5HD scopes, but at a better price point. There are 4 models in the 4.5-18 range, featuring different reticles: 2 in MOA, and 2 in MIL.