EP 253: Swarovski Pays a Visit with a Huge Announcement

Anything to do with Western big game.

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When you were gone, we were starting a podcast, we all tried to do the brrrrraa like you do and none of us can physically do it.

Well, good, I'm kind of good for something. Adam claims it's a genetic, genetically it's impossible for some people to do it. Do it again.

I like yours better. You can't do it. I can't do it. You can't do that, Devin? I cannot physically do it. John, do it. Oh, yeah, no problem. You got it. Just me and Adam. Genetically, genetics, it can't do it. Hey, everybody, Jason Carter, the entire Epic Outdoors crew, well, minus a couple. We got Wyatt. He thinks he's got too much going on, so he can't make it with us. And Adam, he's in Alaska, just smashed a caribou, so we'll be able to hear that story. It's pretty awesome. Video's awesome. Super excited for him. Congratulations in advance, Adam. Good work. And anyway, we've been in the field hunting stuff that people want to know about that we're not going to talk about. Right, Devin? That's right. So, anyway, pretty fun time of year, September. And wouldn't you know it, September, right in the middle of the hunts, Swarrow drops a new product.

Kobe, we got Kobe Croft here, Swarrow rep, super good guy, one of the main guys there at Swarovski, and kind of our initial point of contact. And responsible for our account here at Epic Outdoors. We so appreciate him. And here he is. Thanks for having me. In person. Yeah, thanks for having me. Showing us the product. Why don't we talk about it a little bit? All right. Brand new spotting scope. We just launched last week. It's ATC, STC, compact spotter. We've been asked for a long time for something smaller than what we have out now. And we finally brought something out to the market. So, ATC and STC, an angled ATC, angled telescope compact. We're very, very creative with our acronyms. I like it. Yeah. And STC would be straight telescope compact. So, these are incredible. So, when you bring them in and you hold them, it's like you're holding two eyepieces.

That's what it feels like, the full length. The eyepiece on the angled looks just bigger than the objective, right? Right. Probably if you cut it in half and weighed them. Yeah. It's pretty close. So, anyway, yeah. The outside diameter is basically the same. It's a 56-millimeter objective on the end. It's 17 to 40 power. Correct. Right? Variable. Yeah. And pretty awesome. The angled will come in orange. And wouldn't you know it, we've already had pre-orders for orange. And that orange is awesome. People love it. I know. That burnt orange color is just, yeah. Okay. So, it is a little darker than the old. It is. It's not like the safety orange. Not a hunter. A hunter orange. Yeah. The same orange. It wouldn't count as your 40 square inches. That's right. You can throw it over your shoulder. Not quite. Hey, that's a good idea. Yeah. It's the same orange as the NL32.

That kind of burnt orange. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, we had to order a few of those because we actually had some pre-orders of that. But, anyway, pretty incredible. I know they're just over two pounds. I mean, this does not feel two pounds to me. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy. So, full length. I don't know. What would you say? Just over a foot. I don't know what it's. Do you? Yeah. Huh? Yeah. On the straight. Yeah. It's 10 inches? Maybe 11 inches. Yeah. Something like that. With the cap. Who knows? Yep. So, tell us a little bit about the technology. I know it's Swarovision, but what does that mean? Sure. Everything seems like it's Swarovision, but more or less, I want to know as a consumer, not as a dealer, just, you know, does this match up optical quality and clarity to, like, say, the X's, the X model, you know what I mean? Yeah. The modular system. Yeah.

Great question. And, absolutely, it does. And Swarovision, go back to that. When you own the company, you can name everything after yourself, right? Right. So, we've got a lot of Swarov stuff. Yeah, for sure. Right. Swarovision is a package, an optical package that we developed when we brought out the second version of the EL binocular. And, basically, it's a combination of a field flattening lens and the eyepiece, which removes all of the edge distortion, all size and shape distortion, and an HD objective or a fluoride objective, depending on how you want to describe it. Those things mean the same thing. Yeah, high def. Right. Right. And then long eye relief and wide field of view. Usually, you trade one of those for the other, but the technology and the eyepiece allows us to give you both a wide field of view and long eye relief.

And, that's what I think we found with the NLs, or like even, like the .42 is not just a .42 anymore in relation to, you know, your field of view. Right, yeah. And so, you know, with this new technology, a lot of people would wonder, you know, is it, A, that doesn't even look 56mm. Right. Right. It looks a lot smaller than that. But, and then, and with the new technology, it's actually better than, say, a 56mm from 20 years ago. Let's just say size. Yeah, for sure. Everything's gotten way better. Our ability to produce things to really tight tolerances has improved. Coding technologies have improved. Our ability to grind glass has improved. Everything's gotten better over the years. So, but yeah, this absolutely is the same optical quality as the ATX-STX series, just in a much smaller, lighter, more portable package.

You do lose a little with the 56, like compared to an ATX-65, you'll lose a little bit of light in real low light conditions. Sure. But, you can go down to 17. Right. So, you get some of it back by having that lower magnification. Right. So, you do top out at 40. Do you see them making a doubler or anything like that? I doubt it. In fact, none of it's, yeah, good question. This doesn't come apart like the ATX-STX. It's a fixed system, yep, setup system. But, you know, there are times when you can't use more than 40 anyway. It doesn't, like a day like today, it's going to be 110 degrees down here. Yeah. You won't be able to use 17 at noon, right? There'll be too much heat and heat waves and stuff in the air. So, in this package, 40 is about all you'd be able to get out of it anyway. And it's just spectacular. When we had a meeting in Colorado, we were on a ranch, a humongous ranch.

And the back of the ranch was like eight or nine miles away, and there's a big peak back there. And in fairly low light conditions, we were looking at elk at eight miles away with this. So, it's, you know, you wouldn't. No. You're not going to judge them. Right. And you can't tell bulls and cows. Extra balkine or a devil tine on the front. You could see that they were elk, and you could tell, you know, what you were looking at. A basic bowler from a cow maybe. Yeah. So, it's strong. It's very, very usable, and the packability of it is spectacular. I mean, geez. I've got lunches that are more than that. Gas station burrito is more than that. This does feel like this. I was going to say. What's your favorite burrito down there at Maverick? Isn't it like the big Mui Grande, the green package? I mean, that's about a burrito. That's smaller than the burrito Josh gets sometimes. Oh, yeah.

That's smaller than the sauna burrito. What about Wyatt's breakfast burrito that he has at lunch every single time? That's true. So, Wyatt's sensitive to spicy food. So, every time we go down to a Mexican, he has a breakfast burrito. Every time. It's like, and I don't know if he just likes them or if he's being kind to us because he knows we like Mexican food. Anyway, that's about right. That's a breakfast burrito size. So, on this, there's this shelf. Tell us a little bit about it. Yeah. And how it's movable. Yeah. We call it a half shell. It actually, it screws into the bottom where you would screw your tripod in. There's a quarter 20 hole there, of course, to put a tripod foot or whatever in there. Okay. And that attaches in that spot. You can put it on or take it off. It's very lightweight, like maybe ABS plastic or nylon reinforced plastic. I'm not sure.

But it's intended to be, to allow you to use it sitting on a surface so it doesn't interfere with your focus wheel. So, basically, there's a little bit of gap between the shelf and the focus wheel. And so, you can rest this on something. On a pack or a sandbag. If it's not on a tripod, you're resting it on something, even if it's your hand. Yeah. And then you can still spin the focus wheel and not have to. Yep. Okay. That's the idea. Yeah. That's the whole reason for it. Yeah. And I saw your pictures. They were hand-holding it on the website. Yep. And I just hand-held it out here just because I was curious. And at 35 power, I was reading license plates at like 400 yards. You must have had a smoke just recently because usually you're a shaky guy. I am. I'm just teasing. Don't say it's something. Devin doesn't smoke. I'm just teasing. Miranda, don't get mad. Yeah.

No, it's true, though. Like, that's what you were saying. Yeah. If you had to quickly verify something and it's so small, you could have it right on your pack, reach back, pull it out, check something real fast. Yeah. You could, yeah, it would work. Yeah. A lot of the marketing we put out, actually, the people are holding it in their hands. I know. I'm not sure I would hold it. I was laughing. I'm just like, oh, geez. Yep. You know, but do we ever hand-hold anything? We hardly even hand-hold our eights out of a truck. You know what I mean? Right. I don't agree. But having said that, it's nice. If you had to in a hurry, you could. You could, I think. You could, yeah. You guys would expect me to field judge it on the run. I've had a lot of questions. Like, can you put it on a tripod? Does it even have a tripod mount? But, yeah, it's not immediately apparent in the pictures. But, yeah.

Because all the media and, you know, promo material is showing it not on a tripod. Correct. Yeah. You know? So, yeah, it's totally mountable. And, man, unbelievable. I just, I can't get over it, basically, in both my hands. It's the whole unit. You know what I mean? It's not bigger than both my hands. That ankle scope right there is smaller than some of our rifle scopes we shoot on our rifles. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Like, yeah, it weighs about the same. So, like, a typical, like, kind of heavy, long-range rifle scope is 32 to 36 ounces. Yeah, these are 35 ounces. And this is about the same. Right, yeah. 35 ounces. Yep. So, anyway. Well, pretty incredible. Great technology involved in this. And then the one piece, it looked like it was waterproof to three feet. 13 feet. 13 feet. Yeah, it's more waterproof than you are. Okay. Yeah. All right. That's a good point.

Yeah, waterproof, shockproof, fogproof. It is one complete unit. It's got a big helical focus in the middle, just like our big spotting scopes do. So, it's really easy to use with gloved hands. The zoom is the same. Big and easy to get to. They turn smoothly, like all the rest of our stuff. It's just a nice little unit. There's a couple of cool little things. Like, if you take the objective cap off, it's sized perfectly to actually fit inside.

Oh, there you go. The eyepiece cap. That's a great place to put it. Yeah, so you don't lose it. I don't know if that was by design or if it's just a happy accident, but you won't lose it. And then the eyepiece diameter is exactly the same size as the ATX-STX. That's what it felt like. So, if you have a phone scope application or something. Yeah, phone scope or some other thing you use to dig scope with it, it'll fit this as well. And they're also promoting this with some digital scoping. Yeah, RVPA. Yeah. What is it? That's our kind of universal phone adapter that we make. Oh, okay. Yeah, it fits most phones. Oh, okay. It has ring-sized to fit our optics. Yeah. All right. Well, yeah, they were promoting that, too, so they're getting on that whole bandwagon. Yeah. Probably a lot for the birding.

Seems like Swarrow's heavy into birding and people want to video their hummingbird outside their window. That's right. But anyway. What's kind of the goal, I guess, or what's a guy want one of these for? I mean, obviously, other than packability and stuff. Yeah. What was kind of their goal there? Well, you know, what's interesting is we're 100% sure where exactly this would hit when we started talking about it, right? What we've found, though, since we've launched it and since we've been talking about it, is people that don't typically use a spotting scope, people that are in the southeast or places where a spotting scope maybe isn't helpful for hunting. This is perfectly sized to fit in your range bag to go to the range. Absolutely resolve bullet holes at 100 yards, no problem.

And so that's an application for it is somewhere where you wouldn't traditionally take a spotting scope or mess with, you know, carrying all the weight. The other thing, too, is exactly that backpacking. You know, it cuts off a pound, at least a pound, from an ATX 65 or from anybody else's lightest weight spotting scope without giving up much performance at all. So those are scenarios where we see it being used. It's a good example that if there's a, let's say the 65 goes to 60 power, which it does. I mean, you know, a lot of times you're not on max power. You're just not on max power. Rarely. You know, and so, I mean, 40, people are like, you know, tell me, is it, you know, what's the max power on it? We've said 40. And I think initially people are like, oh, you know, is that enough? That's enough in a lot of cases.

I mean, if you're counting rings on sheep at three miles, yeah, you need the best glass and it's worth packing the extra weight. But this does have its application. I can totally. Like the window of the Corolla. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At first, I'm thinking like, oh, geez. So, Josh, he makes the trip over here and he's always spotting game. He thinks he's the world's greatest spotter between here and Penguins. And I would say he is because there's no other competition. But, hey, that's good country. $5 a question. I'll answer any of your spotting needs. Lots of stuff to see. So, Josh, what's your current Corolla optical?

It's honestly, it's like an old loophole thing, but it's a similar type scope. You're definitely upgrading.

But it's like an 11 to 33. But for that kind of situation where you're just like, hey, what's that bull? And it's just out of range of the binos and you want it to look really quick? That's perfect. And as far as Devin's concerned, you wouldn't even need the window mount. That's true. That's true. I probably wouldn't use one. I wouldn't even need to. But I'm telling you, try it. Go hand-hold it. It's not that. So, you're saying I wouldn't even have to come to a full stop. Like a slow roll. Yeah, just let off the gas and coast. He's not that good of a driver. Knee drive, slow roll. Don't hit the rubble strips. That won't help.

Oh, I was going to say, while we're talking about window mounts, one thing about this, it's so small. We had to make a few compromises in the design to get it that small so it doesn't rotate on the mount like a normal scope would. Yeah, it doesn't have that knob on the side that rotates. So, if you intend to use it on a window mount, you might opt for the straight. In fact, the interesting thing is we sell probably 80% angled and 20% straight. Yeah. And we've had a really good response to the straight. Can you say that again? Yeah. One more time? Yeah. Just so we can get that. What do you mean? Uh-oh. There's a lot more. Somebody just went a back. There's a lot more. He owes us a couple lunches. There's a lot less straight people out there than angled? Where are you guys going with this? Us older guys are all straight. I'm telling you. These younger guys, they're all crooked.

And so, our orders, we just put in an order, and I want to say it was like a 40-60, you know, 60 angled. But you're right. I cannot believe the demand for angled because it's hard for me to get used to. Well, it used to be 10 years ago it was 50-50, almost right down the middle. And then when the ATX-STX came out, it started to really migrate toward angled. Yeah. But this, for some reason, it seems like the straight is appealing to more people. And it may be because it will fit in a water bottle pocket. That's what I was thinking. Without that angle, it's got a kink in it, so it's harder to fit it in the pack. I mean, you know, it's small enough. Good grief. But, yeah, you've really got to get them in your hands to see the size. Oh, I was like, there's no way I'm buying one. Yeah. There's no way I'm not buying one. Yeah.

I mean, when I looked at it, I'm like, well, I've got a 65. You know, the STX. Yep. 65, I love it. No, I'm not buying it. This wouldn't make sense for me. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah. I'm buying it. Yeah, it's super cool. Turned out great. And I wish the straight came in orange because I might just buy orange just to be that guy. Yeah. Just to have orange. And you know what? You guys made a point about Wyoming. Have you seen, the Wyoming guys don't really use blaze orange. Have you noticed that it's like the most 40-year-old orange in the world? Yeah, this used to be orange. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They use a lot of business. So anyway, they've run it through a lot of bleach. There you go. Look at that. Two pop. Well, no. So what have we got? We've got one. This is the size. If you stack one Monster and one regular pop like a Coke, it's almost the exact same size. It's almost exactly the same.

16 and what's this? 12. Yeah. 16 fluid ounces and 12 fluid ounces on top of each other. That's what you're dealing with. Actually, those are a little more girthy than that one. You know what? The other day, I actually tried the koozies that you get. Yeah. They give away for free everywhere you go. Yeah. It actually fits right over this pretty well and would protect it in your pack. As the cat. Like a koozie on each end. A koozie. And those are free. Epic koozie. There you go. John Gorder, 14,000 koozies. All right. No plans for us on our part that I know of to make a case for it. Yeah. Because more or less, this is like my sock. Actually, you throw in a sock. Yeah. There you go. Sock. I mean, it's literally. Yeah. I mean, that's a kid's sock. I was going to say, not a full-grown man's sock either.

Full-grown man's sock. All right. Well, sounds good. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. I mean, the price point's incredible. I mean, you're under $2,500 a full retail. And so, anyway, anybody that's interested for just over two grand, why, give us a hauler. Definitely worth putting it in. And there's some guys. There's some guys that have every piece Swarov has ever made, no matter what. And I can't believe the pre-orders that have come in sight unseen. Yeah. Just basically looking at the advertisements. But I don't understand the advertisements. When I looked at it, I did not expect this. It shows it maybe even a little bit bigger. It's great quality and high-def photos and whatnot. But this is smaller. Yeah. Yeah. There's nothing really for reference in the pictures. But it turned out great. We're pretty excited about it.

And I think on that pre-order list, if you want to get on, just give us a call, 435-263-0777. And we'll put your name on there. It'll save your place in line. And then just when they're available, we'll give you a call and finalize the order. You can also email us, optics at epicoutdoors.com. You can DM. Josh runs our Instagram. You can DM him. Of course, he loves that. Huh, Josh? Oh, yeah. You do. Hit him up on there. Tell us you want on the list. We'll put you on the list. We put in a pretty big order there with Swarov. And probably going to add to it. Pretty incredible piece of equipment right here. So thanks, Colby, for coming by. Thank you. I know you're a busy guy. Anytime a new product comes by, you basically aren't going to be able to hunt for the next 30 days. Yeah. That's right. Pretty much. Pretty busy. Yeah. So anyway, you've been hunting already, haven't you? No.

You haven't been in the field yet? No. Fishing. Grouse. Yeah, I've been fishing. Fishing. Yeah. How was fishing? Fishing's great. In Alaska? Yeah, it's hard to not catch stuff in Alaska. So it's been good. Alaska would be great if it wasn't for all the water. Yeah. Rain. Mist. Yeah. Misty fjords. It comes at you from every direction. Yep. It's crazy. All right. All right. Sounds good, everybody. Pretty awesome product. There at Swarovski. If you have any questions, give us a holler. Like John said, 435-263-0777. We hope you enjoyed this episode, and we'd like to thank you for listening. If you'd like to thank us, please rate and review the show. We've seen a huge increase in downloads due directly to listener reviews. So we'd like to thank you a lot for that if you've rated or reviewed. And for those that haven't, we've got a little extra incentive.

We're going to start doing some rate and review giveaways from time to time, which will typically include prizes like a brand new set of binoculars, maybe range finders, things like that. To get your name in the hat for future drawings, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to epic underscore hunts on Instagram. Or you can shoot us an email at info at epicoutdoors.com. Thanks for listening. At Epic Outdoors, we help you reach your hunting dreams. Whether it's helping you to develop a long-term application strategy or finding the perfect outfitter for your next hunt. As a member of Epic Outdoors, you'll also receive the Epic Outdoors magazine and have access to the best hunting consultants in the industry, online tools, and more. To join Epic Outdoors, visit epicoutdoors.com or call 435-263-0777.

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