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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Stearns Mad Dog Gear Pro Series Bino Manager and Bino Belt (1 Viewer)

Kevin Purcell

Well-known member
What a great name for a product the "Stearns Mad Dog Gear Pro Series Bino Manager".

http://www.maddoggear.com/dyn_prod.php?p=STRH651

The related Bino Belt is here

http://www.maddoggear.com/dyn_prod.php?p=STRH652

I know Henry Link has posed here a couple of times saying it's the only harness that's really worked for him.

The problem was a lot of the sites that sell it couldn't actually explain how it worked (or even show the critical bit at the back!).

But it's patented ... US Patent 6926184 and the earlier 6983870. And it's quite understandable just from looking at the drawings you can see how it works. Of course the claims text is "comprised of words that are substantially incomprehensible when said words are read" in that usual patent lawyer manner. But the

Harness + bag patent (Bino Manager)
http://www.google.com/patents?id=xf0TAAAAEBAJ&dq=6926184

Original harness only patent (Bino Belt)
http://www.google.com/patents?id=Bsl3AAAAEBAJ&dq=6983870

You can get it at a few places e.g.

http://www.amazon.com/Stearns®-Mad-Dog-Gear®-Manager/dp/B000HDC09Y

but it's $5 cheaper ($29) at the Mad Dog site (not sure about shipping). And the Bino Belt is $20 (and might be better for bins that won't fit in the bag).

In black and MOBU (Mossy Oak Breakup ... naturalistic camo).

The other thing I notice is that the bin is connect by small connectors so you can swap the bins on the harness. And they look just like the ones that are provided with the Zen Ray strap. Hmmm, I wonder if they "interoperate". I shall try to find out.
 
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Kevin,

Thanks for posting all the information. For some reason I can't get the first two links to work.

I don't use the the geeky "Manager" pouch (the torso strap will buckle together without it), so I would have bought the Bino Belt if I'd known about it.

Henry
 
Henry:

The Mad Dog web site is wacky. When posting those links some of the time it would load a page immediately other times it would eventually time out. Not sure if they have a net problem or a server problem. But I did verify the links so they do work (sometimes).

I'd seen pics of the Bino Belt and the Bino Manager before but I never tweaked they were the same except for the bag. And the tucking the bin into the belt just looked rather awkward. So I passed them by.

Of course know I know how they work I realize that they're essentially over the shoulder harnesses anchored on the chest belt (one with a bag and one without) and the tucking in feature is more for the benefit of hunters than birders who would be free to carry them around out of the belt or bag waiting for a bird to pop up and to quickly get the bin up to the eyes.

I guess hunters are more prone to be in positions were the bin will swing around and they don't need the bin as quickly as a birder. Still I can imagine time (setting up a scope and the like) when bending forward it would be nice if the bin didn't come swinging towards your face.

I should be trying these out in the next week or so.
 
I have a "pouch"/harness setup similar to the Mad Dog product. Curiously enough it was purchased at the outdoors store I had been working at until last year. They sold Mad Dog products as well.....geared for the hunting public. Their products, in general, are of good quality but at very reasonable prices. I will have to go pull out the "pouch" and see if it was truly Mad Dog that made it.
 
I used this harness for several years with the chest strap looped around my belt, so that the effect was of a binocular suspender set.
That worked very well, the weight of my then 12x50s stayed on the shoulders and there was no chest strap to chafe, but of course the pouch stayed home. A really good harness , much more comfortable than the cross strap design.
 
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