Gun scope as monocular

A

alephlex

Joined
May 4, 2005
Messages
151
Hello all,

This is a question from a complete gun ignoramus so please excuse me if I am making a really bad error here.

Can a rifle scope be used as a stand alone monocular? It seems that the optics on gun scopes are pretty decent and the range of adjustments (zoom facilities etc) are better on gun scopes than monoculars.

Any thoughts/suggestions?
 
suppose you could, however it would have to be dedicated as a monocular.

on a rifle, when you sight in a scope you account for eye relief, ie the distance from the reticle to your eye. because you dont want the reticle to slam into your forehead when you fire the rifle, they are generally several inches in front of your eye. so using it for both would be problematic since you would have to hold it the same distance from your eye, thus making it difficult to hold still.

you are better off buying a decent set of binoculars to accompany your rifle/scope combo.

you also dont want to use the scope when mounted on the rifle to scout/scan areas, as you dont want to 'laser' anything you dont intend to shoot.
 
I used to use an old pellet gun scope as a monocular. It was tricky to look into, because as said above you have to keep your eye away and still look straight through, not so easy when its not on the rifle. Didn't take to long to get decent at it though.
 
Hi yes, I was going to use the scope as a dedicated monocular and I was going to purchase a non-lasered variety. I don't own a rifle or hunt myself -- live to close to the city to make that viable.

I intended to use the scope as a lightweight alternative to my old pentax field binos which are great but really heavy.

Would I be able to set the reticular distance really close up? -- say an inch or less? Thanks for the tips -- I know next to nothing about the scopes and would appreciate a little more info before I go purchase one.
 
+1 to the other posters.

Off the gun you have the eye relief problem.

On the gun you have to point a rifle at whatever you're looking at and if I spot you looking at me expect trouble.

I often carry a monocular that used to be the right side of a set of binoculars. Even such humble optics are a great help in the mountains.

I've even used it as a hand held telephoto lense for my old digital camera. That actually worked surprisingly well, I just had to pull off the rubber eyepiece and hold it up in font of the lense, looking at the back screen to get it lined up right.

If you were going to spend the money buy a real monocular. The rifle scope won't work well. Mac
 
Thanks for the feedback all -- you pretty much gave me the info I needed which is that it isn't so hot an option.

I'll look slowly for a good pair of monoculars then or a decent op shop bino that I can slice in half. Thanks for the suggestion mac.
 
I don't own a gun scope, so my comments might not be completely accurate here.

However, I have used binoculars, and so I'm not completely clueless about the subject. Monoculars are essentially half of a set of binoculars. The advantage here is that while the user loses the advantage of stereoscopic (binocular) vision when using the monocular, there is a gain in portability in the unit. The porroprism that both the monocular and binoculars share allow the physical length of the optics to be shorter than they would without said porroprism.

This allows the monocular to be more compact, and easier to toss into a coat pocket. A rifle scope is a straight tube design with lenses, and therefore, longer.

I believe the field of view in most good monocular designs allows one to see more of the area being viewed without having to "pan and scan" the optics compared to a rifle scope as well.

While there is no reason why it can't be done (use a rifle scope as a monocular), I'm sure the reason why monoculars evolved they way they have is for the reasons mentioned above plus the issue regarding eye relief.
 
alephlex said:
....dedicated monocular and I was going to purchase a non-lasered variety.
Click to expand...


by 'laser', i meant you dont want to point the rifle at anything you dont intend to shoot. so when looking through a scope attached to a rifle, the assumption is you have found your target by other visual means.

laser,in this context, is a term meaning: pretend a laser is extending from the barrel out to infinity. whatever the laser hits, you have crossed with your muzzle. not so good when its not your intended target.
 
If you dont want to buy new, check out a pawn shop. Dont be afraid to deal his price down, or walk if he wont.
 
Just to be clear. I didn't cut the binoculars in half. They fell off a high shelf and cracked in half. The half that cracked off totally from the cross pieces works well as a monocular so I toss it in the pack as my compact optics. I never throw anything away. Mac
 
Rifle scopes are okay as spotting scopes.

Even a 7-power scope on a tripod will let you see quite a bit. The steadiness helps greatly with resolution. You'd be surprised at how much more you can see through a rifle scope when it is on a tripod as opposed to holding a scoped rifle. Generally speaking they do ok in low light. They are tough, lightweight, and often times waterproof too. You can use the crosshairs to estimate range and point things out to others. Estimating range with reticles in (rifle-mounted) scopes and binoculars actually can be pretty tough.

I wouldn't use one in that role instead of an actual spotting scope, but if you have one lying around and don't have much cash, there are worse expedients. I would use a decent rifle scope on a tripod before I would use a cheap spotting scope in many cases.

Scott
 
You guys have already covered it but I have a set of Russian binos that have excellent glass and a ranging reticle in meters but are not cowitnessed(each barrel looks elswhere!!) that have been slated to be cut at the hinge point. Use it 'till its worn out.
Bill
 
I've recently seen 8x monoculars going for $8.95 at a local outdoor store. A dedicated monocular is usually much smaller than a rifle scope, not to mention significantly cheaper. I was looking at monoculars recently, and was considering the little spy one off County Comm, when I stumbled upon some small 10x on closeout for something like $7. I couldn't pass those up.
 
SkunkWerX said:
40mm, nice!
That should gather a decent amount of light.
Good thing for dawn, dusk, and cloudy days.
Click to expand...
It's even somewhat usable at night if there's enough ambient lighting, e.g. lit streets. Because of the 40mm objective lens it is a little bulkier than most monoculars (about 6.25" L x 2" dia) but it still easily slips into a jacket pocket. :thumbup:
 
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