Spotting Scopes?

[Jeff82]

Last weekend at the Range my Barska 18-36 50 spotting scope broke. The little retaining ring for the front lens failed. It was a good scope for 100 yard shooting. Alas,.....

A new Bushnell 18-60 65 scope is coming my way thanks to some spare credit card points. This is probably a bit of overkill for my 100 yard Marlin 1894c shooting, but it was a freebee so....

I was wondering what types of scopes other people are using and at what distances.

[fecmech]

I have a 12X36X60 Barska that I use when I go to the range. My long range shooting is 200 yds so I rarely go over 20X. At home on my 50 yd range I use my old Winchester 15X45X50 scope, it lives under the shooting bench and generally on the lowest setting.

[Doc Highwall]

I use a Kowa TSN-883 Prominar - spotting scope 88mm. Not cheap but it works when I need it.

http://www.bing.com/shopping/kowa-tsn-883-prominar-spotting-scope-88/p/D45DC5F6B33AADD50001?q=kowa+883+scope&lpq=kowa%20883%20scope&qpvt=kowa+883+scope&FORM=HURE

[Gtek]

Somethings I admit +1 cheap SOB on somethings. Stupid money in the bang sticks with Leupolds on most, and some the glass on them works. But I use a 60x from Harbor freight, $49.00 with coupon I think. Works great out to two hundred on pawn shop tripod, almost eight years and going strong. Gtek

[phonejack]

I have a Kowa , 20 years now. Good out to 1000yrds. At 600 yrds if you have light behind the "backer" you can see a 30 cal. hole. It's a 20 power

[popper]

12X36X60 simmons. Don't use it much. It's not bight enough at high power but was low cost. Usually is x10 binocs for pistol, scope for rifle.

[TXGunNut]

Mine's a compact Burris 20X 50mm. Cheap scope but it compares well with spotting scopes costing much more, sometimes 2-3X more. Most days it will find .17 holes @ 100 yards and can even help out on the rare occasion when boolits form a cluster so it suits my needs just fine.

[Doc Highwall]

Part of the real test of optics is when light conditions are less then optimal.

This site has a bunch of articles on optics (A heck of a lot more too) and I would suggest you add it to your favorites.

http://www.accurateshooter.com/category/optics/

[Jack Stanley]

For normal spotting such as High power match I use a Kowa with a sixty-six m/m lens and a straight power eyepiece . I think that is twenty-seven power or so . For the deer blind I use an old Leupold twenty-power . It is good enough to find deer in the woods two hundred yards out .

Jack

[John Allen]

I have a Leica Televid 77 with a 20 to 60 eyepiece. I love it. You can see boolit holes way out there as long as the mirage is not bad. I have it mounted to a ray vin stand.

[Jeff82]

Wow, that's some heavy duty stuff. My Bushnell scope has a straight eye-piece. In anticipation of this, and to clear off the shooting bench at little, I bought a scope mount that clamps onto the shooting bench and lets me dispense with a tripod -- E-Bay special. I've seen them at the range and liked the idea.

[Doc Highwall]

I have the 27 power long eye relief eye piece on my Kowa and love it. After you use a spotting scope for a while you find you like a balance between power and field of view.

A good rule to remember when it comes to how much magnification you need is, that the human eye with 20/20 vision can resolve 1 minuet of angle or 1” at 100 yards.

Say you want to see a 22 Caliber hole at 100 yards and the hole in the paper is .200”, this means you have to magnify it 5 times to equal 1”. But this is for the best light conditions (Front lighted target) with a white back ground.

Now in real world experience shooting small bore at 100 yards to see your bullet holes in the aiming black with less then ideal light conditions, myself and other shooters have found that 20 power is the real minimum with good eyes and 24 power works even better for most people. This is influenced by how large of a objective you have on your optical device.

This opinion comes from using both Unertl 20 X and Redfield 3200 24 X power scopes at 100 yards. My Kowa spotting scope with the 27 X long eye relief works great, but it also has enough field of view that I am able to see targets on both sides of my target to help read the wind.

The reason I mention this is (I use to do it to) think more power was/is better. Magnification with out resolution, is just empty magnification and is use less.
I would check out the Konus spotting scopes in both 80 mm and 100 mm at $229. and $329. as they both look like a great scope for the money.

[Norske]

www.betterviewdesired.com will tell you all you need to know about good spotting scopes. Make it worthwhile, spend a few hours comparing comments in this site.

[OverMax]

Leoplold 12-40 power Gold Ring spotting scope. I bought mine years ago (80s) when they were reasonably priced. Now that I think about it. Even back then it's pricing was indeed high for the times. Anyhow. As usual. Leopold's quality is experienced every time I use it. It's a shame having to say this. But at a bench rest Club Range and having it set up. Because of its unusual shape it's an easy target to pick out from all the others by a thief. I am not comfortable with leaving it unattended. Anyway. For my application its used for 100-200 yard targeting. (It's nice when you can dial up it's power to keep a crystal clear eye on a postage stamp size bulls-eye.)

O/M

[MtGun44]

I have Kowa, Nikon and some better glass (TeleVue), but for everyday range work,
the Konus 20-60x80 is spectacularly good for the price. Put it side by
side watching birds with Kowa fluorite that cost $2K when new about 10-12
yrs ago and they are difficult to tell apart. I know this is heresey, but it
is true.

Strongly recommend you find one to look thru. You will be impressed.
Best $210 you will spend on optics. I use it at 20 or 40, and at 60 it dims
down a bit, but you will find that in reality 60 power is rarely useable
beyond 50 yds due to mirage anyway.


http://www.opticsplanet.com/konus-konuspot-80-80mm-3-1-spotting-scope.html

Bill

[Oreo]

I have the Konus 100mm-objective version and I concur that for the price the thing has amazingly good optics. The 100mm objective pays dividends but it makes for a huge beast of a scope. I was able to easily count nail-heads on a telephone pole that was some 600yds away according to google maps. That's the farthest thing in line of sight from my house.

[winelover]

:holysheep The Leo Compact 12 - 40 X 60 that I own, is currently ($1399.99) more than twice what I paid, on the Optic's Planet link provided.

Winelover

[Lloyd Smale]

big leupold fan but dont buy a wind river spotter. Ive got one and the optics suck!

[Bullshop]

I hope its OK if I mention here that I just put two decent spotters on the S&S forum.
A 30x Leupold and a 20x Bausch & Lomb $400.00 for both
If this plug is a bad idea please deleat it.

[kidmma]

Konus 20-60 x 80mm. Just make out the 22s at 200yds. I also use a Winchester 15-45 x60mm, I got first and it's good too. Win was $140 if I remember right. The Konus is quite a bit larger.

[warboar_21]

I had a really nice Leupold gold ring 12-40x60 that was stolen from me along with a lot of other hunting and shooting gear that was in my truck when it was stolen. When I went to replace it I had just gotten married and money was a little tighter so I looked at the Wind River brand by Leupold. It looked good when I was in the store but once I was out on the range or out in the prarie dog towns it was horrible. I have wanted to replace it since but just have never gotten around to it.

[uscra112]

Bought a "refurbished" Meade 20-60 x 60mm scope. Meade's optics are adequate, but their tripod is a very bad joke. Still using a cast-off Bausch & Lomb 4000 reflector astronomical scope with altazimuth mount. Bright, easy to aim and focus, but you have to get used to everything being upside down and backwards!

[cbrick]

Youwzer! Yikes! I bought the Kowa several years ago but sadly it was stolen a few years ago, it was like $600 new then but WOW, $2500 now. What a depressing start to the day. :sad:

Rick

[EDG]

I have a 1960s 15X to 60X Swift Telemaster that is ok in very good conditions with large caliber holes at 100 meters. The most effective power seems to be about 25X.
I also have a 1980s B&L Elite fixed 22X. Even though it has less magnification than the Swift its multicoated optics are a bit better when used side by side.
I have also used 24X and 36X Leupold BR scopes on a couple of rifles. The rifle scope optics work ok but are really inferior to a real spotter.
By far the best spotter I have used to date was a 1980s Kowa 77mm objective with the LER lens 27X. Very sharp, very bright and for us shooters that really need to be wearing eye protection the LER lens is a joy to use even with glasses.
If you think about it, your spotter is one of you most important pieces of equipment. It goes to the range with you on every trip. No gun does that unless you only have one or two. It is by far more important to a range shooter than the scope on any rifle yet many people want to cut corners on their spotters.

[MtGun44]

Konus 20-60x80 is about 90+% the optical quality (not long eye relief, tho) of
my Kowa TSN-4 with fluorite objective. Cost is about $210 now and the current
equiv of TSN-4 is about $3000. Is the structure as good? Probably not. Will it
last as long if you beat it around? Probably not. Is it optically really great?
Yes.

Bill

[Doc Highwall]

The 30mm of eye relief on the Kowa 25X and 27X eye pieces is what I really like.

[Oreo]

The Konus does not have much eye relief. On the other hand, it comes with a camera adapter so its possible to set it up with some kind of LCD screen for all the eye relief you'd ever want. (It would be really cool if someone figured a way to stream the image to a smartphone.)

Considering (for me) its a range tool only, it will be well cared for so I don't worry one bit about its durability. It will out-last me and I'm only on my 30s.

[shooterg]

I'm a spotting scope junkie. WWII M49's, old Argus (3), older Champion's Choice(3), Redfield, old B&L(2), much newer Meopta. I justify the purchases to my wife by telling her all the kids at the Range events need one on the line...
Also have an old Barska that I clamp to the bench with a C-clamp held to a 2' piece of copper tubing with a homemade mount. A kid knocked it off, the objective lens fell off ! Sent it to the address on the paperwork, they sent it back fixed(or another scope, I couldn't tell). SO maybe worth a few bucks postage to the OP.