Imagine you are laying down on a ridgetop, looking down through your binoculars at a buck-of-a-lifetime that is just about to feed out into an opening. Your buddy is rested on the rock next to you with his long- range rifle loaded and dialed. He asks you if you are ready, and you give him the “go.” You know that at this distance you need to focus hard on watching the bullet’s path and hopeful impact on this buck. You breathe in and hold, waiting for the crack of his rifle. Then, almost instantaneously, you can’t see anything except the black outline in your binos as you realize that you blinked and shifted your view as a result of the muzzle blast. Quickly, you focus in on the view in the center of your binos again. No buck. No movement. No sign of him. Your buddy asks, “Did I hit him?” You quickly rise to your feet, binos glued to the hillside across the canyon, and respond, “I don’t know.”
If this dialogue seems to hit close to home for any of you, it’s time to change your ways! It’s time to enter the world of digiscoping and select an adapter that is right for you. It would take dozens of pages to explain all of the benefits that come as a result of digiscoping in the field, but I will try to highlight a couple of the top contenders in the digiscoping adapter market so that you can join the club.
Although the latest cell phones have great internal cameras and features, they are still no replacement for a true digital camera when it comes down to taking scenery, supporting, and trophy photos while on your hunt. However, a cell phone really shines in the world of taking videos and photos through your favorite spotting scope or binoculars. My top priority now as a spotter while rifle hunting with someone is being on target with my phone, recording the animal when it is time to take the shot.
With a clear, two-eyed view of the phone screen, it becomes much easier to watch the live view and hopefully catch the bullet’s vapor trail. If you miss it or when you question the point of impact, you can replay the video, slow it down, rewind, and review the shot as many times as you would like. I have recovered many animals that I know I would have never been able to find had I not had a video to review the shot sequence and the path the animal took after the shot.
Beyond filming your shots, these handy devices are great for scouting, field judging, and adding supplemental video clips to your hunting media that will help you remember the experiences that you have in the field for years to come. Digiscoping clips are becoming ever more popular on social media and in hunting films, so I would encourage you to select an adapter that is best for you and get out to practice with it this spring.
PHONE SKOPE
www.phoneskope.com
Since it’s inception, I have been a user of the Phone Skope case and ring adapter. The case replaces your phone’s case and functions as an everyday protective case for your cell phone. The system is made up of three parts – the phone case, the removeable disc, and the optic adapter ring. When it is time to film through my binoculars or spotting scope, a quarter turn of the adapter ring allows me to have a secure fit over the optics’ eyepiece. Although Phone Skope offers a universal ring that will fit almost any diameter, I prefer to have multiple adapter rings for an exact fit on each pair of optics I own. This makes installing the phone over the eyepiece easy, with minimal movement involved where bumping the scope off target may be an issue. Thanks to the strong ABS plastic, I’ve never been able to crack or break the Phone Skope case and have had excellent success and stability in the field while digiscoping.
PHONECAM
https://tinesup.com/store/
Isaiah Joner, Huntin’ Fool’s Outfitter Specialist, elected early on to try the PhoneCam by Scope Cam adapter for his digiscoping needs. PhoneCam sells the universal tab adapter for use on your own case as well as full phone cases. This allowed Isaiah to affix the adapter to the back of his current phone case with the attached adhesive tab. This slim option has been his favorite for the past four hunting seasons. The ring size on the phone adapter is universal for all PhoneCam optic adapter rings. Since Isaiah is typically hard on his gear in the field, especially electronics, one of his favorite features is that both the adapter tab and the optic ring are made of machined aluminum and will not crack or break easily. The universal optic ring is the “cats meow” of PhoneCam products and will allow you to attach your phone to any size eyepiece so that you quickly switch between binoculars, spotting scopes, etc.
For a head-to-head comparison in the field of both of these products, make sure to watch our latest gear review video on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/thehuntinfool.
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