Speaker 1: Welcome to Gear Talk. Your Talk is a podcast where
Speaker 1: Jordan's Bud and I, to be honest to tell us,
Speaker 1: are going to your guessed it talk about gear, anything
Speaker 1: and everything about gear. What we like about it, we
Speaker 1: don't like about it, what's new, what's old, how we
Speaker 1: use it, learned stuff that we don't know about gear
Speaker 1: and how it's made, you name it. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: segments where gear experts call in and help us, you know,
Speaker 1: learn things about gear and understand gear. And when I
Speaker 1: say gear too, I want to clarify that it's gonna
Speaker 1: be everything from clothing, hats to boots, you know, hunting gear,
Speaker 1: from guns to archery equipment. Chance that you might use,
Speaker 1: you know, just backpacking or sleeping in you know, nives
Speaker 1: that you're using to cut up your animals. We might
Speaker 1: get even get into fishing gear sometimes if we get
Speaker 1: a wild hair up our asses. Uh, it's endless. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we should talk about we should talk about
Speaker 1: trucks sometimes too. I think so too. Sideboy, Oh I
Speaker 1: like it, don't I'm going Yeah, I'm going after this.
Speaker 1: I'm literally going to sign the paperwork on my canadon sick.
Speaker 1: Which would you go with I got a Defender HD
Speaker 1: nine and x T and then put a put doors
Speaker 1: and windshield and the heater in it, so it'll be
Speaker 1: pretty It would be pretty sweet, dude. I didn't do
Speaker 1: heater and mine because I went with the with the
Speaker 1: single bench with the six ft bed and it just
Speaker 1: doesn't come standard with it, and I didn't think to
Speaker 1: add it on. And that was my one mistake. And
Speaker 1: mine is actually at the shop right now getting a
Speaker 1: heat or put in because you don't realize that when
Speaker 1: you're working in it in cold temps that if you
Speaker 1: don't have heat in there. There's two things you can do.
Speaker 1: One you can keep the windows all rolled up and
Speaker 1: basically frost yourself inside there and you can't see anything.
Speaker 1: Or you have to keep the windows down and be
Speaker 1: like running goggles and whatever so that you can keep
Speaker 1: you know, the same you know, temp in and out
Speaker 1: so that you don't you know, frost over your windshield
Speaker 1: and uh anyways, yeah, good move on getting the heater.
Speaker 1: But is that is that version you got? Is that
Speaker 1: with the two benches, No, it's just with the single Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I can. I've got a trailer that I use
Speaker 1: now for like hunting and camping in But part of
Speaker 1: the reason I did it is so I could put
Speaker 1: the side by side in it and two benches won't fit,
Speaker 1: so just a single bench and it's just nicer to
Speaker 1: get in and out of tight spots. I think, Yes, definitely,
Speaker 1: there's a lot to be said for that. I'm so
Speaker 1: impressed by those things. Man Like they when there is
Speaker 1: a spot where where it really does behoove you to
Speaker 1: be in a side by side like it makes they
Speaker 1: excel so hard and make the hunt so much easier.
Speaker 1: And it's mostly just comes down to like there's there's
Speaker 1: x amount of day hours in a day, and you
Speaker 1: want to use them as efficiently as possible. And when
Speaker 1: you're ripping around traveling, doesn't matter what vehicle you're in
Speaker 1: or on, you're not hunting. And if it takes me
Speaker 1: an hour to get to the spot in my truck
Speaker 1: or twenty minutes in the can am, then by Gali,
Speaker 1: I'm getting more sleep, I'm getting more hunting and you know,
Speaker 1: less windshield time, which is absolutely great. But again it's
Speaker 1: like sometimes you can get there faster in a truck,
Speaker 1: right because maybe you're on the highway for twenty miles,
Speaker 1: But in places where you're gonna have to rip like
Speaker 1: a bumpy, rocky dirt road. It's not in good addition
Speaker 1: where if you're in your truck you're just like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, I can't believe I'm doing this to my truck. Uh.
Speaker 1: That is where those canams just excel and you can
Speaker 1: just jam down them and uh get or done. And uh,
Speaker 1: I mean there's obviously all the other benefits to Like
Speaker 1: you talked about getting in and out of tight spots, Um,
Speaker 1: what are you mostly going to use it for hunting?
Speaker 1: For sure? So I think especially late season, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of these hunts we're doing. It's like roadside camp hunts,
Speaker 1: and a lot of the access could be on just
Speaker 1: side by side trails and uh man, I've seen people
Speaker 1: they're just on four wheelers or even other side by
Speaker 1: side that don't have doors and stuff that after a
Speaker 1: couple of days of grinding it out in the super
Speaker 1: cold weather, you don't really want to go out and
Speaker 1: hunt anymore. So that's that was so my reasoning for
Speaker 1: I went the extra mile through cab On, And because
Speaker 1: I know that it's going to add the extra level
Speaker 1: of comfort, and so I'm gonna want to go in it,
Speaker 1: and that's just gonna let you be in the field longer.
Speaker 1: You know, we used to when I got it a
Speaker 1: little bit down in Mexico for j Scott and uh.
Speaker 1: In those days, the side by side that he had
Speaker 1: and the one that darr had both did not have
Speaker 1: windshields or doors or whatever. You know, he might have
Speaker 1: had like a roof, but you would bring down a
Speaker 1: hole even though, like you're in hunting in Mexican January,
Speaker 1: which it can get kind of cold, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: into the thirties, but you would bring a whole extra
Speaker 1: set of clothes just for traveling in the side by side,
Speaker 1: and we I mean big warm hat, big puffy jacket
Speaker 1: over you know, insulated you know, overall bibbs, goggles, you know,
Speaker 1: face masks, giant mittens or gloves to keep yourself warm
Speaker 1: because yeah, you know you're going for like a twenty
Speaker 1: two sixty minute rip sometimes in that open air it
Speaker 1: you know, thirty degrees and man, it can just chill
Speaker 1: you to the bone. Yeah, before you didn't get to
Speaker 1: where you're supposed to start hunting, yeah, exactly, and then
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, this is a nice way to start,
Speaker 1: just freezing cold. All right, we we've diverged. But there
Speaker 1: you go. That is a little like snippet of what
Speaker 1: you can expect. Jordan I talking gear, all kinds of
Speaker 1: gear and everything you know about it. You know, like
Speaker 1: I said, top to bottom, how it's made, how to
Speaker 1: make it better, and speaking of making it better, one
Speaker 1: of the things that we're gonna do, it's not exactly
Speaker 1: clear how we're gonna do. It's gonna be a work
Speaker 1: in progress. But we're gonna bring you along on the ride.
Speaker 1: And I guess you could call it. Some people might
Speaker 1: not consider a ride, but you're gonna get to hear
Speaker 1: how first light product is made and what's being made,
Speaker 1: Like what's being made that you have any you don't
Speaker 1: even know that it even exists in first Light uh,
Speaker 1: in the in the creator room, you know, where the
Speaker 1: where the designs first come up, the stuff that we've
Speaker 1: been talking about, because it takes years from when a
Speaker 1: product comes like if someone thinks about a new jacket
Speaker 1: until that new jacket can actually be sold to somebody,
Speaker 1: literally years two to three years on most products. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna bring you along in that process. A couple
Speaker 1: of reasons, one being that Jordan I already do it.
Speaker 1: We participate in this process with first Light and it
Speaker 1: makes us uh, you know, it's just gets us involved
Speaker 1: and our input helps, you know, make this gear hopefully
Speaker 1: better and be the gear that we want to use
Speaker 1: when it's done. Um. So we're already talking about it.
Speaker 1: We figured we should be talking about it with you. UM.
Speaker 1: We also want to let you guys bring your UH
Speaker 1: knowledge and expertise ideas to us to help that gear better.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna have it's not gonna quite be a forum. Um.
Speaker 1: At the minimum, we're gonna start off with basic, clean
Speaker 1: email address that you can write into us if you
Speaker 1: have questions about first Light gear or ideas for first
Speaker 1: Light to you know, use freak gear, whatever it might be. Man,
Speaker 1: we want it all the good, the bad, and the ugly,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna address it. We're gonna take it to
Speaker 1: first Light and have the experts there address it whatever
Speaker 1: it might be. And then lastly, we're gonna do all
Speaker 1: this as sort of a way to hopefully make everybody
Speaker 1: okay with the fact that we're not going to be
Speaker 1: probably discussing too much and reviewing or whatever dissecting gear
Speaker 1: that is made by UH competitors like could you Sitka,
Speaker 1: you know, Cabela's, whatever else it might be out there. Right,
Speaker 1: it's no surprise that the company that Jordan I work for,
Speaker 1: Meat Eater, owns first Light, they own f HF, they
Speaker 1: own Felps game Calls. So in the idea in the
Speaker 1: name of just trying to make it fun for everybody,
Speaker 1: because I don't want to just do a podcast where
Speaker 1: we're basically doing a commercial for first Light all the time. UM,
Speaker 1: I want to make it where you're learning something about,
Speaker 1: you know, how gears made. It's just gonna be from
Speaker 1: probably a person that is making first Light here. Um,
Speaker 1: you're gonna learn about the process of a jacket that's
Speaker 1: you know, coming down the pike from first Light. But
Speaker 1: again you're gonna learn about the process and you're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to be involved. You're gonna hear what's happening. Um.
Speaker 1: It's a big step for first Light to kind of
Speaker 1: do this because it opens you up to um, you know,
Speaker 1: as vulnerabilities associated there. Right, competitors can see what you're
Speaker 1: doing and can copy you. They can try to you know,
Speaker 1: beat you to the release of a certain product that
Speaker 1: you're doing. They can maybe just take an idea or
Speaker 1: like a certain one detail of an idea and you know,
Speaker 1: use that in their you know, version of set thing. Um. Anyways,
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be on. I think like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna learn a lot. You're gonna learn a lot Jordan's
Speaker 1: and hopefully the listeners are gonna learn a lot. And um,
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting, you know, and uh hopefully you all
Speaker 1: feel like invested in it, you know. And like I said,
Speaker 1: it's a long process. So don't think just because you're
Speaker 1: right in tomorrow and you say, man, really you'd like
Speaker 1: to see a hood that you can see out of
Speaker 1: the back end the front, I don't think that like
Speaker 1: next year you're gonna see a jacket, uh that you
Speaker 1: know that has holes out, you know, peeping holes out
Speaker 1: the back of the hood. It's a long process, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna kind of keep you updated, you know, with
Speaker 1: what's coming, what we're working on, what we've been testing,
Speaker 1: what we like this, that and the other. Do you
Speaker 1: want to add anything to that? Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: gonna be it's gonna be so much fun. I geek
Speaker 1: out on this stuff. I love hearing about it. Um,
Speaker 1: I think what I'm most looking forward to is like
Speaker 1: the micro review of a lot of things we just
Speaker 1: had Matt de Rosa. I'm talking about seam tape. Uh,
Speaker 1: little things like that, how jackets are put together, how
Speaker 1: any like think of any gear thing, if we can
Speaker 1: dive into it and talk about like the parts of
Speaker 1: that and how they all work together. That's not I
Speaker 1: mean every company does a little bit different, but that's
Speaker 1: not like very companies specific. That's just how like we
Speaker 1: can provide a value to the listeners just giving them
Speaker 1: the knowledge to know what they're looking at when they
Speaker 1: go into a store or when they're looking at something
Speaker 1: or hearing about a piece of gear, and they can
Speaker 1: better make a decision based on the knowledge that we
Speaker 1: can provide for them. Yeah. Yeah, we want to help
Speaker 1: you make good decisions about the gear you buy. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we hope you buy some first Light, but if you
Speaker 1: choose to go with another company's gear, uh, that's okay too.
Speaker 1: But hopefully you feel that like, because what you learned
Speaker 1: from Jordan's or what you learned from Matt Derosier's about
Speaker 1: seam tape, next time you go into the store, you're
Speaker 1: gonna flip a jacket inside out and go oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what they were talking about. And look they you know,
Speaker 1: did or do not do that thing that Matt was
Speaker 1: talking about and just make you like a more educated consumer,
Speaker 1: which is cool. Yeah, Okay, So that's what we're doing
Speaker 1: with First Light in this podcast, and you'll kind of
Speaker 1: hear the same thing with you know, we'll treat f
Speaker 1: HF and and Phelps game calls the same way as
Speaker 1: much as we can. Sometimes with it seems like with
Speaker 1: game calls, there's a lot of patents that I'm always
Speaker 1: hearing about, and so sometimes we just will have to
Speaker 1: stay mum about a certain subject because Jason's waiting on
Speaker 1: a patent to be um fulfilled. Um. But you'll be
Speaker 1: the first to know here for a lot of cool stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so exciting. Yeah, anything else you want to say
Speaker 1: just in general about our fancy new gear podcast, Man,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I think the uh, the options
Speaker 1: are endless as far as what we can talk about.
Speaker 1: Everything and anything that's involved in going on a hunt
Speaker 1: or being on a hunt we can talk about. So
Speaker 1: I'm excited for it. All right. Now for our Gear
Speaker 1: Expert segment where Jordan and I have folks call in
Speaker 1: um that are in the industry that know a lot
Speaker 1: more about certain pieces of gear or groups of gear
Speaker 1: than we do, and have him explain something to us
Speaker 1: so we can learn something, maybe how our gear works better,
Speaker 1: how to take care of it better, whatever it might be.
Speaker 1: Today we have Mark Boardman from Vortex Optics here to
Speaker 1: talk diopters. Mark, tell me what you're doing over at
Speaker 1: Vortex these days, how you're doing, and then we'll jump
Speaker 1: into diopters. So yeah, man, I appreciate, appreciate you're having
Speaker 1: me on. So yeah, man, Mark Boardman Vortex Optics been
Speaker 1: in the mark any department in various capacities for going
Speaker 1: on fourteen years now, so we've known each other for
Speaker 1: a long time. Yahnus and Meteator crew, so it's super cool.
Speaker 1: Um Yeah, I focus primarily on our podcast now. So
Speaker 1: that's uh, that's what I That's what I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of my time. You're so you're a podcast house now,
Speaker 1: that's that's why we got all the fancy equipment. Nice,
Speaker 1: you're a long time you're a long time listener, then
Speaker 1: I take it listen. You can't get mad at me
Speaker 1: from not listening, because I don't listen to any podcast
Speaker 1: that I personally produce. I don't know if you listen.
Speaker 1: That's a question for you. Do you listen to the
Speaker 1: podcast you produce? Uh, for editing purposes and things like that. Yes,
Speaker 1: But once I asked that to Joe Rogan, he said, nope, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have to generally, I remember like pretty good. But
Speaker 1: like you know, sometimes I'll go back and listen, like
Speaker 1: if we haven't written like the copy for the description,
Speaker 1: like I'll kind of go back and scan through. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't like, I'm not fully like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not that into myself, and I'm like, I better
Speaker 1: go listen to myself somewhere today. Yeah, I just I seriously,
Speaker 1: I just don't have I don't like to listen to
Speaker 1: stuff when I run, which should be a great time
Speaker 1: to listen to podcasts and music, but I like to
Speaker 1: listen to the wind and the birds. So, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: but listen. I'm telling you, I'm driving to Michigan here
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks, I'm gonna listen to the
Speaker 1: Vortex podcast. Man. I appreciate that that's the time to
Speaker 1: crush a podcast. Man, My commute is about an hour
Speaker 1: both ways, so I crush a fair amount of podcasts,
Speaker 1: so uh so, yeah, I can, I can. I can
Speaker 1: clean up pretty good. All right, let's jump to diopters.
Speaker 1: Um we're supposed to be talking about. Yeah, the topic,
Speaker 1: yea yea. Everybody knows should know that there's a diopter
Speaker 1: dial or two, which I think Mark's is gonna explain
Speaker 1: hopefully for us on your binoculars, and you're supposed to
Speaker 1: dial them and set them to make the binoculars work
Speaker 1: better for your eyes. That's pretty much my sort of
Speaker 1: taken under standing on it, and but I'm always unsure
Speaker 1: when I said it, if I'm doing it properly. Jordan's
Speaker 1: what about you? Are you kind of in the same
Speaker 1: boat or do you feel like when you dial your
Speaker 1: diopter you're dialed. I feel like I'm pretty dialed. Uh.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I feel like I have to adjust it, Like
Speaker 1: from hunt to hunt, I feel like I'll readjusted or
Speaker 1: even from day to day um or readjust it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like an individual focus for each eye that. Uh,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people actually overlooked, don't even
Speaker 1: know about it. Yeah, I mean, I think I mean
Speaker 1: you guys, you know you stole my thunder no, Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean you nailed it. I mean essentially,
Speaker 1: what a die opter is dealing, it's h adjusting for
Speaker 1: variants in your eyes. You have two eyes, they're gonna
Speaker 1: be a little bit different, right, So it's adjusting and
Speaker 1: making sure the binocular is focused to accommodate, you know,
Speaker 1: essentially the vision in both of your eyes. In general,
Speaker 1: i'd say most commonly, you're gonna see a right eye
Speaker 1: die opter. So it's gonna be a ring that's located
Speaker 1: on the right I pase of your binocular. Um. With
Speaker 1: that ring, you're gonna see a scale right, so you're
Speaker 1: gonna see like a kind of like a zero reference mark, uh,
Speaker 1: and then a plus or a minus, and then kind
Speaker 1: of some like uh, some adjustment graduations to kind of
Speaker 1: you know, be able to take note of where you've
Speaker 1: adjusted that. Um. Oftentimes it will be a locking diopter,
Speaker 1: so that ring will pop up to to unlock it
Speaker 1: and make those adjustments. Once you've made that adjustment, pop
Speaker 1: it back down, lock it in. You definitely want to
Speaker 1: unlock it though before you make that adjustment, because um,
Speaker 1: you can damage the binocular. So we get we get that.
Speaker 1: You know, some people at times people the damn diopter stuck.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, I just need to unlock it. But
Speaker 1: we'll fix that for you. Um but yeah, so, like
Speaker 1: I said, and then outside of you know, adjusting it
Speaker 1: to accommodate for for the you know, this discrepancy, your
Speaker 1: variance between your two eyes, you can also use it
Speaker 1: to make sure I guess it's kind of doing two
Speaker 1: things at once when it's set properly. It's going to
Speaker 1: make sure that things are coming in and out of
Speaker 1: focus at exactly the same time when you're using just
Speaker 1: the center focus wheel. Right, So, and there's kind of
Speaker 1: a check that you can do, like after you've set
Speaker 1: your diopter, to confirm that everything is working properly. If
Speaker 1: that makes sense, then we can kind of go into
Speaker 1: how to set your diopter because that's, you know, its
Speaker 1: own process. Yeah, that does make sense. How come most
Speaker 1: binoculars are only one I for the diopter? Oh man,
Speaker 1: now you're now you're asking the tough questions you honest,
Speaker 1: I never asked why. I just I just learned how
Speaker 1: to use the darn things. So, um right, I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, yeah, and in some in some instances I'd
Speaker 1: see you'd see it largely or I'd say more commonly,
Speaker 1: at least in my experience, on like a poorer prism
Speaker 1: style binocular UM where you have individual I focus. I
Speaker 1: think that can be an asset for people that maybe
Speaker 1: have a high degree of variants, you know, between the
Speaker 1: vision and both of their eyes. UM. But yeah, most
Speaker 1: commonly you're gonna see just just the single right eye
Speaker 1: die opter some and and really every binocular in our
Speaker 1: lineup is going to have that. I'd say an exception
Speaker 1: to that would be our Fury HD range finding binocular
Speaker 1: which has the radical focus on the right eye piece
Speaker 1: and then the die opter is on the left eye piece.
Speaker 1: But that's that's the one exception in our lineup. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, if you step outside the vortex lineups the
Speaker 1: lineup of binoculars, sometimes you'll see a center die opter
Speaker 1: that's actually kind of like integrated into the focus wheel. UM.
Speaker 1: But the process for setting it will be the same
Speaker 1: as you know, just a standard right eye die opter. Okay,
Speaker 1: so let's talk about setting it and tell me real
Speaker 1: quick if you don't set it, like, what are you losing?
Speaker 1: What's going wrong with when you're using your binoculars? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, if if you don't have it set properly,
Speaker 1: you know, depending on your personal vision, like you know,
Speaker 1: you might just have, um, just a less desirable optical
Speaker 1: experience overall, like just stuff like is isn't gonna be
Speaker 1: in focus for like, you know, both of your eyes.
Speaker 1: It's easy to set it's it's definitely i'd say most
Speaker 1: you know, all of our binoculars you know, have have
Speaker 1: a die opter um and it's it's it is something
Speaker 1: you're gonna want to pay attention to. Um. For me,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty lucky personally. Um, you know, I can essentially
Speaker 1: just set it on the zero mark and you know,
Speaker 1: my division of both my eyes is like pretty similar,
Speaker 1: so I'd be good to go. But I still set
Speaker 1: it though, because you're gonna find that you're gonna want
Speaker 1: to shave generally, you know, either a little bit to
Speaker 1: the the riot or left of that zero mark. And
Speaker 1: setting it is just it's so easy. It's just something
Speaker 1: that that you want to do, and if you haven't
Speaker 1: been paying attention to it, you might find that your
Speaker 1: you know, your overall viewing experience is enhanced once you do.
Speaker 1: All right, tell us how to set it so to
Speaker 1: set your diopter you know, and This is like you said,
Speaker 1: we've got you know, I've got one in front of
Speaker 1: you right now. It's it's a it's a canna raise
Speaker 1: your uh D. On my forty two, one of my
Speaker 1: favorites has got a locking right eye die opter, like
Speaker 1: we talked about before. But you're going to want to
Speaker 1: uh close your right eye, So you're going to close
Speaker 1: your right eye or cover uh cover the uh cover
Speaker 1: the the ocular there. Um, I always just close my
Speaker 1: right eye. Some some people kind of have a problem
Speaker 1: with that. That That makes them squin a little bit. So
Speaker 1: you can just you know, cover in some capacity. But
Speaker 1: you're gonna so you're gonna cover the the right ocular
Speaker 1: or close your right eye, and then you're gonna focus
Speaker 1: on an object I'd say an objectle with you know,
Speaker 1: um maybe a high level of detail. You yards away
Speaker 1: with your left eye, and you'll roll roll the center
Speaker 1: focus wheel until that object is in sharp focus. And
Speaker 1: then once you do that, unlock the die opter if
Speaker 1: it's a walking die opter, close your left eye, and
Speaker 1: then use the die opter to adjust the focus until
Speaker 1: it's as sharp as possible on that same object. Once
Speaker 1: you get that, lock it back down in and I
Speaker 1: mean essentially your diopter is set. I see, so you're
Speaker 1: basically that's how you're matching the two. You focus the
Speaker 1: left one and then you're focusing the right one with
Speaker 1: the diopter, and that's how you're matching the two. So they're, oh,
Speaker 1: you know what I do most of the time is
Speaker 1: I don't do the left part. I just skip right
Speaker 1: to the right part, which is why mine is probably
Speaker 1: never dial Hey, they still call you the lot being eagle,
Speaker 1: So something's working, right. I check mine after it's done.
Speaker 1: I check mine, like open both eyes and still leave
Speaker 1: the diopter unlocked, and I can feather it in and
Speaker 1: out a little bit and just and then I don't know,
Speaker 1: you can you can tell definitely when it clears up
Speaker 1: and when it doesn't um hmm. And then I like
Speaker 1: check it, make a couple of adjustments and then lock
Speaker 1: it back down or just leave it if it's not
Speaker 1: locking yep, yep. And then that other check that I
Speaker 1: was talking about earlier that you can do is you know,
Speaker 1: you can pick that same object again. I picked something.
Speaker 1: You know. This is once you've you know, done those
Speaker 1: two things and you've got your diopter set, um, pick
Speaker 1: an object with high level of detail you know whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty or forty yards away or something like that,
Speaker 1: and then just kind of like consciously look through the
Speaker 1: blocular at that at that object you know, hopefully it
Speaker 1: has like uh maybe almost like two sides to it,
Speaker 1: and then roll your center focus and just make sure
Speaker 1: that almost like both sides of that object with high
Speaker 1: detail are coming in and out of focus at the
Speaker 1: same rate. And if they're doing those things at the
Speaker 1: same time, Like I said, that's kind of like that
Speaker 1: that after check, you're like cool, I'm good to go.
Speaker 1: Everything set um. And And the other nice thing about
Speaker 1: this is like it's definitely something that you can check
Speaker 1: over time, but it's not necessarily critical. Like every time
Speaker 1: I use my bio binoculars and you know, I better go,
Speaker 1: you know, check my diopter unless your vision is changing,
Speaker 1: you know, dramatically or or whatever what have you. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not something you really have to do all the time.
Speaker 1: So um, you know, why why is it that you
Speaker 1: want to do it at like that close range? Why
Speaker 1: not do it something that's five yards away? So you know,
Speaker 1: my thought there is you know, as you enter introduce um,
Speaker 1: you know, those extended ranges, you're also introducing additional variables.
Speaker 1: It could be you know, a high pollen count day,
Speaker 1: could be a hotter day where you're dealing with heat waves,
Speaker 1: and you kind of might get like, um like in essence,
Speaker 1: like a false reading or something like that. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: at those closer distances, you're just gonna be able to
Speaker 1: see that finer detail. Um and and make sure that
Speaker 1: everything you know, you're just in the focus. You might
Speaker 1: as well, you know, make sure that everything that you're
Speaker 1: looking at is you know, has a high level of
Speaker 1: detail while you're doing that. I see. So as long
Speaker 1: if you could hold him super steady and you know,
Speaker 1: all conditions were absolutely perfect, you could technically pull it
Speaker 1: off at five yards, Yeah, I imagine. So Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: never I'm never trying. It's just it's just easier at
Speaker 1: thirty because you're just like it's easier for your I
Speaker 1: just to see those small details, right, That makes sense?
Speaker 1: Anything else we need to know about diopters or setting them, man,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'd like to say there's more to it,
Speaker 1: but in a lot of ways I'm glad that there isn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, because there just really isn't a whole lot
Speaker 1: to it. Like we talked about earlier. Definitely something you
Speaker 1: want to pay attention to and UH once once you
Speaker 1: adjust it, you know you should. You gotta be good
Speaker 1: to go and UH enjoy your optics to their fullest potential. Oh,
Speaker 1: there's no doubt in my mind that the average hunter
Speaker 1: will glass up more game if their diopter is set
Speaker 1: properly than not. So thanks for the reminder because I
Speaker 1: needed that because I gotta remember to do the left
Speaker 1: dive first instead of just jumping right over to the
Speaker 1: diopter dial. You're gonna be Yeah, you're just cutting to
Speaker 1: the chase. Man, You're gonna you're gonna be on like
Speaker 1: a glassing tear here. Pretty soon You're like, oh my gosh, dude,
Speaker 1: this diopter has changed my life. Mm hmmm. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: like to always joke about how there's like lasers coming
Speaker 1: out of my UH binos and they're just burning up
Speaker 1: the hillsides when I'm glass and so I don't know
Speaker 1: what this is gonna change for me, but hopefully I
Speaker 1: won't start any forest fires. Yeah, exactly, Mark. Thanks for
Speaker 1: taking the time man, We appreciate it, and UH we'll
Speaker 1: be calling you up soon for a another UH Gear
Speaker 1: Expert segment. So feel free to tell me what you
Speaker 1: would like to gear expert segments because I'm sure, I'm
Speaker 1: sure we're gonna need ideas. Um, and I'm being serious. No,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. Thank you, appreciate the time, appreciate having me
Speaker 1: on guys. Always always great chatting and uh yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: stay in touch for sure. All right. Last, and not least,
Speaker 1: this segment doesn't have a name, but it's basically a
Speaker 1: segment where Jordan and I are going to each recap
Speaker 1: a recent hunt that we went on and and sort
Speaker 1: of pick out a piece of gear that probably, like
Speaker 1: during the hunt, Uh, something happened with it for some reason,
Speaker 1: it was highlighted for some reason, it was in our heads.
Speaker 1: It might be that we tried something new. It might
Speaker 1: be the something like really excelled, just whatever. A couple
Speaker 1: of reasons for that is like I want I wanted
Speaker 1: to be known that the two of us are always
Speaker 1: out there hunting a lot. Jordan hunts more than I do.
Speaker 1: She ain't got no kids. Um, you got a dog, though,
Speaker 1: it probably slows you down a little bit. Although I
Speaker 1: see pictures of your dog going on all your adventures,
Speaker 1: so that's that's that's not slowing you down. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: see us hunting, and you see us trying using new
Speaker 1: new gear, old gear either way out there, just you know,
Speaker 1: getting after it. And uh Um, I think people like
Speaker 1: to hear hunting stories so and I like to tell
Speaker 1: hunting stories. So it's a good opportunity for both of
Speaker 1: those things that it's a good opportunity to like really
Speaker 1: like talk about recent gear an action. Yeah, what do
Speaker 1: you got? What's the most recent hunt you went on? No,
Speaker 1: I can't ask that question because obviously you haven't. You
Speaker 1: did something before you went since you went sheep hunting. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I have. So I would say take it back to
Speaker 1: a a rifle elk hunt that we did. Um, it
Speaker 1: was cold and super windy. There was like a storm
Speaker 1: system coming in. We decided to go up and sit
Speaker 1: on a ridge and just glass this whole valley for elk.
Speaker 1: And was this that was in Wyoming? Yep, that was
Speaker 1: in Wyoming. So it was like October. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think of the day. The day. It was like October
Speaker 1: fift probably right when that general opener was going to start. Um.
Speaker 1: And uh so we go up sit on this ridge
Speaker 1: and we're glassing and storm system starts coming in, starts
Speaker 1: snowing just a little bit, starts really picking up on
Speaker 1: the wind, and h I pulled my tarp out and
Speaker 1: set the tarp up like a lean to um behind us,
Speaker 1: which the wind was coming from behind us. So just
Speaker 1: use it as a wind blocker. Plus use it as
Speaker 1: like just so like moisture didn't get honest, you know,
Speaker 1: like a big like rain shade basically. UM and I
Speaker 1: we sat there for probably three hours, maybe a little
Speaker 1: more than that and just kind of watching whether going
Speaker 1: and out. We were seeing elk moving around, people were
Speaker 1: pushing them around. I'm just trying to find a good bowl.
Speaker 1: And uh when it was started to it started to
Speaker 1: really suck in and we're like, yeah, alright, we're gonna
Speaker 1: drop down out of here. When I got out from
Speaker 1: behind that tarp, I was like, holy cow, it is cold.
Speaker 1: And that thing it had to let us stay up
Speaker 1: there for I mean at least an extra a couple
Speaker 1: of hours, UM, just carrying you know, that little nine
Speaker 1: ounce tarp to block the wind. So that's that's my
Speaker 1: big one. And that one was that was that cafar
Speaker 1: as sheep tarp as well. I've had it for a
Speaker 1: long time and Uh, it's one of the reasons I
Speaker 1: carry it on a ton of hunts like blocked wind,
Speaker 1: provide your shade, get the rain off. You use it
Speaker 1: for a lot of things, very versatile. So that was
Speaker 1: That's always been a noteworthy one in my mind. Nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've had experiences like that too, where you're like, man,
Speaker 1: if we didn't have this tarp, it would really suck
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, um yeah, what what pitch did you use?
Speaker 1: Like what could you have a way to classify the
Speaker 1: pitch that you use for that when you set up
Speaker 1: that tarp. I mean I would almost say, like a
Speaker 1: lean to what I did is I staked like the
Speaker 1: back two corners down, um, and actually the middle two
Speaker 1: right the right to the ground. Yeah, get some good
Speaker 1: like try to seal it right to the ground. And
Speaker 1: then I used trekking poles and pitched it to the
Speaker 1: corners and actually pitched them put the trekking poles like
Speaker 1: not right on the corners, but one loop in from
Speaker 1: the corners. So then when you put the corners that
Speaker 1: have guylines on them down to the ground and you
Speaker 1: guyline it out like that gives you like a little
Speaker 1: bit of side protection too, and seems like it kept
Speaker 1: like the water rolling off the sides instead of um
Speaker 1: like ever getting down into the front of us. That's
Speaker 1: really tough to explain via audio. But yeah, basically like
Speaker 1: pitch it like a lean to the back, stay right
Speaker 1: to the ground, use chreking poles to prop the front up,
Speaker 1: guylines in each corner going to the ground and h
Speaker 1: worked pretty good. So was it like the the upper
Speaker 1: front edge that was curved over a little bit or
Speaker 1: the two sides um, two sides that were curved over.
Speaker 1: Got it? Yeah, So the checking poles like weren't in
Speaker 1: an islet or anything. They're just kind of in from
Speaker 1: the Yeah, I mean that specific. Yeah, that specific tarp
Speaker 1: has islets all the way around it. There's probably on
Speaker 1: each edge there's probably six islets UM built in. So
Speaker 1: you can really like pitch it however you want. You
Speaker 1: could put guidelines wherever you want on them. UM, and
Speaker 1: that lets like that loop isolet. Lets you put it
Speaker 1: over the top of like the end of a treking pole. UM.
Speaker 1: So you could write, yeah, but how did you get it?
Speaker 1: How did you get that like extra fabric to be
Speaker 1: able to make the edge come down if the islet's
Speaker 1: right on the edge and it's yeah, just on the
Speaker 1: corners of the front. So like imagine where those tracking
Speaker 1: poles would be. And so it was just like you know,
Speaker 1: it was on the corner, right, it was in from
Speaker 1: the corner, making that curve just a little bit on
Speaker 1: the ends. It seemed to keep it a little bit
Speaker 1: more stable to um, I'm not really sure why that
Speaker 1: would be, but it seemed like it was more stable.
Speaker 1: I started him on the corners and moved him in.
Speaker 1: I like it, man, I'm into uh, pitching tarps and
Speaker 1: like the the technique of it, and like the all
Speaker 1: the different variations. Um, because well, pitch tarp is like
Speaker 1: a very very good, nice comfy shelter and then a
Speaker 1: shitty pitch tarp is uh you might as well just
Speaker 1: stand next to it outside. You think it would be
Speaker 1: easier too to really pitch it. Well, but it is.
Speaker 1: There becomes a lot of variables out there. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: I recently went bear hunting with my buddy Pete Munich. Uh.
Speaker 1: We hit, we hit western Montana. It was like first
Speaker 1: week of June and um, very very wet hunt. That
Speaker 1: doesn't have anything to do with what the gear. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna talk about, but it was wet. Um we saw bears.
Speaker 1: Uh saw ten bears in like four day, four or
Speaker 1: five days I think, and uh, I just didn't see
Speaker 1: like a mature board. UM. Only we saw a bear
Speaker 1: that weighed over pounds probably you know, four cubs out
Speaker 1: of the four of the four out of the town
Speaker 1: were cubs. And then rest were obviously the sounds with
Speaker 1: the cubs or just you know, very small looking single bears. UM.
Speaker 1: But still great hunt, great wildlife watching. UM had a
Speaker 1: great time. Didn't put in like mega miles carrying camp,
Speaker 1: but we did switch locations and every time we'd switch,
Speaker 1: would go back to the truck, drive a few miles
Speaker 1: on logging roads and then sort of work out other
Speaker 1: different ridge systems that where we could get good you
Speaker 1: know vanages over the country where we thought we could
Speaker 1: see UM, where we thought we would see bears. But
Speaker 1: enough you know, backpacking like we slept. We never slept
Speaker 1: at the truck. So every time we left the truck,
Speaker 1: we had you know, camp with us, and we were
Speaker 1: sleeping I don't know, usually somewhere three to three to
Speaker 1: four miles from the truck. But the gear I want
Speaker 1: to high is uh, the Kafaru Nargali pack, which um
Speaker 1: very first time using it, Like literally I had not
Speaker 1: um ever had it on my back other than just
Speaker 1: you know, very quickly trying it on my house. And um,
Speaker 1: I'm very familiar with seek outs, side packs, with Exo packs,
Speaker 1: stone Glacier packs, had never messed around with a KAfari pack. Um.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I've always thought about them
Speaker 1: and it turned to hold true is like the amount
Speaker 1: of straps and buckles, Man, they pack them on there.
Speaker 1: You run some Kafar stuff. Do you agree with that
Speaker 1: or have you gotten used to it? We're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not that Manny, I have a I have a
Speaker 1: purpose for all of them. Yeah. Um, I think you
Speaker 1: can change all of them around. So that's what I
Speaker 1: like about him, is he like you could take those
Speaker 1: those straps off to pad on the bag. Some of
Speaker 1: them are sewn in, but on the frame side you
Speaker 1: can take all the straps off and move them around.
Speaker 1: So um, I kind of like I like that part
Speaker 1: about it. Um. It's saved me a couple of times
Speaker 1: with like some weird weird loads or like trying to
Speaker 1: get extra gear on when you're packing out meat, And
Speaker 1: like the bag is full of stuff. Um, it saved
Speaker 1: me there being able to add straps, which I think,
Speaker 1: uh is kind of different than some companies, but they
Speaker 1: do get strappy, I agree. Um, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of straps on most of those on most of the bags.
Speaker 1: The bag itself without the frame which comes in just well,
Speaker 1: it comes into two and a half pounds. I don't
Speaker 1: know what the frame waves off the top of my head. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a total volume is five thousand cubic inches. But
Speaker 1: they have a like a version where you can basically
Speaker 1: fold the lid down and drop it by like a thousand,
Speaker 1: which I really like that. Like, I appreciate a act
Speaker 1: that I can carry the whole camp into the woods
Speaker 1: with and in the mountains and then drop camp, drop food,
Speaker 1: and then and then basically turn that you know, backpack
Speaker 1: and hunting pack into a day hunting pack. Um, I
Speaker 1: appreciate that when they can get nice and slim and
Speaker 1: so on. Besides it having a lot of straps, which
Speaker 1: again first time using it, I was probably just like
Speaker 1: you know, unaware of how to use them all properly.
Speaker 1: But um, a couple of things that I really liked
Speaker 1: is I feel like out of all the packs I've used,
Speaker 1: they had the best like side pocket that not the
Speaker 1: one that you can like attach to your hip belt,
Speaker 1: but the one that's actually like down low on the
Speaker 1: side of the pack. It's like half stretchy, half tough material,
Speaker 1: so and it's tall. So it's tall enough that you're like,
Speaker 1: nalgen gets all the way in there. We're like it's
Speaker 1: literally just the cap kind of sticking out of the top,
Speaker 1: and you think it Isn't it gonna be hard to
Speaker 1: get it out of there, But because it's got like
Speaker 1: this stretchy panel, it's not. And it's actually what's even better.
Speaker 1: Like a lot of packs, you can get the analogene
Speaker 1: right out easily, but the trick is like getting them
Speaker 1: back in. Like when when when you're if you have
Speaker 1: a pack where you have to ask your buddy every time, Hey,
Speaker 1: can you put this analogy back in the pocket? Like,
Speaker 1: come on, pack makers, you gotta do better than that, right,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's kind of annoying. Um, anyways, that pocket
Speaker 1: is like really really dialed and um it's a small thing,
Speaker 1: but man, someone thought it through and got it right.
Speaker 1: This pack is my style too, because it's minimalist and simple,
Speaker 1: like it's a top loader only and if you don't
Speaker 1: have the lid, which I didn't run the lid, like
Speaker 1: the attachment lid. It's basically just like a version of
Speaker 1: like a roll top almost like there's just two but
Speaker 1: you kind of you sent it together, you kind of
Speaker 1: roll it over and then there's buckles that come from
Speaker 1: you know, where you're act is over the top and
Speaker 1: you can really lock it down like that. But it's
Speaker 1: you can only access it from the top, which if
Speaker 1: you're just a smart packer and you don't put stuff
Speaker 1: in the bottom that you're gonna need in an hour,
Speaker 1: it's like not a big deal. You just got to
Speaker 1: kind of think it through, right. Some people hate that
Speaker 1: and they want to be able to get to everything
Speaker 1: all the time, and they like more pockets and like
Speaker 1: we want to get super organized. I like to keep
Speaker 1: my stuff simple. I think it's lighter that way. So um,
Speaker 1: even though there's not a zipper that runs down the
Speaker 1: whole side, you know, to give you access to the
Speaker 1: whole pack. Again, if you just can pact smart, um,
Speaker 1: it's not a big deal, which I which again I
Speaker 1: just think you're it's wait savings. They're just less stuff
Speaker 1: to break whatever. Yeah, I'm trying to think. There's nothing
Speaker 1: really else I really didn't like about it. Um one
Speaker 1: other thing that was a plus out of all the
Speaker 1: packs I've been used lately, this one, by far. I
Speaker 1: can't say if it's the most comfortable. It's close, but
Speaker 1: it has definitely the biggest lumbard pad and one of
Speaker 1: them more cushier waste belts. And I believe I went
Speaker 1: with either a smaller medium because I'm like a thirty
Speaker 1: four and there it just came around my hips there
Speaker 1: and there was gonna be plenty of room to cinch
Speaker 1: down if I needed it. But like my body shape,
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty calm and body shape, it is
Speaker 1: like there's not a lot of curve between my hamstring
Speaker 1: and my lower back, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And so packs tend to slide down. There's like no
Speaker 1: shelf to hold them up, and that big lumbard pad
Speaker 1: really seems to kind of like dig in so to speak.
Speaker 1: Digg in sounds wrong because it sounds like it's gonna hurt,
Speaker 1: but it just seems to like grab and like really
Speaker 1: hold you know, that whole waste system you know, up
Speaker 1: up on your hips and not let it sag. And
Speaker 1: even though there's you know, you have pressure because you
Speaker 1: know that's the weight of your pack is riding, you know,
Speaker 1: onto that hip belt, it didn't feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure, like there was no digging. It's a very
Speaker 1: comfortable riding pack, even when it was packed full. And
Speaker 1: because we weren't going too far, we were definitely running
Speaker 1: a little bit on the heavier side, like I bet
Speaker 1: she does, you know, with food and water and stuff.
Speaker 1: We had a pack in water everywhere, which that always
Speaker 1: adds a lot of weight. So I bet you I
Speaker 1: was going on the way in and very very comfortable.
Speaker 1: And it's like a lot of other packs packs meat
Speaker 1: like your exo, like your stone glacier where you're gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, pull the pack off and there's a load shelf.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get your meat there and then put it
Speaker 1: all back together. Is that how I know that there's
Speaker 1: two ways to do it. Aaron was actually telling me
Speaker 1: that he'll actually just sometimes run the meat right in
Speaker 1: the main bag. What do you do? That's usually what
Speaker 1: I do is run the meat right in the main bag,
Speaker 1: unless I just don't have a big bag or I
Speaker 1: don't have of that much stuff in the bag. Like usually,
Speaker 1: if I have like I mean, if you have camp
Speaker 1: or a lot of stuff inside your bag and there's
Speaker 1: just not room for it, then there's just not room
Speaker 1: for it. Um. But if I don't have that much
Speaker 1: stuff in the bag and I have room, I like
Speaker 1: to run the meat just inside the main bag just
Speaker 1: to keep it, um, keep all the weight closer to
Speaker 1: my back. Uh. It seems like if you put like
Speaker 1: meat in a load shelf, and then if you have
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff in your bag and you especially
Speaker 1: if it's heavy, and you extend it away from your back,
Speaker 1: you're just like moving all the way out backwards. It
Speaker 1: kind of feels like there's like a monkey pulling on
Speaker 1: your back, like trying to pull you over backwards. So
Speaker 1: that's where I see like benefit in putting weight or
Speaker 1: putting the meat inside the bag is if you're trying
Speaker 1: to keep it all close to your back. I think
Speaker 1: it's more important if you're packing meat along ways versus
Speaker 1: a short distance, it'll just ride better, you can carry more,
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, I feel better afterwards. So it seems
Speaker 1: to be kind of personal preference. Honestly, all right, everyone
Speaker 1: that is going to wrap us for this week's episode
Speaker 1: of gear Talk, big thank you to Mark Boardman for
Speaker 1: hopping on and walking us through die opters. We know
Speaker 1: season is kicked off for a lot of you out there,
Speaker 1: so good luck out in the field. And if you
Speaker 1: have a question that you would like to ask us
Speaker 1: here on the podcast, email gear Talk at them me
Speaker 1: eater dot com. Send your question in, we'll try to
Speaker 1: get an answered for you and we will see you
Speaker 1: guys in the next episode.