They are moving into the binoculars market with a bang. Two European gunmakers have launched a range of new optics. Browning Europe has brought out its Kite range of riflescopes and binoculars, priced in the mid market at up to €1,000 for 8×42 binoculars. Meanwhile, launched at the Jagd & Hund hunting show in Dortmund, the Blaser series of Primus binoculars aims to go head-to-head with optics from Zeiss, Leica and Swarovski. Blaser’s 8×42 binos are priced at more than twice the Kite.
Both the optics have impeccable pedigrees for their price range. Kite is a mid-market Belgian binoculars company that has moved into the riflescopes market with the help of Browning, which is based in Belgium too.
Meanwhile, Blaser’s binos are designer by German Sports Optics (GSO), a company from Germany’s ‘glass-town’, Wetzlar, which is where Carl Zeiss, Leica and Minox are based.
Mid-market Minox is in the same group as Blaser, leading to accusations that the new Primus are simply souped-up Minox binos. But GSO’s pedigree is grander with – among others from across the optics industry – CEO Hans Bender from Schmidt & Bender.
For more about Blaser’s binos, go to Blaser-Optics.de
For Kite, visit KiteOptics.com/en/hunting
