spotting scopes

[shooter2]

I am giving some thought to replacing my 40 year old Bushnell. I am only going to use it to find holes in paper and have no need to spend hours scanning for elk. So a few seconds at a time are all I need. I guess what I'm saying is that I see no need to break the bank for one. I thought the Leupold Sequoia looked good and Midsouth has it for under $300 as a kit. I've also heard that Nikon has some good ones for under $400. I am curious what others are using in that price range and how you like it. Thanks...

[Jumptrap]

HAR!

I'd like to know the answer to this one myself. I'll bet most of the brethren here are too damned tight to even bother owning a spotting scope...hehe!I want a Kowa..........and a Lexus......and several other high dollar toys. Sad thing is, good optics cost plenty, but you should only have to spend it once. I'm not worried about weight because the spotter would be a bench queen only. I just want clarity, eye relief and solid construction. Worse thing you can ever do is look through a quality scope....and then not be able to afford one! Even the 'pretty good' scopes pale in comparison and I just won't settle for them. Until I can have what I want, I'll do without. Maybe you're not so discriminating. A fine spotter starts at about $600......you may find a deal somewhere and save a bundle.

[Scrounger]

I guess I have bad eyes cause I never had to spend more than the cost of a rifle to get a spotting scope good enough to see .17 holes at 100 yards or see bullet hits on steel animals at 500 meters. Course I never felt I had to have a Cadillac or Mercedes to get me out to shoot either. In other words I never felt I had to buy overly expensive equiptment just to prove I had more money than someone else. I have yet to see a Bushnell spotting Scope that wouldn't define .22 caliber (or smaller) holes at a hundred yards. Most of the Tascos and Simmons work well enough too. As a matter of fact, one of the clearest scopes I ever used was a Tasco that I bought on closeout at $17! I bought 5 of them (about 20 years ago) and last I heard the guys I sold them too are still happily using them. Did you ever think of using your video camera as a spotting scope? If it has a lot of zoom, you can focus it on your target and actually get a shot by shot picture as your group forms. Sometimes there are things to be learned by doing it that way.

[mike in co]

i too own a bushnel (40 mm) spotting scope. when i went to hp shooting, i managed to break the bushnel, and broke down and bought a kowa....a small one. 60 mm with a 25 long eye relief eye pc, and a aluminum telescoping stand...
i got more money in than most of my rifles......

the long eye relief is not required for casual bench shooting, and thus you can pop for a higher power. it is hard to see holes in the black of most targets at 200 yds or more period.
as in most thing you get what you pay for......
while the bushnel is small, has a small eye relief, and aint precise i can still see holes with it( i sent it in and for shipping cost they repaired it !)

most of the gun name brand scopes can be had for less from the mfg without the "gun" name on it....

[Ken O]

Here is a thread you might be interested in from the National Match forum.
http://www.nationalmatch.us/forums/i...showtopic=3619

[Scrounger]

OK, I have a couple of extra spotting scopes:
One is a B & L Discoveror, 15X to 60X by 60MM. Perfect condition, comes in a neat leather carrying case. This is a heavy scope, great for bench work but too heavy for hunting:

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The other is a Burris Landmark 20X by 50 MM. Only 8 inches long (yes, honey, that is really 8 inches...) and very light, perfect for hunting. I think it is new. It has a carrying case and one of the seams in the case is open.

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[Jumptrap]

Here is a thread you might be interested in from the National Match forum.
http://www.nationalmatch.us/forums/i...showtopic=3619

not allowed in to read the message!!!!!

[wills]

http://www.jarheadtop.com/Cstar_Shoot_Show.htm

[carpetman]

I have been on both sides of buying cheap optics and better quality (higher dollar stuff). Wasnt a matter of trying to impress someone with my money. That would be like trying to impress someone with a Pinto. In the end,the higher dollar stuff was cheaper. Bushnell may have produced good optics in the distant past,but ALL my experience with them and their product has been very negative. Years ago I bought some cheap binoculars and best I can figure,a fly must have lit on them and knocked them out of whack. I then paid atleast 6 times the amount for a good pair. They were more than I paid rent per month. That was 35 or so years ago,they still work great and I saw a pair on EBAY go for twice what I paid. During that 35 years I have no doubt I would have easily gone through more than 6 pairs of the cheaper ones and not enjoyed any of them as much. I notice a marked difference in eye strain using better stuff vs lesser quality stuff. You get what you pay for.

[NVcurmudgeon]

Has Bushnell gone downhill in the last few decades? I have a pair of 7X35 Bushnell, individual focus fortunately, binoculars that have been used on land and sea from Alaska to Mexico. I got them in 1963 and the only thing wrong with them is that I lost one of the plastic lens caps a couple of years ago. I also bought a Bushnell Spacemaster spotting scope in 1974 for an antelope hunt and it is still going strong, too. I did have a small problem with the tripod/pistol box threads stripping. I Dremeled the hole out generously and epoxied in a long aluminum nut, twice. Just before the Winnemucca shoot the threads pulled out again, so this time I used a steel coupling nut. I imagine I won't have to fix it again.

[joeb33050]

I was told many years ago that a 20X spotting scope was all the power needed. I have 2 Bushnell Sentry spotting scopes, and have looked through every other spotting scope I've been allowed to for about 25 years now. This mostly at matches, where my Bushnell Sentry is set up. I have never found a substantially better spotting scope. Some are brighter, some adjustable power scopes seem clearer, some big scopes may give you a better picture of the holes. But.
The Bushnell Sentry allows me to see 22 holes in the black, easily, except in the most unusual conditions. It allows me to see 30 caliber holes in the black at 200 yards most of the time, maybe 98% of the time. There are surprises. It allows me to see 22 holes in the black at 200 yards some of the time, maybe 60-70% of the holes. Everything depends on conditions-when the bullet makes a clean hole through the backer and there's snow on the ground, I can see every 22 hole.
On any given day, I never found anybody's other brand of scope that would consistently do better than the Bushnell. Others include the nice Unertls.
I don't think that any reasonably priced/sized scope will reliably pick up holes at 300 yards.
joe b.

[mike in co]

midways june flier has several on sale for under 200

http://midwaymedia.midwayusa.com/SR216.pdf

[carpetman]

NVCurmudgeon---Has Bushnell gone down in the last few decades? In my books it has. Bausch & Lomb for example use to be the Rolls Royce of optical stuff. Go get your eyes checked and all the equipment was B&L. B&L was made in the USA back then. I think B&L and Bushnell combined and I do know Bushnell stuff is made in several countries to include China and Japan. B&L no longer made in USA. I bought my .223 used with a Bushnell scope missing the covers. Simple deal right? Ordered new ones and Bushnell sent me a form to complete to order them. They wanted amongst a whole lot of other info,serial number and country of origin. I'd thought the serial number would identify it---apparently not. Form completed and wrong covers sent--not only wrong but used(full price charged)---covers no longer available and lucky me,they just happened to have the used ones(that didnt fit). Later when scope was sent in for repairs,they did come up with new covers for it. My experience has been,it will be sent in for repairs and not necessarily fixed when returned. I do hope they have gone down hill and have not always been that way.

[7br]

My burris landmark 12x24x50 compact spotter arrived yesterday ($80.00 off of ebay). I will be taking it to the range on Sunday for spotting silhouettes. Couple quick impressions. Not quite small enough for a fanny pack, but definitly small enough for a day pack. Weighs about a pound. I could easily read 1" letters off of a license plate at 50 yards. The 1/4" letters were not readable. I will see about using on paper targets Sunday. Need to sight in my son's .22.

[wills]

NVCurmudgeon---Has Bushnell gone down in the last few decades? In my books it has. Bausch & Lomb for example use to be the Rolls Royce of optical stuff. Go get your eyes checked and all the equipment was B&L. B&L was made in the USA back then. I think B&L and Bushnell combined and I do know Bushnell stuff is made in several countries to include China and Japan. . I do hope they have gone down hill and have not always been that way.

From the looks of the B&L website, it only makes optometry related products now

[shooter2]

Beagle suggested a Celestron spotter. I think they have a good reputation in scopes for astronomy, but no idea about spotters. And it is kind of apples and oranges as the designs are different. I will say this, they are priced right as you can get an 80 mm objective for about the price of the 60 mm Leupold. Yeah I know, objective size is not everything, but it is a factor. I think an angled eyepiece will work better for me from the bench. Does anyone know if you lose any optical quality by going to angled eyepiece instead of a straight eyepiece? BTW, I do have a pair of Leica 8X42 binoc's and they are worth every penny. TIA...

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Telescopes are a very much easier thing to do right than binoculars, since they don't have the problems of optical alignment and spacing. When Japanese optical devices have failings, it isn't often an optical one, but something to do with the metal parts. Basically producing an upright image requires a something, lens if it is straight or prism if it is right-angled, and I doubt if there is any difference in image quality unless one of these if of poor quality. Some very large astronomical telescopes have angled eyepieces, and they don't even need an upright image.

If you have a telephoto camera lens, you should be able to find an eyepiece adaptor with an erecting prism to give an upright image. I found my Pentax own-brand 400 mm. lens very effective with a fairly cheap adaptor. It has its own tripod bushing under the where the point of balance, with camera body, would be. What I normally use, though, is my British Army Telescope, Signals and also General Service, Mk. VI, which I bought in the antique market in Bombay for £40. It has uncoated lenses, but the only effect of this I can see, when looking at the moon, is to produce a slight halo in the surrounding blackness. I can see doorknobs in buildings six miles away, if they are black, which may translate to bullet-holes at 1000 yards in perfect conditions. I wouldn't mind seeing what it has seen.

[joeb33050]

I can see doorknobs in buildings six miles away, if they are black, which may translate to bullet-holes at 1000 yards in perfect conditions.

When we shot at 1000 yards in PA, on some days, we could almost see 30 caliber holes at 1000 yards with 20X scopes. If there was a group in the white, we could sort of see the group-not count the holes, but see where it was. Checking the targets we found it pretty reliable. I know it sounds crazy, but true. Our first time there they got us on the paper by watching our bullets in flight with binoculars made from 2 20X Bushnell Sentry scopes and some clever machine work. When a person watched the bullets for the first time, he invariably laughed. It is funny to be able to see the bullet, or the disturbance in the air, all the way to the target.
joe b.

[C A Plater]

I picked up a used 20x Kowa and nearly everyone that has looked through the eyepiece for the first time say "oooohh" as they focus in. I have no trouble seeing .22 caliber holes @ 200 yards unless there is a lot of heat mirage. Bear Basin sells them, along with many others, and are worth the price.

[carpetman]

Ballistics in Scotland---a 400 MM lens on 35MM camera would be about 8 power. Many binoculars exceed that. Would seem a little underpowered for most spotting scope applications.