Kowa TSN-663 or Vortex Razor HD 65

If you had your choice which would you get a Kowa TSN-663 or Vortex Razor HD 65

  • Kowa TSN-663

    Votes: 11 78.6%

  • Vortex Razor 65

    Votes: 1 7.1%

  • Other

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • Total voters
    14
  • Poll closed .
I cant comment on Vortex but I believe that the prisms in the Kowa are excellent and perfectly ground also solidly mounted. They are every bit as important as top quality lenses
 
Engineer The Kowa is the choice. The 663 is a good ED spotter and takes a range of excellent eyepieces.
The 27x LER and 30XW eyepieces are superb on this glass. The Kowas will also score higher on a resolution chart than the Vortex.
Kowa generally, supports their products and you'll be likely to get it cleaned and repaired 10-20-30 years from now. Vortex? May not even exist by then.
Maybe another factor to consider is resale value. A 20 year old Kowa will bring as much a 4 year old Vortex on the used market.
 
I have a TSN-773 and it is superb.

The birding community love Kowa scopes, and they know more about spotting scopes (in general, of course we have some experts) than we of the shooting community.
 
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slingworks said:
Engineer The Kowa is the choice. The 663 is a good ED spotter and takes a range of excellent eyepieces.
The 27x LER and 30XW eyepieces are superb on this glass. The Kowas will also score higher on a resolution chart than the Vortex.
Kowa generally, supports their products and you'll be likely to get it cleaned and repaired 10-20-30 years from now. Vortex? May not even exist by then.
Maybe another factor to consider is resale value. A 20 year old Kowa will bring as much a 4 year old Vortex on the used market.
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Resale value is a good point I never considered, as is long term support. Thanks for the feed back.
 
Engineer said:
What sort of tripod are you using with your 773?
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A lot depends on what style of shooting you intend to do. If you are only going to shoot prone, a spotting scope stand would be your best bet. Ewing, Creedmoor, First Strike, Freeland are a few to look at. These allow you to position the scope close enough to you without having to move out of your shooting position to look through it. If you are only shooting off a bench there are bench mounted spotting scope stands that clamp to the bench.
 
maynard said:
A lot depends on what style of shooting you intend to do. If you are only going to shoot prone, a spotting scope stand would be your best bet. Ewing, Creedmoor, First Strike, Freeland are a few to look at. These allow you to position the scope close enough to you without having to move out of your shooting position to look through it. If you are only shooting off a bench there are bench mounted spotting scope stands that clamp to the bench.
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I have a couple of freeland 5/8” bipod setups i was wondering if the 773 might be too heavy for those and if i needed to go to something heavier like the freeland tripod.
 
You can buy either a spike for the bottom of the rod or buy/make a weight that attaches at the bottom of the rod. The 5/8" rod is OK but now the trend is 1" rods for many scope stands. Of course scope stands with 3 legs and 1" rods are more sturdy than the 2 legged Freeland. I use a Ewing stand with a First Strike head that I am very happy with.
 
I have owned both at the same time and in my opinion for my eyes the Kowa was definitely better. I was target shooting with a 223 mouse gun ( 90 gr Berger’s) so I needed the quality for those small holes at long range lol
 
I have no doubt that the Kowa is the better option BUT!!! there is quite a difference in price. The Kowa cost more than my first car, WITHOUT the eyepiece that is purchased separately. If you’re a “Birder” and want to see the colours of the Hummingbirds eyes, then the Kowa is the way to go. For looking at holes in paper???
 
big boar said:
I have no doubt that the Kowa is the better option BUT!!! there is quite a difference in price. The Kowa cost more than my first car, WITHOUT the eyepiece that is purchased separately. If you’re a “Birder” and want to see the colours of the Hummingbirds eyes, then the Kowa is the way to go. For looking at holes in paper???
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Buy once cry once. Is that the saying?

Between those 2 choices no contest.
I’d wait and save up for the Kowa. Probably be a once in a lifetime purchase.
 
big boar said:
I have no doubt that the Kowa is the better option BUT!!! there is quite a difference in price. The Kowa cost more than my first car, WITHOUT the eyepiece that is purchased separately. If you’re a “Birder” and want to see the colours of the Hummingbirds eyes, then the Kowa is the way to go. For looking at holes in paper???
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I didn’t see where the OP only wanted to look at holes in paper?
 
You are correct, the OP did NOT say it was for looking at holes. That’s why I began with, “if you’re a birder…….”. I was simply mentioning different applications.
 
Yep. My 663 Kowa every year gets mounted on an old camera tripod so spotters can stand while we spot each other's shots on steel. And rifle shooters may keep thier spotting scope on thier shooting bench.
Kowa gets used alot with 20-60 eyepiece.
 
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