#Binocular harness for hunting full
#Binocular harness for hunting pro

Spoiler alert: All of the harnesses passed the Mason jar test without issue. Exhausted and hot, elbows and knees sufficiently bloody from the crawl, we put an empty 1-liter Mason jar in each harness and dropped them on a gravel road from chest height, then off a 10-foot stepladder, and then pitched them down a steep wooded hill to ensure they’d protect our much more expensive glass. To get a feel for durability and functionality, we crawled, ran, and jumped in 100-meter sets in the July heat near Fort Knox, Kentucky. Companies that have expansion options for additional purchases earned more points than companies with fewer options. Those that come standard with extras like rangefinder pouches earned more points than setups without.

Harnesses were then scored for modularity.

#Binocular harness for hunting pro

To gauge shootability, we grabbed our bows and shot arrows while standing, kneeling, and seated, then repeated the same positions plus prone supported with a bipod, shooting a Tikka T3x in 6.5 Creedmoor and a Thompson/Center Encore Pro Hunter in. To test comfort, our four testers hiked at least 1 mile in each harness with a variety of binos and a loaded pack. Test team member Tim Smoke scoring the Kuiu Pro Bino Harness. To keep things simple, we stuck with the most common bino size for hunters, 10×42, and tested a variety of models - from Maven, Leupold, Vortex, and Bushnell. Many harnesses come in different sizes for different binocular powers. We judged 10 of the most popular bino harnesses on eight criteria: comfort, shootability, durability, functionality, modularity, glass protection, weather protection, and service & support. So, how does a hunter choose the best one? That’s where we come in. There are at least a dozen different modern bino harnesses on the market, with different pros and cons.

#Binocular harness for hunting full

The very best bino harnesses today are silent, durable, comfortable, and easy to use one-handed, and don’t interfere with a bow at full draw or a rifle shot while lying prone.

Just a few short years later, we have fully enclosed and semi-enclosed harness systems that protect our prized glass from the elements - and sometimes ourselves. Not long ago, that meant a harness of a few elastic straps that held exposed binoculars close to the chest. With binoculars ranging in price from $300 to $500 for entry-level glass to more than $3,000 on the high end, it only makes sense to protect them.