Vortex® has started the new year with a bold promise: A pair of new products will make you a more effective and successful shooter and hunter by integrating the powers of optics, ballistics, environmental sensors, and wireless connectivity.
The new ecosystem is called Vortex Relay®, but before we discuss how each constituent element works together, let’s look at the new devices that are being introduced this month.
TALON® HD 10K LRF BINOCULAR
The new Talon® HD 10K laser rangefinding binocular, available in both 10×42 and 12×50 configurations, builds on Vortex’s Fury HD® and Ranger HD® LRF binos. However, the new Talon HD boasts a much more powerful ranging engine, premium optics and coatings, and leverages GeoBallistics’ bullet database and ballistics calculator to deliver fast and precise distance- and wind-adjusted aiming solutions.
Those aiming solvers are displayed in a remarkably detailed active-matrix red OLED display in the Talon’s right barrel.
The LRF binocular is a marvel of optical and electrical engineering on its own, but when paired with other devices in the Vortex Relay® ecosystem, it allows hunters and shooters to make precise shots by crunching inputs from a variety of sources. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. First, let’s look at the talents of the new Talon® HD 10K LRF platform.
Key features include a 10,000-yard ranging capability on reflective targets. In the real world of fog, fur, and foliage, the range on trees is 4,000 yards and on deer-sized targets out to 2,400 yards. The minimum range for the laser rangefinder is 10 yards, which makes the Talon® a surprisingly useful ranging tool for bowhunters and precision rimfire competitors.
The laser ranging unit is exceptionally fast and accurate. In field testing, the unit went from blazing-fast returns on tiny targets inside 30 yards to rocks at 900 yards to hillsides at four miles. That’s an exceptional range of ranges, but the speed of return puts the Talon® in a fairly august class of premium laser rangefinding binoculars. With the choice of seven different reticles, the rangefinder has all the modes you’d expect: angle-adjusted or line-of-sight, scanning, normal, first-target, last-target, and rain/fog. But it includes Vortex’s ELR® (Extended Laser Range) mode that allows the binocular, especially when mounted on a tripod, to range very small targets at extreme distances, a key consideration for long-range target competitors. Combined with the ballistics mode, the binocular displays the actual line-of-sight range with both windage and drop solutions.
The Talon’s glass is on par with its excellent electronics. Many rangefinding binoculars trade forgettable glass for the digital half of their talents. But the Vortex Talon® HD has bright, vibrant glass that’s sharp all the way to the edges. Equally noteworthy, the coatings allow the red OLED display to pop, making it exceptionally visible against a variety of backgrounds, without reducing the optical clarity of the target itself. That’s a difficult balance to achieve, but even with the CR123 battery out of the unit, the Talon HD’s optical talents are strong.
A small but important detail: As with most rangefinding binoculars, users need to focus both the image and the display to their own optical prescription. The Talon HD’s display is located in the right barrel, and the image in the left barrel. The diopter controls for each are lockable. Users extend the eyecups, then lift the diopter controls to tune the image and display, then push the controls back in the locked position. It’s a simple, effective, but necessary design to ensure that the display or image doesn’t get knocked out of focus.
The on-board electronics elevate the Talon® HD beyond an excellent optical device to an essential electronic device for precision shooters. Shooters and hunters can run the binocular alone, as an unconnected unit that applies 10 on-board ballistics profiles of standard calibers to shooting solutions. But users can also build custom profiles that harness the power of the GeoBallistics Solver to their specific bullet dynamics and shooting challenges. The Talon HD 10K links to other Relay®-connected devices, and to the powerful GeoBallistics ecosystem, through wireless Bluetooth that doesn’t require Wi-Fi or even a cell signal.
By combining the binocular’s ranging engine with the wind and weather information provided by Vortex’s new Ace® Weather Station and with the custom ballistics generated by the GeoBallistics app, shooters and hunters can range a target and receive real-time feedback in the binocular’s display about adjustments to holdover for elevation and holdoff for wind-adjusted aiming points.
The Talon® HD 10K has on-board environmental sensors that use real-time temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, compass bearing, and inclination details, combined with ballistics characteristics of your bullet, to determine downrange trajectories. A small button on the underside of the binocular allows users to lock in wind direction and velocity, information that’s used by the ballistics solver to recommend windage holds.
All this data is communicated to the user through the active matrix OLED display that’s fully customizable so users can choose which features to include in the display and even how they’re displayed. In its fullest, most granular expression, the display features the range in either yards or meters, both elevation and windage solutions based in either MRADs, MOAs, or inches, the target inclination, rangefinder mode, compass heading, wind velocity and direction, projectile velocity and delivered energy at the target, and even time of flight of the bullet to the target.
For users who want a simple and quickly deployable version of all this data, the binocular can generate a range card that gives shooters clear ballistics-adjusted solutions for each target distance.
Navigation through the two main Measure and Menu buttons is clear, and users can navigate various screens through directional arrows. The unit features an auto shut-off to save battery, is nicely balanced and textured, and has comfortable 4-position retractable eyecups. The binocular ships with Vortex’s excellent Glasspak harness.
The 10×42 configuration will be a favorite of walk-about hunters and shooters, though it’s fully capable of being mounted on a tripod. The unit weighs 40.8 ounces without its CR123 battery and features a field of view of 321 feet at 1,000 yards, and a satisfying ¾-inch eye relief.
The 12×50 configuration is optimized for mounting on a tripod with its front-hinge threaded adapter. The 12-power Talon® HD 10K has the same ranging capabilities as the 10-power, with a 272-feet-at-1,000-yard field of view, longer frame, and slightly heavier build, at 46.8 ounces without battery.
ACE® BALLISTIC WEATHER METER
With this new Ace® weather meter, Vortex® brings real-time environmental data to hunters and shooters. The unit delivers live wind and weather data in a simple and intuitive platform that can be used either as a stand-alone unit or tethered to other Vortex Relay® connected devices, including the Talon® HD 10K LRF binocular detailed above.
One of the value propositions of the Ace® is its ease of use. Unlike other weather meters, which have confusing navigation, the Ace® interface is simple, fast, and clear, delivering range- and wind-adjusted aiming solutions through its crisp 2-inch LCD display.
The unit crunches an impressive variety of inputs, including elevation, temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, compass bearing, and through its built-in wind impeller, wind direction and velocity. Because wind is among the most dynamic and important component of long-range shooting and hunting precision, the unit allows users to true wind corrections based on observed conditions from the muzzle to the target.
All those inputs are applied to ballistics dynamics provided through preset configurations or custom profiles developed and delivered through the GeoBallistics Solver.
The Ace® ships with a lanyard, twin AA batteries, and a drawstring storage bag.
The Ace® is useful by itself, and will become an essential device for long-range shooters and hunters. But, as with the Talon® HD, the value proposition of the unit is as a link in the digital chain of the Vortex Relay® ecosystem.
VORTEX RELAY®
Think of the Vortex Relay® system as an amplifier, boosting the capabilities of each connected device to allow shooters and hunters to leverage the ranging talents of the Talon® HD 10K with the wind and weather data of the Ace® with the specific bullet dynamics transmitted through the GeoBallistics app.
Unlike many Bluetooth-connected devices, which can take time and successive attempts to link, the Relay® devices detect each other quickly and remain bonded. Importantly, they don’t require a cell signal or Wi-Fi to operate in the field, freeing the wirelessly connected devices from the constraints of wired infrastructures.
When all work together, shooters and hunters receive exceptionally precise, situationally specific solutions for every shot. It’s an audacious claim, but the Relay® ecosystem becomes more intuitive and precise as users customize it to their own rifles and projectiles and shooting and hunting situations.
It will become an even more robust and necessary network as Vortex® adds more devices to the Relay® suite.