With two new connected devices, Vortex is taking a big step toward taking market share from both Sig Sauer’s groundbreaking rangefinding binocular and Kestrel’s dominance in the ballistic weather meter category. Here’s a look at the Ace Weather Meter and the remarkable new Talon HD 10K LRF Binocular followed by details of Vortex’s new wireless Relay system.
Ace Weather Station (Ace Weather Meter Overview)
Vortex released its Ace weather station and wind meter at the very end of 2025. This is a hand-held environmental sensor that generates real-time and location-specific inputs imperative for long-range precision shooters: temperature, atmospheric pressure, compass bearing, and even wind speed and direction through its built-in impeller.
Because wind is among the most dynamic and important components 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.
What the Ace Measures (Real-Time Environmental Inputs)
All those inputs are applied to ballistics dynamics provided through preset configurations or custom profiles developed and delivered through the GeoBallistics Solver that’s available as a mobile-phone app.
Think of the Ace as a Kestrel-like device, with a larger screen, larger buttons, and a smaller wind impeller than the standard of the category.
Ease of Use + Connected Device Capability
The Ace is a cinch to use, thanks largely to its clear multi-button navigation and its large, clear screen, a crisp 2-inch LCE display.
The Ace can be used either as a stand-alone unit or tethered to other devices in Vortex’s new Relay ecosystem, including the Talon HD 10K LRF binocular.
Talon HD 10K LRF Binocular (Rangefinding Binocular Overview)
Like the Ace, the new Talon HD 10K can be used as a stand-alone LRF binocular, or it can be tethered to the Ace, to your phone, and presumably to future Vortex devices that will be included in the Relay system.
The new Talon HD 10K is available in both 10x42 and 12x50 configurations and builds on Vortex’s Fury HD and Ranger HD LRF binos.
However, the new Talon HD 10K 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 prescriptions.
OLED Display + Optical Coatings (Why the Viewing Experience Matters)
Those aiming solutions are displayed in a remarkably detailed active-matrix red OLED display in the Talon’s righthand barrel.
A word about the display, and the coatings that allow it to pop against any background. The earliest LRF binos were swathed in a sickly blue-green hue (I’m thinking the OG of the category, Bushnell’s Fusion 1600 ARC), but it took a few generations to get the coatings right.
The first version of Sig’s KILO10K had remarkable ballistics software and lasing capabilities but its optical coatings made the world look like users were viewing it through a glass of lemon-lime Gatorade.
While Sig has corrected the coatings to make Gen2 versions of the KILO10K remarkable optical instruments as well as first-order ballistics instruments, Vortex got it right the first time. The Talon HD’s coatings accentuate the red LED display without distorting the environment.
Talon HD 10K Ranging Performance (10,000-Yard Capability)
Beyond the excellent glass and coatings, key features include a 10,000-yard ranging capability on reflective targets.
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 useful ranging tool for bowhunters and precision rimfire competitors.
The laser ranging unit, powered by a single CR123 battery, is exceptionally fast and accurate, on par with the speed of Sig’s Gen2 KILO10K binos.
In field testing, the Vortex unit went from instantaneously ranging fist-sized targets inside 30 yards to pickup-sized rocks at 900 yards to hillsides at four miles, with impressive return speed.
Rangefinder Modes + Reticles
The Talon HD has seven reticle patterns, the rangefinder has angle-adjusted, line-of-sight, scanning, normal, first-target, last-target, and rain/fog modes.
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, though the laser return is slower in this precision mode.
The binocular can crunch ballistics inputs to deliver caliber- and bullet-specific distance- and wind-adjusted shooting solutions.
Focus System + Profile Setup (Stand-Alone vs App Connected)
The Talon HD’s independent display and image focus are located on each barrel of the binocular, and adjusted via a locking collet.
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 a custom profile that harnesses the power of the app-based GeoBallistics Solver to their specific bullet dynamics and shooting challenges.
Real-Time Ballistics + Wind Holds (Ace + Talon + GeoBallistics Working Together)
By combining the binocular’s ranging engine with the wind and weather information provided by the 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.
Like the Ace weather meter, 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 bullet 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.
Talon HD 10K Display Customization (What the OLED Can Show)
All this data is communicated to the user through the active matrix OLED display that’s fully customizable so users can chose which features to include in the display and even how they’re displayed.
In its fullest, most granular expression, the display features:
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The range in either yards or meters
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Both elevation and windage solutions based in either MRADs, MOAs, or inches
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The target inclination
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Rangefinder mode
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Compass heading
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Wind velocity and direction
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Projectile velocity and delivered energy at the target
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Time of flight of the bullet to the target
That’s a lot of information to receive in a tiny display.
For users who want a simple and deployable version of all this data, the binocular can generate a range card that gives shooters clear ballistics-adjusted solutions for each target distance.
Talon HD 10K 10x42 vs 12x50 (Which One to Choose?)
The 10x42 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.
The 12x50 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.
Vortex Relay System (Wireless Connected Shooting Ecosystem)
While it’s hard to see the new Vortex Relay system in hand, it’s a powerful wireless amplifier that boosts 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, Relay devices find 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.
Final Thoughts: Vortex Is Coming for Sig and Kestrel
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 critical as users customize it to their own rifles and projectiles and shooting and hunting situations.
It will become an even broader network as Vortex adds more future devices to the Relay suite, making shooters and hunters more precise and successful in the field and on the range.