EP 193: Applied Ballistics with Mark Boardman of Vortex

To add to the precision when you're ranging and dialing. Onboard environmental sensors. I mean, this is a winter storm warning, two to three feet. Bottled water. Yeah, matches, flares, I mean, get it ready. Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Here we go, let's do this. Hey everybody, welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast today. I'm right here next to Adam Bronson, John Peterson, Chris Peterson. Coming at you from snowy Southern Utah, Bronson. Yeah, kind of. A little bit let down by the accumulation. I was disappointed this morning. Right here in town. It blew away. It blew away. It did, okay. But we were sent a picture from Payson, Arizona. That's unit 23. Well, that's a long ways from here. 24 inches. That's waist high for a lot of people. Yeah. Might be killing coos deer. Kill no. The four-footers. Might be killing coos deer. Yeah, that's a good point. When you brought that up, I was like, yeah, I wonder if there's a feeding program. That's like over their heads. I think they got a deer feeding program in place. They're 24 inches at the back. I don't know. Yeah.

The good thing about Arizona, parts of it, the sun will come out and it'll settle down to 15 real quick. We're kind of excited about this. This is a game changer. This storm alone, maybe it's just a mental game changer. But it might save parts of Arizona. You're right. Utah is still, we started talking about our snow here. I think we got between a quarter and a half an inch. Okay. And most of it's ice out there. Yeah. So I think it was two to three inches and then it melted down to ice. So if that makes any of you feel better, so be it. I was looking at the winter storm warning and it was saying two to three feet in the mountains, but I don't see that happening. Well, I think they got a bit. They did get, we were talking to our buddy up at Rice Canyon. And they did get a good chunk, I think, but still I had an early alarm set up because

I was ready to jump on the four-wheeler and touch it off a little bit this morning in the driveway. Clear off the office drive, maybe? Well, if I needed to, but I didn't even have to do something at my house. So I just drove to work. Well, anyway, we're excited. There's something out there, something to talk about. It looks like snow in Vegas. Yeah. Well, more in Vegas than Southern Utah here in Cedar City, St. George. That's probably got a two-year supply of moisture down there. Big bucks will abound everywhere. All right. Well, anyway, let's get started. They could die, too. Desert sheep might die. All right, guys. Speaking of that, we need Mark Boardman on the line. He's going to visit with us about Vortex, all the pretty cool products coming out. Some cool launches. That's right. Let's see if we can get him on the line here. We're a little bit late.

But anyway, we tried him earlier and I think he was on the other line. Hold on. You there, Mark? Yeah. What's going on? This is super weird. It is. So this is Jason. Yeah, I tried you. I called like three times. Oh, what's going on, dude? I left you a voicemail and then I text this number. I don't know. Dude, it's bizarre. I think – I don't know if I've got – I wonder if I've got like a setting on my phone. The weird thing is your text came through. You're like, are you ready? I'm like, yeah. And then you're like – Do you have me in your phone? Because you might have a setting that says ignore unregistered numbers. Be done. You know what I mean? Like I have a setting that if I don't have them in my contact list, oh, it'll go straight. I need that. I need that. Yeah, there's a setting. There's a setting. And you're showing up blue so you've got an iPhone.

There's a setting in there that basically – If you're not in his phone, it will go straight to voicemail. If I'm not in your contacts, there's a setting that you can have that option go – all those people, all those unwanted callers can go straight to – Interesting. Yep, yep. You know, and I've had a couple instances, like a couple mysterious – I'm going to have to dive into that and check that out. That's got to be what's going on. It's interesting that your text will get through, though. The text will, but this is just for, like, solicitors. It did go straight to voicemail. And it did. It went straight to voicemail. Interesting. Well, quit soliciting. That's right. Well, you know, we want to know about these new Vortex products, so we've got to talk to the man. Yeah, right. I'll do my best. I'll do my best.

Well, I don't know where you want to go with it, but there's a lot of – we have a lot of questions, but I'm wondering if you can just answer those by just kind of starting off with what's new and exciting. Of course, we know the new Fury HD 5000s, the applied ballistics binocular 10x42. Pretty incredible piece of equipment, and maybe we just start with that and start cranking on it. Yeah, yeah. Let's do that. So tell us, you know, I guess maybe compare the old model to the new model, and then, you know, we'll just let you kind of have the mic for a minute, and then we'll ask questions as we have them. Very cool. Very cool. So, yeah. So lots of great new products from Vortex coming out this year. Really, really exciting stuff. Stuff that's been in the works for quite some time. So I know for myself personally, it's finally good to be able to talk about these things publicly

because you're so pumped about them. You've got to keep them under wraps, and it's hard to do. So, yeah. The new Fury HD 5000 AB 10x42 laser range-finding binocular, like definitely a mouthful, right? But it's doing a lot, a lot of stuff. So you guys brought up the original Fury HD 5000, which was, you know, a range-finding binocular, 5,000-yard capable on reflective targets. You're looking at about, you know, 2,400 yards on trees, 1,600 yards on gain. So very, very capable. A lot of that chassis or that platform has been integrated into this AB version, but that AB is kind of the big designator there, which stands for Applied Ballistics. So in this new Fury HD 5000 AB, you've got the Applied Ballistics Elite Solver on board the unit. You've got on board environmental sensors that are going to give you those real-time atmospherics. So it's going to give you your temp.

It's going to give you your pressure and things like that, all those environmental variables that go into giving you the most accurate ballistic solution. If possible, it's also got an onboard compass. So you can enter your wind two different ways there. So you can enter a full value right, left. So you can say, yep, you know, it's 90 degrees, you know, 10 miles an hour coming from the right, something of that nature. But with that compass, you can initiate the wind bearing capture mode. So you essentially take the unit, point at the direction the wind is coming from, capture that bearing, and then from that point forward until you change it, every time you range, it will remember that bearing. So if you enter a, you know, a 10-mile-an-hour wind, but it's coming from a particular angle, it's going to account for that angle.

And then it's going to, in the display, it's going to give you a more accurate wind hold there as well. Awesome. Yeah. No guesswork. Turn to the wind. Yeah. Face the, just capture the angle. Yep. And then when you go back to range your animal or target again, it's going to use the angle of which the wind is going to be hitting your bullet from, you know, calculate that on your left and right hold, basically. Exactly. Exactly. So when you set, let's just say you're setting up on a hill, you would, is there like a menu function where you hit the menu function, you, you, or whatever, you're capturing the. Wind only. The wind only. Angle. Angle. And then you're set up for that particular situation and for the next hour or two, whatever. Is that basically how it's working? Yeah. I mean, you guys nailed it. You know what I mean?

Essentially, you're going to have all your stuff set up in the unit, all your ballistics, all your different variables as far as velocity and, and, you know, you have the ability to, to use, you know, the, you've got access to the full applied ballistics suite of, of AB curves, you know, for darn near every bullet out there. I guess I know every bullet that I've used, it's been in there. Right. So you kind of get that super accurate, uh, customized AB curve there. And it just, yeah, it just makes the whole system so accurate. You know what I mean? Everything that goes into executing that long range shot, you know, we call it tolerance stacking. So everything that could be off just a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, it adds up. Right. And so this is taking all those different variables and making them as accurate as possible.

And then getting into, you know, even more accuracy, it will pair with your, uh, Bluetooth equipped Kestrel wind meters, and it will, uh, pair with, uh, your, uh, applied ballistics equipped Garmin devices. So it will pair, uh, via Bluetooth with third party devices. Uh, so you've got some extra functionality there. Uh, you got the Fury HD app. I should mention that, right? So you're going to enter a lot of this, uh, information into the actual Fury, uh, HD 5000 AB via the Fury HD app. So you can use your phone, you throw it all in there at that point. You don't need, you don't necessarily need your phone. You can still use your phone in a variety of ways with the unit, but you don't need it. So, uh, if you just want to carry the unit into the field and, and that's what you have, or you lost your phone, you're still going to have all the, all that information,

uh, in, in the unit, um, where your phone can come into play is, uh, let's say you and I are on the mountain, uh, maybe, uh, you know, being quiet is, uh, you know, of utmost importance, you know, uh, you could be ranging something. I could be laying down on the gun and just have my phone, uh, next to me or something like that. And it will relay, uh, that ballistic solution to my phone. So I can just glance down and look at it, go, okay, you ranged, you know, five, hundred thirty five yards. I need to dial, you know, X amount of mills or X amount of MOA. You don't have to say anything. You don't even have to whisper. I can just look down, get that info dial, execute that shot. Interesting. If you've got a spotter, you know, or maybe a guide situation where you're, you're in cover, your hunter crawls out there, five, 10 feet ahead of you or whatever like that.

And yeah, you're in a little bit of a quiet situation. You're ranging the effective range is only going to be two to three yards. It's not going to matter, but you, you know, what you range pops up on his phone screen for his dial. That's pretty handy. Yeah. Yeah. No, but it's definitely can come in handy. And you brought up a good point, you know, for, for, uh, for an outfitter or a guide, you know, a range finding binocular or even something with, um, this kind of capability is, uh, definitely, uh, can be a big asset, you know, to be able to, um, you know, range, range, the animal, you know, also on a consistent basis, you know, if it's moving, you can keep calling out ranges, but you can keep calling out that ballistic solution. If, you know, if your client has that information, you can plug that into the unit, give them their ballistic solution so they can dial.

And then also, you know, being able to watch for impacts. Was it a hit? Was it a miss? Was, was it a bad hit? You know, where, where did, where did it last go? Right. You know, and then that's just all stuff that's easier. You know, those visual cues are just easier to see in a binocular versus maybe a traditional handheld range finder. Pretty awesome. And so how many customized loads can you load? Like when you say you pair it, you don't have to use your phone again, but like, yeah, obviously you have four, 10, how many different custom loads can you load into that? So yeah, super good question. So it's going to come with kind of, I guess, three preloaded solutions there and they're going to be more, you know, general. So it's going to be kind of, uh, one for your, uh, those are really good ones. Actually, uh, we got the, we got the five, five, six in there.

We got the six, five Creed and the three Oh eight. Right. And that's, you know, I kind of consider that, um, you know, number one, those, those are, of course, maybe outside the 30 out six and the two 70, some, some common cartridges that people use. Um, but it's more of like a quick start guide. Uh, it'll get you going if you have one of those calibers, but really the magic is when you, you, you customize it with your data. And so it'll hold up to three profiles. So if you're hunting in a group, uh, you can enter, you know, up to three people's ballistic data and select profile, A, B, or C, depending on who, who is shooting. Or, you know, if it's just yours and you have three favorite rifles that you want to have, uh, data in there for, you can, you can have three profiles in there for yourself. So you can override the, whatever it comes with.

And that's basically like for an AR, it sounds like an AR you can just say, you know, here's a general, uh, you know, a general, maybe whatever for an AR or five, five, six or whatever. But then, uh, you can override that with three customized loads. Exactly. Exactly. Yep. Okay. All right. That's pretty cool. And then, so if a, if a outfitter has, you know, a client or a guide has a client in camp, of course he can override it or call it what? B or C or whatever. And then load, you know, three, three, three loads in there as well. Maybe his own and one, one of the clients. Exactly. Exactly. You know, he could, you could have your, your favorite one, or maybe there's, you know, a gun that they have in camp and the event somebody needs to, uh, you know, borrow a rifle or something like that. But then, you know, you have those, uh, leftovers to where, yeah, if you got a client, you could,

you could, and they have that information, right. It's kind of good, good data in good data out. Right. So you got to have, you know, the different variables plugged in as accurate as possible. But, um, but yeah, it can definitely prove to be a really big asset. One thing I guess we were wondering is just how would you compare the quality of glass, you know, when you've got, you know, you know, the fury, uh, HD 5000, what does that mean in re in relation to some of your other models of non range finding binos with large clarity of glass, like razor or visors or whatever, you know, how do you compare that? UHDs, HDs. So, yeah, so I'd say if a person has looked through, uh, the original fury, it's going to basically be identical. Uh, and then, you know, compared to other binoculars in our lineup, I'd say it's going to parallel pretty tightly with the Viper HD series.

Um, so kind of that, uh, you know, and I guess if a person, you know, thinking of our series, we've got, you know, our top tier razor UHD. Then we have the razor HD and then we have the Viper HD and Mike said those furies kind of parallel in that, uh, Viper HD. And that's pretty common in the industry. I think it's, it's important to note out. It's just common that if, when you're, uh, coupling all the electronics and the different things, you don't, you're dealing with the laser and whatnot, it's just, it's fairly common. You're going to take a little bit of a hit on clarity of glass, but you're adding so much more, uh, especially with guys that want to pair that and have a combo of, uh, binocular range finder combo. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're right. I mean, that is pretty darn common. You've got some extra coatings in there to get everything, you know, the displays to work

properly and things like that. So, um, you're, you're trying to, you know, you definitely have to, I'm not an optical engineer by any stretch of the imagination, but you are overcoming some challenges there to, to get all the functionality to work. Um, but like I said, you got, you got a ton of functionality, so you're taking a little bit of a hit, but you know, you kind of personally do their own cost benefit analysis and see, you know, what's going to serve them better in the field. Oh, and Mark, I think one of the best things about this Bino is, is the price point on it. Really good price point. I mean, someone can get into this. You know, it's very affordable. You know, for our members, if you call us, you can get a price on that. It's a screaming price, you know, for what the functionality you're getting out of that. So, anyway, just really good value, I think.

I think you're talking like a $14.99 is the, you know, kind of the minimum advertised price. That's just unbelievable. It's unheard of for what we're talking about with technology, range-finding binocular, all-in-one with all the new age. Basically, there's nothing in this binocular that you want for. It's got everything that we have with up-to-date technology. There's nothing out there that does more, I guess is my point, at an incredible price point. No, I mean, we certainly like to think so, right? And I think it's probably also worth pointing out, you know, you've got definitely a robust suite of technology built into the unit, but it still carries, just like all of our Vortex products. It's got our unconditional lifetime transferable VIP warranty. If you ever have an issue with it, we're going to take care of you.

So, and I think that is, you know, there's a lot of warranties out there. But I think, you know, having that electronics component in there covered is pretty darn unique. Well, that's, Vortex has been well-known for warranty on, not more than talking about this specific piece here, but that's kind of what's, you know, lauded, if you want to say that, about Vortex products. It's, you know, very famous for their warranty, so it kind of goes without saying, but worth mentioning. But I know we've got a pre-order in for a lot of these for our, since we're dealers. But what can you tell us about anticipated delivery, availability, whether somebody wants to see them on the shelf in stores and things like that? What do you got to update on that? I would hope that you guys should be seeing them here very, very shortly. We appreciate that.

And like Adam said, there's, you know, you guys have, I want to say built a company on warranty, but it's not necessarily true. It's product and warranty, but best in the business. There's, I have people, Bronson does too, talk to us every day about the warranty and dealing with Vortex. Just adds a whole level of confidence, I guess. You know, buy, buy whatever you want. Know that that's there if you ever need it. Yeah, I think, and that's a really good point, you know. I mean, we definitely, I'd say at our core, you know, is customer service. You know, we want to hear from our customers. We want to talk to our customers. And we want to, you know, help our customers before, during, and after the sale. And I know that, you know, maybe that can sound like, oh, that's just kind of a bunch of fluff. But we genuinely mean that.

You know, I always say we do the best we can to build our products. So a person never has an issue. But, I mean, you guys are pretty hardcore hunters. And, I mean, you know some wild stuff can happen. And we realize that as well. And so we want to take care of our customers. I just can't wait until you guys start making trucks so we can have the unlimited warranty for the rest of our life. That's what I'm looking forward to.

I'll free that in the old suggestion box when I get back to the office. Start with four-wheelers, then move to side-by-sides. Mark, here's just a bit of advice. Because if you guys ever add that, Jason Carter should be excluded from all warranties. Come on. All that stuff. Just you will never, you will lose your shorts. Don't be profiling. DE is hard on stuff. It'll be in the fine print. Yeah. If your initials begin with the letters JC, you've got a problem. That's right. You lost money at the sale. All right. So anyway, anything else more you want to add to the Fury HD 5000 AB? Anything that we maybe haven't talked about? I mean, I know you have a great, for those that are listening, on vortex.com website. They've got, you know, all the bells and whistles are there. We can go through them line by line. It's not necessarily what we're going to do today.

But the key points, I think we've hit them hard with the integrated environmental stuff, the load data capability to load that in, all the environmental variables with elevation, barometric pressure, temperature, all the things that you want to build a Bluetooth from your phone to your unit range, factor everything to add to the precision when you're ranging and dialing. That's kind of what, that's the gap that it made up from the old Fury, right? The environmental data, basically, and the Bluetooth compatibility. Yeah, I mean, yeah, the environmental and ballistic data, and I think, you know, I mean, it's probably pretty obvious, but it's a time saver, right? You know, and we know that these opportunities that we get in the field are measured in fractions of seconds,

and I can definitely look back in my, you know, history of big game encounters, and there's definitely a handful where it's like, man, this would have been the difference maker. I wouldn't have had to check or recheck the dope chart on my stock or something like that, you know, the difference between, you know, breaking that shot or not breaking that shot. So I think it really is going to increase, you know, opportunities for folks, excuse me, for folks in the field. That's awesome. Mark, one of the other things that we kind of had on our list to ask you about was that Spitfire.

Yeah, absolutely. So really cool rifle scope series. It's their prism scope. So we've had the Spitfire series in the past, which was also a prism-based optical design. We kept the 1X version. There was a 1 and a 3X. We've completely updated the 3X and added a 5X, and they're really, really awesome optics. I'd say they're optimized for the AR platform, but they do have our multi-height mount system. So a prism can mount it at kind of that typical AR height as well as a low height if you want to put it on maybe a more traditional gun. You know, they've got that functionality of the fixed 3X and 5X. They've got our new AR BDC 4 reticle, which is going to be optimized for the 5.56. So, again, very common caliber in the AR platform. Super compact, right? That prism-based optical system is really, really compact. It always has been. In these new versions, it's even more compact.

So you've got a very compact, lightweight scope. I'd say form factor-wise, if a person is familiar with like a red-dot style scope, it's going to follow that very tightly. And just a really, really sleek optic. The adjustments are flush and semi-recessed into the housing. They're exposed, so you can always get to them but protected at the same time. So, man, they're just – they're a workhorse, and they're going to do great. Another way they shine is if a person has potentially like an astigmatism, and they want to use a red dot, but that dot appears to them to be distorted in some capacity. The Spitfires have a glass-etched reticle directly on the prism, so they're always going to have a reticle. You're not relying on battery power to see the reticle, and they're not going to get that distortion.

So if you kind of want that red dot site functionality but don't want to or maybe a red dot might not be best suited for you, this is a really, really good choice. And so this is specifically targeted at the AR. What about the Spark Solar red dot? Oh, man, Spark Solar. Definitely one that I'm super excited about this year. As the name implies, guys, we've harnessed the power of the sun. So the Spark Solar, it's a red dot site. It's got a solar panel very flushly integrated into the top of the housing. And what that gives a person is really, really insanely long battery life. So we kind of crunched some numbers and came up with an average of kind of average use using the battery, average use solar. And you're looking at up to 150,000 hours of battery life. You know, approximately. That's debatable whether that's good enough, isn't it? I think somebody needs to try that out. 150,000 hours.

Chris, didn't somebody said to you like one day, it was like, your job to know exactly how long that will last. Just somebody's job. Somebody needs to look through that for a while. We could even get temp services down here. I mean, there's college kids that would look through that for a while. Internships. And just internships. Right? Pretty impressive. Pretty impressive. I don't know. I haven't seen. Okay. So this is your industry more so than mine per se. But is there other solar scope? Is this popular? You guys, I don't know, you know, the solar version of these. I mean, I just haven't seen another one like it. So anyway, enlighten me there. Well, you know, so it's definitely the first in our lineup. I think there are some other dots out there that have used, you know, probably some similar functionality. But I do know it's the first in our lineup.

We've been working on it for a few years now. Super exciting to see it come out. And again, it kind of shares some of the design cues of the Spitfire as well. Well, it's very flush. It's very sleek. The adjustments are, you know, integrated. And they don't have a cap, you know. So you're not having to undo a cap. There's not a cap sticking up. It's just very flush with the unit. And you can adjust them whenever you need to. But yeah, that solar, though, that is the key feature there. And another cool aspect of it is the solar component, it's not charging the battery, right? It's an independent power source. So it's either going to work on battery or it's going to work off solar. And it's very smart. It's going to know. It's going to automatically. Yeah, it's going to automatically transition. And, you know, I'm in a, I guess, in my, in a room right now.

And just ambient light will operate that solar component, right? So you don't need to be, like, outside or in the sun. If there's, you know, ambient light like you'd see, you know, in a regularly lit room, it's going to run off that solar power. You know, LEDs are super crazy efficient nowadays, giving them that capability. But if you get into a really dark setting with minimal light, it's going to automatically transition to that battery and go to that power source. So, yeah, really, really cool. Tell us a little bit about this night vision compatible. You know, it says the lowest two settings are night vision compatible. And I know that's kind of popular right now. There's a lot of predator hunting that's happening at night in states that allow it. And it's just, you know, it's just gaining popularity like crazy, which I totally understand.

I like killing stuff, especially coyotes, at night, anytime. Anytime. Anytime you can kill one. But tell us a little bit about. Anytime is a good time. Yeah, tell us a little bit about that. I just can't get over night vision compatible. All of these different things, solar, yada, yada, at a price point of, I want to say $3.99 MSRP. I just can't get over the value. So, yeah. So, yeah. The two lowest settings, like you said, are going to be night vision compatible. Night vision is definitely getting more popular. I'd say that technology is, you know, I mean, it's still expensive, right? But it's getting more within reach of folks that are out there. So, yeah. I mean, nighttime predator hunting, very, very popular, increasing in popularity. And then you also have, you know, folks that may be in a more tactical environment using night vision.

And it's going to operate for those people as well. And essentially, it's just a super, super low setting. It's a super low setting of that dot. Probably not even visible to the naked eye, right? But it works with your night vision units.

So, it's compatible. You have your night vision unit, I guess, with it. Is that how it works? So, yeah. Yeah. So, you'd be using, you know, I guess, an ancillary night vision optic, if you will. But you'd be able to see the dot. Right. While using it. Yeah.

Cool. I think tripods are up, right? Yeah. That's the other thing. I know you guys announced that. It's been a few months ago, I guess, in terms of different models of tripods. Do you want to dive into those a little bit, Mark? And talk about, you know, some of the three or four of those that you want to highlight? Yeah, for sure. So, you know, we've always had tripods, right? But we really spent the last, you know, couple years refining our tripod game. So, I wouldn't say it's not an update. We completely, like, revamped. We have an all-new tripod series. Really excited about them. Probably some standouts on the hunting side would be the Summit Carbon 2. So, as the name implies, it's got carbon fiber leg set. Ultra lightweight. So, it's going to be coming in at 2.5 pounds for the tripod.

Going to be really suited for, you know, the backcountry person, the person that's packing their tripod in, trying to shave weight. Very steady. It's going to get you to, you know, it's often going to work, like, at a sitting or kneeling height. So, for, I'd say, an average statured person, it's not going to be a tripod that they're going to use from a standing position. So, but, you know, again, you're shaving some weight there. It's super packable. It's going to fit in, you know, darn near any pocket that's, you know, suited for a spotting scooper tripod on your pack. And, yeah, really, really solid tripod. It's got a two-way pan head. Easy to adjust. It's a simple turn to the right or left, you know, to unlock or lock the head and pan up, down, left, right. And it's Arca-Swiss compatible, right? So, it's using the Arca-Swiss plate, a very common plate system, if you will.

I mean, you can almost say it's like an industry standard across a variety of, you know, optical and even, you know, things that are, like, necessarily outside of our space. Like, you know, photography, videography. A lot of folks are going to that Arca-Swiss for shooting as well, where they've got either an Arca-Swiss rail on their firearm or even an integrated Arca-Swiss rail on the firearm. So, just a lot of good stuff going on there. If you want to, if you do have a need to get to that standing position, you know, and you guys hunt a variety of places and, you know, certain landscapes lend themselves to where you're going to need to get to that standing position. We've got the Ridgeview Carbon, right? So, it's going to have all those same features of the Summit Carbon 2. The leg set is going to be a little bit longer, and it's going to get you to that standing height.

So, those are kind of the two heavy hitters, you know, at least in the hunt space. And then, you know, thirdly, we have the High Country 2, and it's got an aluminum leg set, flip lever leg locks versus twist lock legs. So, I should mention that the other two have twist lock legs. So, if you prefer twist lever locks, this might be the one for you. It's got an aluminum leg set, and it's coming in at about four pounds. So, a little bit heavier, you know, the aluminum, you know, can be a little bit noisier depending if you bang something on it. The carbon is nice for that. It's a little bit quieter. It's going to settle a little bit better. It's kind of got an inherent vibration dampening aspect to it. So, but all really, really solid tripods. And then, you get to the radian carbon, which that is purpose-built for shooting.

So, you guys were talking about, you know, if a person is a competitive shooter or if you are hunting predators at night and you've got an Arc Swiss rail on your firearm, man, probably not a better way to go. I mean, ultimate stability, you're able to use your night vision or your thermal and scan and do things like that. And you've just got a way stable platform. You've got the cover of darkness, so you can, you know, have a little bit more leeway there with what you can get away with. And very, very effective in a system like that. That's awesome. This Summit Carbon 2, it comes, like it comes tripod, panhead, all included for two and a half pounds, right? Yeah, yeah, that's the whole kit and caboodle. And I got a chance to use that, actually, I think it must have been a prototype, but coos deer hunting, actually, last year. And, man, it worked really good. I really enjoyed it.

Used it on a black bear hunt in the North Cascades this year as well. And, man, it's a joy to pack, you know. I mean, it definitely, it makes, you know, the decision to carry or not carry that tripod pretty easy. Yeah, you'd definitely, you know, it's definitely one of those backpackable where, Bronson, you'd be using it on sheep, goat, whatever, myself as well. We have tripods that we, this is the one we always backpack with, and then we have one that we use for everyday use, which would be the Ridgeview, which is the carbon fiber tripod and panhead. And, of course, there's aluminum out there, too, and I've got a few of those as well over the years, a lot of which my kids are using and abusing. Let's just call it abusing. But, anyway, I'm a huge fan of the carbon fiber tripods, and those are a great price point as well, very competitive in the market.

And so, like you said, I mean, you've got some that obviously are way up there in price that are able to handle, one of them, 44 pounds. So, anyway, kind of that next level photography and whatnot. But for hunters, generally speaking, it feels like, like you said, the Ridgeview, the Summit, and the High Country would be the three to choose from and definitely exactly the ones we would want to use ourselves. Yeah. Absolutely. Yep. So, for sure. And they all share that same head, you know, so they have that in common. But if a person, you know, if they have a head they prefer, you know, they can swap that out as well so they have that versatility going on. What else haven't we covered here, Mark? I mean, I know it was a little bit of a blitz through, but we spent probably the most time on the Fury HD 5000 AB, a little bit on the scopes for some of the AR platforms.

And then, you know, the tripods as far as what is new, and that's kind of what we're talking about. But anything else, I guess, noteworthy, even though it maybe isn't brand new, like some of these products we've just talked about. Anything noteworthy you think you want to bring up from a Vortex standpoint moving into 2021? Man, you know, I mean, those are definitely the heavy hitters as of right now. I'd say, you know, anybody out there, stay tuned. We're always working hard to come out with new and innovative and exciting products. So keep your eyes open for that. And, you know, other notable things, you know, our apparel game, we're definitely trying to up our apparel game. That's an area of focus for us. You know, I guess if you need something good to look through, you need to look good as well, right? So we're trying to help folks out with that also.

So, you know, check out the website and check out, you know, the hats and shirts and sweatshirts and all sorts of good stuff there. Cleaning supplies and everything. I have one last question. Give it to me. And if you don't know it, that's okay. But anyway, I do want to know about the warranty on the tripod. If I break the legs, can I send it back? So that's going to be the same. It's that same, you know, Vortex VIP warranty. So, I mean, that's pretty much across the board on all of our stuff. So, yeah. John, you're hard on stuff and you're headed to Mexico. I'm hard on stuff. Sometimes, you know, four-wheelers got to flip, you know. Yeah. Gear went sprawling for 100 yards. Send it back. All right. Yeah. You know, you guys brought up a couple points. I may have to go back. We may have to insert the epic clause into that warranty. John's included.

He's got some stuff we found out recently on warranty items, maybe non-warrantied items. Anyway, it's always good to find out who you're working with. That's all. Oh, my gosh. That's awesome. Hey, how much snow did you get up there? Man, we got pounded. I mean, that's actually why I'm at home today. We had an unexpected, or at least to me it was kind of an unexpected snowstorm. Kids had to stay home from school, so I'm doing the stay-at-home dad slash stay-at-home at work, so probably doing neither of them well. But I think we got about a foot, man. So, yeah. And for our listeners that don't know where you're at, where are you talking? Where do you reside? So, we're based in south-central Wisconsin. So, Vortex itself is in Barneville. I'm in Barneville, Wisconsin. I live in an adjacent community. But, yeah, good old Wisco kind of came through with the snow finally this year.

It's been a pretty mild winter, so I can't complain. Yeah, we need more of that here. We were braced because, you know, we haven't had a big one all winter in southern Utah. And so, the first time that they think it's going to be big, they basically tell you to stock up on all medical – I mean, this is it. Get ready. I mean, this is a winter storm warning, two to three feet. Bottled water. Yeah, matches, flares. I mean, get it ready. You're not – you know, say goodbye to your neighbors for two or three days. And we got about a quarter inch of snow last year. No, that's here in our little hometown. Yeah. So, we would take whatever you got. So, probably doesn't have any snow days in Wisconsin, I don't bet. They're pretty – I'd say they're generally pretty good about, yeah, leaving it to the big ones. But this one was definitely enough to cancel school.

But the good news for you guys, though, is you're – you know, now you're ready for when it calls for blue skies, but you get two feet of snow. Yeah. Yeah. I guess. That's one way to put it. But what am I going to do with the dozen flares?

Light some stuff up. We can – we'll chat about this offline. All right. All right. Well, we appreciate your time. Hope you have a great day. We appreciate it. Just teaching everybody about the new products out there. Vortex, anybody out there listening, you're looking to buy some of these new products, definitely give us a call here at Epic Outdoors, 435-263-0777. We can get you on the list and get you a price quote that won't be beat. All right. Okay, buddy. Anything else? No, man. I think that's it. I appreciate you guys having me on and the opportunity to chat. It's always good chatting. And I don't get to see you guys at the Expo this year, but hopefully sometime here shortly. Absolutely. Yeah. Really appreciate your time, Mark. And you're welcome back anytime when you've got something else to divulge to listeners, us included. Appreciate it. Appreciate it, guys.

No, thanks so much and take care and we'll talk soon, okay? Okay. See you. Bye.

I wonder if they're going to hire any temps to go look through that scope for 1,500. 17 years. Is it? You did the math. I did the math. Chris is over there doing the math. That's a lifetime scope. All right. All right. Even if it's dark and you're safe. Like forever. Yeah. Dark. Like we're under your mattress. If it's an AR, you sleep right close to you. The next level would be like if that worked and you could hook it up to the grid and get paid back. You know what I mean? Hook it up to the grid. Yeah. I've got more power in this. You get three cents over the 17-year life. And we know how Bronson likes pennies. I've got more power. I'm just saying we're going to sell power to California. I've got more power in this scope than I need. I'm going to send it back to the grid. What are you going to pay me for it? Newsome. Yeah. What are we paying? Four cents a year. Hey. Hey. I mean.

Penny earned is a penny saved. Or a penny saved is a penny earned. Who knows? We change that to a nickel. Just change that to a nickel. Saved is a nickel earned. How's that? I'll go with it. Is that all we got? Freaking hot in here. I think so. That's right. We good? Appreciate it. Yeah. Like you said. Like Jason ended with, though, call us. If you're interested in the Sephury HT 5000 AB, which it is an incredible price point for what it does. Give us a call here at Epic Outdoors. Keep you on the list for that. Get it out to you ASAP. Turn them around. As soon as we get stuff like that in the mail with new and updated orders, they go out the same day. And like Jason said, too, prices won't be beat. So give us a call for a price quote as well on that or whatever else you're looking for from your Vortex Opix needs. John, you're a dealmaker.

Anybody out there talks to John, he'll, he will not be beat. All right, everybody. Call it a day.