.I'm Travis Bader and this is the
Silvercore podcast.
Join me as I discuss matters related to
hunting, fishing, and outdoor pursuits with the
people in businesses that comprise the community.
If you're new to Silvercore, be sure to
check at our website, www.silvercore.ca.
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with COVIT 19 and social distancing measures.
We're taking steps to ensure we continue
to bring you the best possible content given
the circumstances we are learning to adapt
to our new situation.
And this is silver for his very first
remote podcast.
We understand that these are difficult times for
everyone and we want to be able to offer a
little bit of respect for the day today.
While I haven't said it out right in the past,
perhaps now is a good time as any to explain
that every guest I've ever had on the show has
been told the same thing.
That is in a nutshell.
Keep it positive.
There's enough negativity in the world and in
particular surrounding hunting and firearms that
we will stay away from talking about negative
politics or anything that might have the tendency
to be divisive for travel down that warn dark path.
Here.
We attract people who have a genuine
passion for what they do and wish to share
that passion with you.
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Without further ado, let's get into the
podcast with guest Jimmy Hamilton from vortex
optics and co-hosted the vortex nation podcast.
Jimmy, thank you very much for taking the
time to speak with me.
Appreciate you having me on.
It's a pleasure to be here.
I have to say, this is a first for me.
Up till now, I've had the luxury of sitting
face to face with my guests and whether
that means I jump in a car, hop in a plane or.
They come to the silver core studio.
I've made it work.
If it weren't for the current Covance
situation, I'm sure I would've jumped
in a plane and come over there to greet
you face to face.
But we're in unprecedented times right
now.
That's the truth.
Yeah.
That's just the reality of things right now.
Probably going to be hearing a lot more
remote podcasts from people these days,
but, uh, still we can, uh, we can still make
some recordings happen.
So where are you right now and how
are you doing?
So I'm actually at HQ right now.
I'm doing well.
Just fine.
Wife and myself have been, have
been all right.
The family otherwise has been pretty good too.
So my brothers and I, and uh, just to give a little
background on myself, I'm one of the family owners
here at vortex optics.
And.
Am in that position with three of my brothers.
There's four of us total.
All of us work here in the business, so we're
all still coming in.
Um, we're able to, now we're in Wisconsin
and right now there's a bit of, um, you,
no, I don't even know how to explain it.
There's, it's called a stay at home or a safer
at home thing in place.
It's different from shelter and home.
It seems it's all a bit, it's all a bit confusing.
I think everything is so new for everybody, but
most of our essential folks, kind of a skeleton
crew of the essential folks who aren't deemed
to be at home with family and children are here.
So a lot of the folks in shipping or warranty
area, customer service, area of repairs,
machining, things like that, that are hands on,
not really easy to do.
From home.
We do have some folks here doing that stuff
still, so things are still running at vortex.
A little bit slower than usual.
Everybody else who's able to is working from home
for the most part and utilizing all different
manners of a technology with, she's now become
fairly reliant upon.
But, uh, yeah, things are still, things are
still running here and they're running bout
as good as they can be.
And it's been nice that people have been willing
to extend some patients in times like this.
I think everybody realizes it.
You know, it's, it's not just happening to one
business or one industry.
It's happening to the, the whole world.
Uh, it's no kidding.
Wild.
I'm
killing.
So I run a training company in demand for
firearms trainings at an unprecedented high.
Undoubtedly.
It's unbelievable.
Uh, you know, a really good friend
of mine often says.
If someone's throwing money at you, don't duck.
And it feels like all we're doing right now is
ducking because generally that's good advice.
But right now it's just not socially responsible
or safe to be running in person training
classes in the, in the service industry.
So I guess what we've done is we've
been drastically changing our model.
We've, we're looking at online training and
we're going to be leaning on YouTube and podcast
to agree to degree in the product side.
Are you guys seeing that same sort of
demand at vortex optics?
Are people panicking and saying, I gotta get
me some vortex optics?
Um, you definitely have that in times like this.
I'd say it somewhat, it's somewhat reminiscent of
times we've had here in the U S in the past with
presidential elections and things like that.
I don't think it's any secret.
It's not some kind of a taboo thing to talk about
the fact that, you know, when there's times of
uncertainty, generally people will go for.
Commodity items, they'll go for items
that may be used to protect themselves.
Uh, they really sort of focus in on those things.
Um, food, shelter, water, all that stuff.
And so, uh, we've had times like that, I'd say
though, when it's been related to politics,
it's more of a, um, you know, in fear that they
might take my guns away.
Sort of a scare buying, if you will.
And, you know, I think some people, some people
think that that company's in the gun industry
maybe get super excited about or they get a
little bit screwed.
Duck getting ready to jump in their giant
tower of money when those times come along.
And I mean, is it cool that it more sales
come along, I guess?
But is it, is it really nice to rely on that sort
of unpredictable and, uh, sort of all at once?
Firehose business?
It's, it's really not.
It's actually not that ideal.
A much more even and constant stream
of businesses is a way more ideal way
of having things.
This one's been.
Particularly interesting cause I feel like more
so than ever, you have people that are, are
sort of, you know, I guess the, the phrase
that all people are using and sort of scare
buying or whatever and they're not buying so
much cause they think guns are going to get
taken away necessarily.
But it's more of almost this, you know, fear
of impending apocalypse buying, which we haven't
necessarily seen.
A ton of, but you know, you have people who
maybe purchased a firearm in the past, they were
never in a rush to get an optic for it.
Now they really want to get an OPIC for it,
so it's ready to go should anything happen.
But a lot of times when you have any kind of
a massive sort of buy up, and I know that AR
fifteens are out of stock everywhere and other
firearms like that are out of stock everywhere.
Usually the accessory side of thing.
Is slightly delayed from that.
Cause I think people try and get as many
guns and aim and as much ammo as they can,
as quick as they can.
And then once they have all that and they feel
they're at a critical mass of, I feel this is
enough guns and ammo, then they start thinking
about optics and the accessories that'll
go along with that.
So haven't seen a direct effect yet.
And also you have dealers that are
unsure of whether or not they're going to
be able to stay open.
So.
Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's a thing in and of itself
is if you can have all the demand in the world,
but if no stores can actually be open, it's
never happened before.
So we'll see what happens here.
You know, you mentioned the, uh, the election
time in the, the fear bind that they might
take the guns and being in Canada here, I've
always thought it was a little odd, but Canadians
will buy more firearms and get more training.
When the U S elections come up, I don't
know if they just, if that bleeds over.
I remember being a over when, a number
of elections ago and everyone was quite
worried, quite panicking, and I mean, the spike
in sales up here was unbelievable and it's got
nothing to do with us.
That is, that's really interesting.
Yeah, I suppose, you know, I mean, it
kind of carries over into social media and
stuff like that, so you kind of see it.
Even if the people aren't in your country, it
might feel like they're a little bit closer to
you when they're, uh.
On the same platforms you are.
But yeah, it very interesting.
So you kind of already jumped into one thing.
I was going to get you to just talk a little
bit about yourself and kind of how'd you, how
you got into your role here with the, with
vortex, but it's a, it's a family thing.
Yup.
Pretty much born into it.
So, and we don't take that in, in.
In our family.
It's not a matter of sort of, you're forced
into it or it's not a matter of kind of, it's
just falls into your lap.
Um, every single one of my brothers and I
really actually actively pursued it, but all of us
thought we were going to do something different.
At first, I, if people listen to our podcasts,
you know, I referenced cars a lot and, uh,
it's just something I can't help but do.
So I've always been really into cars, got
into it from one of my older brothers, uh, who's
now one of our engineers.
And, um.
So I always thought I was going to be a
factory test driver.
I thought I was going to be driving around
on race tracks, driving up on road courses and
you know, the Arctic or whatever, testing out
all wheel drive systems.
Who knows what I thought I was going
to be doing that.
Um, and you know, all my brothers all thought
they were going to be doing other things, but
then just decided, uh, sort of vortex itself.
Really started in 2002 the family's been in
the industry and doing things in the outdoor
industry and all kinds of things in, in the optics
industry and stuff since about 1986 but anyway,
the, with the ages.
Age ranges of my brothers and I, it all
just ended up working out that, um, as, as
our family's business hit major milestones.
It was when a lot of us, uh, were, and they're
all, they're all quite a bit older than I am
actually, but it was when each of us was
getting out of college, or one of them was
getting out of the air force and just these
sort of big milestones came up and we, uh.
We looked at it and we're like, this
is pretty awesome.
This is something that's right here
in front of us.
And it's cool to be able to work with family.
It's cool to be able to do something where
you're in a business that you get to, um,
be a part of and, and, uh, in, in a way that
you're sort of dictating where things will go.
It's, it's, you're not working for somebody
and you're kind of working for yourself and
Yeah, I mean, we just all thought
it was pretty cool.
So jumped on, jumped on board, and we've
all had to do pretty much everything from
packing boxes and you know, repairs.
I, that's where I first cut my teeth here at
work was doing binocular repairs and the repair
departments, but then just kind of worked our
way into the positions.
For now.
And now you're full time with the vortex
nation podcast.
Is that a occupy the majority of your time?
Yeah.
Occupies a fair amount of my time now.
So in marketing, I do a lot of stuff here.
I'm, I, I've been around long enough and
I've learned enough from my older engineer
brothers, uh, about the product itself.
So kind of act as a, uh.
I guess advisor, if you will, for all the
different marketing areas, whether it's
new product releases, a lot of, you know,
specs get run by me and you know, or, or pieces
of copy or whatever.
I'll try and help out there where I can just
from all my, uh, the experience I've had
and seen and watched.
But we do have a, we have a pretty awesome
marketing team here.
A lot of people that are really good
at what they do.
And, uh, and so, yeah, it's, it's fun being
part of this group, cause it's not just, you
know, you see the social media, you see the, the
stuff like the content that we put out there.
Some of it's kind of lighthearted and fun.
Uh, the podcast I'm on, usually with Mark,
he's not here right now in part because of
things going on with the coven, uh, stuff.
But usually I'm on with him.
You know, we, we kinda kid around a lot
and stuff, but, uh.
But there's, there's a lot of behind the scenes
and, and, uh, there's, there's a lot of aspects
to this from product manuals to product
boxes, to the website, to social media, to, you
know, all that stuff.
Yeah.
No
kidding.
Well, before we talk about the optics and
the other accessories and gear that vortex
has, I figured I'll just put a quick plug
in for the vortex nation podcast, just so our
listeners know about it, because I don't want
to get too deep into a bunch of these things.
You've already talked about a number of.
Of things that I would have brought
up in a podcast here.
And I mean, you guys talk about everything
from flying with guns to make them burritos.
Talk about foraging, setting up your
firearm, your optics, repairing maintenance.
You know, the list goes on.
So anyone listening to this one, if you want to
go a little deeper, I had highly encouraged check
out the vortex nation podcast is a lot of
great content on there.
Appreciate that.
Thank you.
It is fun being an optics company.
We don't just necessarily have one
core group of customers.
We have, you know, everybody from birders
to tactical military, law enforcement,
recreational shooters, competitive shooters
of all disciplines.
You've got outdoor enthusiasts, so we
try to, we try to encompass everything,
but it winds up being.
Then you get a a podcast and a lot of other
content that we make that sort of all over the
map, but it's, it's fun.
Yeah, no kidding.
Yeah.
It appeals to my ADHD nature, that's for
sure.
Perfect.
Yeah, I was too.
We see a lot of new hunters and new firearms
owners in Canada.
We've got a federal licensing system.
Anybody wanting to get a firearm has to go
through training in person training, testing.
There's a process.
That is in place.
And consequently brand new people getting
into it, need guidance.
They need advice.
And as silver Corp as a company, we're very
selective about where we point our students do
and big thing we need.
Obviously we want to make sure we're pointing in
the direction of quality.
But another big part is the support.
And.
Vortex.
You know, I think I first reached out to you
guys through Instagram and within a couple of
hours I got contact back from some higher level
people talking about just answering questions,
basic questions for basic product line
that you have a email, phone, a social media.
You guys are really on top of that game.
We definitely try to be.
Um, like I said, the support thing from the
very start has been a really big deal for us.
And from the beginning, I mean, when we started
out as Vortec, we were just mostly dealing
dealer direct, and that's still the primary form
of business that we have.
But coming from before being a brand ourselves
that went dealer direct, we were a dealer of, um,
just various different outdoor related products
and then hunting and shooting related products
and stuff like that.
So having been in that space, we always, uh,
we had some experience and things that made
us really want to have our brand someday be
the brand that was the easiest to work with
and the best to work with the most responsive
and just follow the old classic golden rule, you
know, treat others like you'd like to be treated.
It's so simple to say, but really difficult at
times to actually do.
And so that started out by just, you
know, offering.
Great products at great prices with great
service to back it up and, you know, actually
adhering to that promise.
And then, you know, things, things kind of
progress from there.
And, and it was clear after a while that
it wasn't, uh, enough to just sort of be a
really great resource just for your dealers.
But then you have customers that want
to come direct to the source for information
or customer service and stuff like that.
So, you know, we started, we ate.
Got a full crew of people that are on
the phones all day, every single day.
They're all hunting, shooting, birding,
whatever enthusiasts.
And so they walk the walk as well as talk the
talk and you know, we've got them in customer
care, tech support, those kinds of people
on social media as well.
And, um, we, we.
Try to make it actually really hard almost
to contact us and not hear something back.
Well, it makes it easy for us to be able to
recommend, because I'm a new Hunter or
a new shooter goes out there and they're
looking for advice.
We want to be able to do a handoff, put them in
the hands of somebody who can properly take care
of them and makes it easy for us to refer people
over.
Here.
Now you guys have quite the product line.
You've got varying price ranges of
optics and scopes.
Can you give me a little bit of an idea
what the, uh, the difference is between
the different price jumps that you get there?
What are people paying for as they
start shelling out some more coin?
Yeah.
I like to start out whenever I'm talking with
somebody who's really new to optics, I like to
start out talking about primarily binoculars and
spotting scopes because when he looked the rifle
scope side of things, you're really getting
kind of complicated in the fact that you
can have a rifle scope with the same optical
system as another one, but it can have totally
different features around that optical
system, which make it a completely different
optic, and it might.
Cost more or cost less, it might make it for
ones for competition.
And one's for hunting.
Uh, one's for long range shooting when we would
never suggest using on a long range gun.
I mean, all kinds of things.
And we're talking about the same
optical system inside.
And that's, that's where I think people
get thrown off a lot and rifle scopes.
But when it comes down to like binoculars and
spotting scopes, which in and of themselves, their
observation optics, they have optical systems like
rifle scopes do, but you strip off a lot of the.
Features that may make them, you
know, applications specific or may change
the price a lot.
And, and when you boil it down into just optics
and you talk about, you know, your good,
better, best, that's what we try to have for
just about everybody on the planet is a good,
better, best option.
And when you talk about just the optics
themselves, you know, and you look at your more
entry level optics in our line, we start out.
At our generally crossfire line is about
where we'll start out.
Usually if you see that name, it's
something that's more at our entry line.
I wouldn't consider it a over all, or in the
grand scheme of things, the entire optics
industry, I wouldn't consider it necessarily
an entry level optic.
A lot of those rifles scope still, for example,
in the U S cost over a hundred dollars and
they're, they're plenty good for darn near
anything out there.
But that's, that's where we feel comfortable sort
of starting our line out.
As you move up and you get into other names
of ours, you know, like Diamondback and Viper
and stuff like that.
And again, just speaking in terms of the optics,
a lot of what you start to get is, I mean,
better optical quality and seeing is huge for
every single sport, whether it's hunting
or just recreational competitive professional
mill, Lee shooting the ability to see as
clearly as possible.
At pretty much any point in time in the day.
Uh, any lighting condition, all that
stuff is extraordinarily important.
And.
When you sort of move up the tiers, you just
improve your ability to see the targets are going
to look more resolute, clearer, sharper,
better image, clarity, cut, color, fidelity.
You're going to have better low
light performance.
So when you're at those critical times of
the day, right at the beginning of the day,
right towards the end of the day, as the sun
is rising or setting, I mean, everything that you
see through that optic is going to look better.
And.
And, and ideally as close to how it looks
with the naked eye.
And that's, that's not easy to do.
You know, you, you look at any given optic
and the lenses, for example, that we see
on the outside are two.
There's an IPS and there's an objective
lens, um, objective lens being the one that's
furthest from your face when you're holding
it up to your eye.
But.
There's so many other lenses and binoculars.
There's a whole prison system in there.
Um, same with spotting scopes and you have,
you know, in rifle scopes, there's an
erector unit in there with all kinds of
lenses that are moving.
They have to be perfectly aligned to one another.
There's different lens curvatures
that you can do.
Some are more expensive to produce than
others, but they can produce better images.
There's all smattering of different coatings that
you can actually coat the lenses with to improve
the light transmission.
And we're talking about, you know.
Light that comes in an infinitely many,
um, wavelengths.
I mean, all of this stuff is really, uh,
is really complex.
And as you.
Move up the tiers.
You're just getting better engineering,
better optical design, better mechanical design
and, and, and better assembly procedures
and stuff like that that can make that
optical system perform better and, um, deliver
you the best image.
Possible.
So that that's what you get through the
different tiers.
You know?
And then like I said, when you get into rifle
scopes, it can be a little different cause
you can see a rifle scope that costs more than
another rifle scope.
But if you look at it, the one that actually
costs less may have a better optical system,
but it doesn't have as many features.
And the features are what make the other one
costs more, even though its optical quality
isn't quite as good.
And.
That gets really kind of in the weeds.
That's the stuff.
That's why we employ so many people here that
are on the phones and emails and all that
stuff all the time answering these kinds
of questions because we get these questions
every single day.
We try to make videos about them.
You know, you look at our YouTube channel,
our Instagram page, we try to, we try to boil
it down for people as much as we can, but.
But inevitably, I mean, you know, we live and
breathe this stuff every day and, and so,
and, and even, I don't understand all of it.
Sometimes I have to have my engineering
brothers come over and explain, explain stuff
to me all the time.
And I've been around it my entire life.
Um.
That's, yeah, that's kind of generally how it goes.
I'm sure there's more we can get into the weeds
and I love getting into the weeds on stuff.
Don't get me wrong.
Um, but yeah,
and we'll point them over to your podcast.
Really get into the weeds there.
The sure thing.
So let's say you're coming up for a
hunt in the rugged, cold Canadian wild.
What optic would you be bringing on your firearm?
So.
That's a good question.
I, I'm not intimately familiar with, uh,
the rugged, cold Canadian wild.
I'll be honest with you.
Um, that said, if I were to choose for
hunting a scope that I would feel comfortable
throwing on 99% of the guns out there for in
99% of the locations that I've ever heard of.
Um.
That I, I would just feel confident.
I wouldn't ever feel like I was going into
something under scoped or, you know, with
inadequate gear, I would land myself right in
the middle of our line, kind of middle, middle,
slightly verging on the upper part of our line.
Um, in the Viper series, and I would go for what's
called our Viper HS, which the HSG stands for
hunting and shooting.
And to get into kind of what I was talking a
little bit about with, um, how you can have
one optical system, but different features
about it can make it for totally different
purposes and different prices and stuff.
The Viper series like that, HS.
Comes from a series of of optics where you have the
HS, you have the HST, the HSL are, and then there
was the gen one PSTs.
We called them all the same optics in them.
So you're going to expect all the same
image, clarity and quality, you know,
low light performance, all that stuff.
But they had different turrets and some
different radicals and features inside
that made like the HS.
I would.
Never try and take to a long range
competition ever.
It has kept turrets that aren't really
that easy to get to for a lot of dialing.
Cause I'm expecting to probably have
to dial a lot.
It doesn't have nearly as much adjustment
as the HST or the PST, which both have
exposed elevation and winded deter.
It's with a lot more travel inside the scope,
um, which I'm expecting them to a need for the
longer range shots.
I mean those scopes, it's funny how they're in the
same family, but, but.
There's ones that I wouldn't even consider
for certain applications.
So the HS is probably the one I would choose.
And in that HS line, you have the option of
a two and a half to 10 or four to 16 as far
as magnification goes.
And so, um.
It's a two and a half to 10 by 44 and the
four to 16 is it four to 16 by 50 and a that
last number there is the objective size.
So both those objective sizes are
perfectly appropriate for their given
magnification ranges.
Um, I wouldn't call the four to 16 by 50 brighter
than the two and a half to 10 by 44 just because.
It has a bigger objective bell.
It also is using a bigger objective bell to power
more magnification.
So really it kind of evens evens things out.
Um, but, you know, I'd probably go with
either one of those.
I'm not gonna say that, you know,
one is definitively better than the other.
Um, if I were to find myself in more thick
timber, uh, which, like I said, I'm
not super familiar with, uh, anyone's.
Exact spot.
But if I were to find myself in thicker timber
where the shots may only go out to say 300, 400
yards, maybe than the two and a half to 10,
I'd probably go with, um, just because I take
advantage of the bigger field of view, the lower
magnifications easier to find things with, cause
you can just zoom out.
You don't have to be looking up in that spot.
Uh, but if I were looking at more.
Uh, expansive scenery had a potential for a
slightly longer shot or just, you know, I was
looking for something that was a little bit of
a smaller critter in a big wide open landscape,
the four to 16, I'd feel perfectly fine with two.
Um, and if I got stuck in either situation with the
other optic, I wouldn't feel bad about it either.
If I were over the four to 16 and thick
timber, it's not the end of the world.
I'll be
okay.
Yeah.
Dial it down.
Yup.
So here's a question that I've been asked
before and I've heard varying answers on it.
You're cold weather hunt, cold outside, warm
in your tent, who are warm in your trailer.
What do you do with your, uh, your firearm
and your optic deal?
Some people say, Hey, we, we leave it in the truck.
And, uh, that way it's the same temperature.
Some people say, Hey, let's throw it inside
a case and it'll heat and cool slowly.
We don't have that condensation.
Some people just hang it up and get it
heated up real quick by the, uh, the stove
in the wall tent.
Is, is there concern about seals expanding
and contracting?
Is there a concern about moisture?
W what would you recommend?
There shouldn't be any concern about
any issue with seals or things like that.
Uh, having issues with the expansion and
contraction of, you know, temperature change.
Um, you know, and if there, if there were
I, that would be cause for actually concern.
But the one thing we do see happen,
uh, for people.
Definitely quite often, especially as
we get to the point in the year when things
really cool down a lot is fogging on the
exterior lens surfaces.
And that's something, you know, you can fog
proof the internals of a scope by using
O-ring seals, nitrogen or argon gas purging.
Uh, we can't fog proof.
The world.
Um, it's, it's not that easy.
You can use some fog proofing lens
cleaning solutions.
We actually have one that we sell, which is a
vortex fog free lens kit, and it works pretty well.
Um, but you know, mother nature and physics
can kind of overpower a lot of the stuff
that we have for it.
So using some, using some, some tricks
to the trade like you brought up, um,
generally just having your rifle and scope.
Acclimated to the temperature that you're
going to be hunting in most of the time while
you're out there is a good idea going from.
Hot to cold isn't as much of an issue is
going from cold to hot.
So we call that the cold beer can effect, and
everybody knows when you're at a tailgate
or whatever, you grab a cold beer out of the
cooler and it immediately starts to sweat.
And that is basically what happens to your
ice cold scope when it goes from cold to hot.
And a lot of people will think about.
You know, they think, Oh, well, I'm out
in the wilderness.
I'm not gonna walk into a cabin or something
like that, so I shouldn't have to worry about this.
But they forget that our bodies are heaters.
And so when you pull the rifle scope up to your
face, let's say you pull it up too close to your
face, or you're really breathing heavy, um.
You know, you could easily fog up that
eyepiece lens if you just pull it up too close to
your face or, or breathe on it on accident.
Sometimes even the way you're holding your
rifle and you're just breathing out of your
mouth or your nose, it can go right down on
an eyepiece if you kind of have it shoulder
at like a low ready position, if you will.
Um, I've seen that happen.
It happens to me all the time too.
I'm just, I'm not even paying attention.
I'm holding the rifle and next thing I know,
I looked down, the eyepiece is fogged up
and there's not much you can do about that.
At that point.
It's actually really difficult to get it.
, if you will.
You can, you know, try and bring out a lens
cloth, but then you're getting your warm fingers
all over it and then that's not helping.
Um, I mean, any manner of things.
We see people's binoculars get fogged
up all the time when they have them out
glassing and so they're looking through their
vinyls for a long time.
Then they decide it's time to move, or they
want to just set them down for a minute and
they sit them down.
They put them inside their jacket.
Which then traps all that heat between your
body and the jacket right there with the
binoculars, and then they fog up instantly.
Um, you know, stuff like that.
It's, it's little little things where
you're not thinking about things going from
cold to hot, uh, that will fog things up.
And like I said, once it, once it fogs up,
and especially if, if it's really cold, which
I know it gets cold up there in Canada,
if it's really cold and you fog something
up, and then all of a sudden it sort of flash
freezes and then it goes.
From fog to frost.
Good luck.
You're going to be dealing with, uh, you're,
you're, you're going to be dealing with that,
the rest of the hunt.
So.
Out in the field.
You want to care for your optics.
Let's see.
You do get a flash freeze.
You took some ice profile alcohol that will take
care of the frost.
What's that gonna do to the coatings is that,
does more
techs have things that are recommendations for
field care of the optics?
Little eyes, appropriate alcohol or any other
really lens cleaner or cleaner that's made
specifically for lenses isn't going to harm
the coatings at all.
Um, that's what a lot of our guys use.
Uh, definitely the biggest thing that
I would say that's going to harm your
coatings is just, um.
Basically grinding debris into the lenses.
So much like if you were going to wash your
car, let's say you had a, here I go with my
car references, but if you're going to wash
a nice car, you know you've got a nice classic
with a good paint job.
If it had dirt on it, the last thing you're
going to want to do is take a rag and just
rub that dirt into the nice paint job.
You want to get rid of all the grit.
And sand and dirt and debris that would scratch
up those coatings before you get in there with a
lens cleaning cloth or a lens pen or a shirt.
And, you know, try not to use the shirt,
but we, I get it.
I've done it.
Um, it does.
So, you know, not like everybody has compressed
air on them when they're out walking around.
Um, try not to use, I guess.
Like, if you go to blow on it, which I've done
many times, and you're in the cold, then you
get that fog problem.
Um, but you know, not many people have
compressed air on them when they're
out in the field.
Plus then you run into the issue of if
it's already cold, you probably won't
have the problem.
But if it's warm out and you accidentally get the
can upside down and you spray a compressed air
can upside down, you'll immediately sort of
flash freeze the lens.
And we've seen lenses crack when people
do it bad enough.
Um.
So, yeah, I mean, really just . Using
a nice brush, like most lens pens.
I know our lens pen that we have comes
with a a nice, fine, soft bristle bristle
brush on one end of it.
And, um, that's, that's good for getting the
bulk majority of dirt and debris off the
lenses before you get in there with a solution.
Um, otherwise, I know some of the guys.
Down to the repair area when they have something
that's just really nasty.
This is probably something when you're
more, more along the lines that when you're
back in the truck, if you got the stuff for
back at home, but they'll just let, um, they'll
let like a white vinegar.
A solution of, you know, part white
vinegar, part water.
What kind of let it sit on the lens for
a little bit, not a super extended time.
If you let it sit there long enough, I
don't know, the whole binoculars might be gone,
but, um, but if you do it for just a, for just
a bit of time, it'll kind of get any of that stuff
that's cemented on there.
It'll just make it come up a little bit easier.
Um.
And then you can, you can use a nice light
brush afterwards and stuff should start
coming away easier.
But yeah.
You mentioned something about the whole
binoculars being gone in that brought to mind.
So I've heard stories of people's houses burning
down and they're just a crispy little optic
that gets shipped back to vortex and they give
themselves a brand new object where they drove
over with their truck.
Are these stories or is this a, is this
how vortex operates?
Oh, that's real.
I'm sure there's some of that right now in
the warranty department.
Um, it, it happens more than you would think.
I guess the world's a crazy place.
Right.
Um, so anything can happen of,
we've seen, yeah.
Bears too on binoculars.
We've seen spotting scopes that got put
on a tripod that had the wind blowed
over, gets sent off.
Cliffs, stuff's come back to us in plastic bags.
Some stuffs come back to us burnt to a crisp.
We actually just had a guy, um.
In special operations, who is going to send
us back a razor one to six that he was using
the low power variable optic that got hit by
an RPG and he actually survived and kept, is
still fighting right now.
Um, and.
Anyway, the, he was working with a sort of
dealer slash distributor for those guys.
It was kind of a personal purchase that he, he
made for himself, for his, for his duty weapon.
And anyway, via a third party, they sent him
a new optic cause they knew we would warranty
the one that got.
Hit by this RPG.
That one's coming in now and uh, we
already got them a new one on the way.
We're going to get that one in cause we want to
get some photos of it.
It's not everyday you see an RPG hit rifle scope.
But you know, we've had some cases like that.
I mean, some scopes have been shot in some
scopes, whether it's a, an accidental thing
or in the line of duty, uh, oftentimes when it's
some crazy story of.
You know, it got messed up in some, um,
practically active God or whatever, and somebody
survived a big traumatic event, we'll actually
send them back the optic that's all busted up.
Um, on many occasions if they ask for it,
just because for posterity's sake.
That's pretty neat.
Uh, obviously we, we hope and we kind of trust
them that they won't just sort of, um, offloads at
somewhere and somebody else sends it in and
then they get a free update in a way becomes
like the brotherhood of the traveling
broken rifle scope.
But, um.
You know, there's, there's the occasional
like that, that guy who got it shot by the RPG.
He's going to get that scope back when
we're done with it.
So, Oh,
well, you guys have rangefinders
spotting scopes, tripods, monoculars
a periling gear.
What's, what's your bread and butter?
What are most people looking for when
they come to vortex?
Oh, man.
Um, bread and butter for us.
It's definitely, it definitely started
out and we still, um, we still pay a lot
of attention to it as binoculars because
when we really got into this, we were
still kind of primarily in the, I'd say more
outdoor birdwatching.
Um, some hunting kind of industry and binoculars
are a key component to those things.
And so when we started out, binoculars were
a key focus for us.
We hadn't even gotten into rifle scopes yet.
And, um.
We've always really liked binoculars.
And even when rifle scopes came around
and seen for vortex and around 2006, 2007,
uh, and have quickly now become the main
thing that we sell.
Um, binoculars still, I mean, they're there.
We hold them close to our heart.
We really pay a lot of attention to it.
The binoculars that we have in our lineup.
I'd say we have probably one of the deepest
lineups of binoculars in the industry.
And you know, from.
Entry-level, all the way to really high end,
ultra high end stuff.
Um, and so yeah, we always, we always
make sure we're on the up and up.
We have, um, you know, some names that
have stuck around for a long time.
Diamondback Viper razor, um, with the,
with the buyer knows.
But I mean.
Now though, rifle scopes are the biggest thing,
um, that we sell by far.
And part of that's probably because
most people, you can have a gun safe
with 10 guns in it.
And I know a few people here that are
optics nerds that have a safe with 10
binoculars in it, but that's far less common.
Um, yeah.
So yeah.
So you guys, I mean, you keep coming out
with new products.
You got some new razor HD products or 2020,
uh, yeah.
Yeah.
So how do you guys keep innovating,
man?
Um, it's a.
It's a tornado down there in product
development all the time.
Now, I don't mean to make it seem like
they're just a bunch of chickens run around with
their heads cut off.
It's actually, you know, very organized
tornado, if you will.
But, um, we've made, we've made a pretty
big investment in the product development area,
you know, um, we, we.
Man, we pride ourselves on a lot of things.
We try to deliver a lot of things
for our customers.
And, and I mean, it goes back to that thing from
the very beginning and it sounds so cliche there.
Nothing exciting about making good products
and selling them at good prices, you know,
and making people feel like they got more than
what they paid for.
And then backing up with good service.
Um, that's nothing new that's been around
price since the Dawn of time, since some
cave man decided to, you know, sell some
guy a fancy rock.
But, um.
But that's just what we do.
And it's just the fact that we just
stick to that promise.
And so we've had kind of the good service, the
VIP warranty has been a thing for a long time.
We've been, we've been always driving to give
people the best deal that we can and always
trying to give people interesting products.
And I think, I think back to the, when we came
out with the Viper PST, uh, that was, that was
a really big product for us because that was a.
That was a scope or an idea that hadn't
really been done yet.
Um, it was a tactical optic that could
be used for a long range precision.
There was also a one to four low power
variable in that lineup.
Uh, had all the features of the really high
end stuff that was going for two grand,
three grand, whatever.
But it was an optic you could get for
less than a grand.
Um, that's, that's all over the place now.
So we're not the only ones who
make that anymore.
But you know, doing that, it was kind of a,
a big thing for us when we thought, you know,
this is really cool.
How can we keep doing this and
keep, you know, um.
Bolstering that side of our business that's just
making really awesome products for people.
And so it was a big investment in the
product development team.
So we've got a pretty, I'd say, substantial
team down there.
Um, I haven't, I haven't walked around, uh, any
other of our competitors, product development
teams, so I don't want to say that they have,
you know, lame ones or anything, but, but I do
know that, you know, for us, it's a substantial
team down there.
Mechanical engineers, optical engineers,
electrical engineers.
Um.
Any, any number of things.
And, and they have, I mean, they're,
they're tireless.
They don't stop.
They just, um.
Really keep cranking on stuff.
And uh, then we work, they actually work
closely with us too in marketing as well.
So, um, you know, we have a close, uh, finger on
the pulse of what the customers want and are
asking for all the time.
When you message in on Instagram or Facebook
or you call us and you say, you really
want something, you wish we had something
that we don't have, we are listening.
And those get taken directly to heart.
And a lot of that feedback gets.
Push right over to the product development team,
and then they do their best to try and create
things that cater to the needs of the majority
of our customers.
And so, um, yeah, I guess that's not, I wish I had
like a secret sauce to tell, you know, Oh, well
we do this and that makes us really innovative.
But, um.
One thing that, one thing that does help though I
will say is, um, I like all those guys down in
product development.
Like I was talking about, uh, one, they all
hang out together too.
They all hang out with everybody in
sales, marketing.
We're all good friends, kind of all around the
entire company here.
Um, they have leagues after work that they'll
do a fairly frequently, not lately with COBIT,
but prior to this they have had leagues where
they're all shooting precision 20 twos.
They're all doing PRS stuff.
They're all trying to get into what,
you know, three gun.
They're all trying to do new things and test our
products in ways that all of them get hands
on experience with what the customer, the end
customer is actually.
Getting and using, and I mean, just using
the product themselves helps us innovate
and improve things.
I can't tell you how many products have
come out where like the, the new razor
LHT, um, that scope.
So that's a really great, awesome, lightweight
hunting rifle scope.
It's really the top of our line.
It's a phenomenal optic and it uses a new
rev stop zero system.
And, uh, basically that's like an
integrated zero stop.
And, you know, one of our guys, uh.
Or I should say a few of our guys, none of
our guys were saying that it's difficult
to get a really good, true zero stop with a
mechanical stop on zero.
Or in the case of this one, it actually
allows you five clicks beyond your zero, like
our L tech zero stop system and the razors.
Um.
But it's really difficult to get that
in a lightweight optic and you know, make it
reasonably affordable and stuff like that.
And so we went through all these design phases
and it just ended up being something that got
drawn up literally on a napkin because I was
standing there as it got drawn up on a napkin,
I saw the light bulb come on and the dude
was scrambling around for anything he could
write on and write with.
And.
I mean this year, this is your stop system got
developed and now we're talking about something.
And if you haven't seen it, I mean,
it's truly brilliant.
It's, it's.
So simple and easy to make, easy to
use, easy to set.
It adds virtually no cost at all to the scope.
But it gives you an invaluable feature
for so many people.
And, uh, it allowed us to kind of have room in
the budget for the scope to still keep the scope
at a reasonable cost.
And we added locking turrets
to that or locking elevation, terror.
I mean, stuff like that was able to
happen because of this innovation.
And it's just because some guy was
thinking to himself.
That scope means a zero stop, but we need to
do it lightweight and you know, effectively
for the money.
And so, I mean it was, it was really cool,
that kind of stuff.
That kind of stuff is able to happen when you
have people working down there that are actually
interested in the product and its application.
So that's fantastic.
Is there anything that I should be asking about
before we wrap things up?
Anything that you want to get out there.
Oh, man.
Um, I guess, speaking of Proctor leases
and, you know, I think in a couple of our
different promotional materials we've
thrown out there, um.
We've said this, but it's been a pattern in
the past sorta to do big product launches
for all the product that you come out with in a
given year, right at the beginning of the year.
So let's say, you know, we were going to come out
with, I'm truly speaking hypothetically, here
I am pulling a number out of my butt, but you
know, let's say we're going to come out with 10
new products this year.
We would've announced all 10 of them at the
beginning of the year, and then over the course
of the year, they would actually start shipping
out, but people would kind of already know
that they existed.
Um.
Prior to them actually shipping out?
Well, uh, kind of doing a new strategy here
and, uh, you know, there's a number of
reasons we're doing it, but you know, this
year we came out with the razor HD gen three,
one to 10 rifle scope, really awesome scope,
a low power variable that can actually do,
I mean, pretty much everything under the sun.
You know, you've got the razor LHT as at the time
of this recording, which is, you know, early on.
2020 that just came out.
Um, but you know, I think at first some people
were thrown off cause they were thinking, Oh,
a vortex slowed down, you know, only one
new product this year.
Only two new products this year.
Well actually there's a ton of new products
that are going to continue to come out.
They're just going to come out over the
course of the year.
So, um, definitely, definitely don't
want to fall asleep.
On our social platforms or anything like that.
If you're interested in really anything or
you feel that there's a product that we
don't have yet, one, we want to hear about it.
We love hearing feedback, but to also don't assume
it's not in the works or that just because
we didn't announce something in January that
it might not come out.
Still mid year or something along
those lines.
Um, so yeah, uh, I'd say just always keeping,
uh, keeping an ear to the ground over here.
We, we love pushing the boundaries and
coming out with new stuff all the time.
And if you ever want to, you know, message
and or whatever, and chat with us, we
love doing that too.
Um, can't tell you how many.
Times we've had folks call in while
they're at the range.
We walk them through their entire zero
in process or troubleshooting
while they're there.
Uh, you know, wow.
I'm sure our.
Some of our phone conversations,
we actually do get the metrics.
Sometimes you'll see people that are on like
two and a half hour phone calls, and that's
just, that's just the way of life around here.
But, you know, messages via email, social media
and all that stuff is the same, same deal.
Uh, we, we are definitely here for you.
So don't feel, don't feel bashful
or, or don't feel.
You know, like, uh, like I know sometimes I deal
with certain things.
I just think to myself, I dread having to contact
the company cause I think to myself, I'm
going to get thrown to this ringer here.
That's right.
But yeah, we definitely, we definitely don't
want it to be like that.
So hit us up anytime.
That's exciting.
Well, Jimmy, thank you very much for
being on the podcast and really appreciate
you making the time
and it's absolutely my pleasure.
Thanks for having me.