FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS!

Focus on What Matters – Part 1: Bigger Isn’t Always Better

Welcome to a new blog series we’re calling Focus on What Matters. This is a series we’ll revisit time and time again, and we’re going to start with optics, specifically rifle scopes. Ah yes… scopes. One of the most debated topics in the hunting and shooting world, yet often one of the least understood. Our goal with this series is to help cut through the endless sea of old wives’ tales and internet myths by explaining what’s actually happening.  One of the most common misconceptions is that you always need the highest magnification and the largest objective lens available. But why? Why is that such a common belief? Is it because bigger must be better? Or because more must be better?

The answer, as with most things, is: it depends.

More often than not, though, the answer is no. Bigger isn’t automatically better.  Throughout this series, we’re going to discuss different aspects of optics and hopefully shed some light on what really matters, pun intended. No secondhand hearsay. No marketing hype. Just straightforward facts that will hopefully help you make a better decision when it’s time to purchase your next optic.

Let’s start with one of the biggest misconceptions. You’ve all heard it. Heck, you’ve probably even said it. “You need at least a _____ mm objective because it gathers more light.”

Listen, folks, that isn’t really how it works.

An objective lens doesn’t “collect” or “gobble up” light like some sort of black hole. It’s simply the first major lens in the optical system that incoming light passes through. Its job is to allow light into the scope so it can travel through the rest of the optical system. Now, there are absolutely valid reasons for using a larger objective lens. As light passes through the many lenses inside a riflescope, a small amount of light is lost at every optical surface. High-quality lens coatings help reduce those losses, which is one of the reasons premium optics often perform so much better in low-light conditions than cheaper alternatives. A larger objective lens can also help provide a larger exit pupil at a given magnification, which can make the scope easier to look through in certain situations. But that’s only part of the equation.

Here’s the question most people never ask.

Can your eye even use all of that available light? That’s where things start to get interesting. In Part 2, we’ll dive into exit pupil, how your eyes change as you age, and why optical quality often matters far more than simply buying a scope with the biggest objective lens you can find.

Stay tuned.