Best value ( Chinese ) spotting scope

i have 2 old bushnel in 45x ....got a 60x eye piece for the one....look for an older one for 200$ and your worries are over or go to cabelas or some where ...look through some at the end of the store or ask to go outside and view road signs at distance tune them in at 200 yds good luck have fun don the older ones are very good out to 200 yds on 25 cal holes
 
Buck1950 said:
Proshow - My 'concern' is that a person can buy much better for the same money. "V" has a 'rep' for good warranty results, BUT how do they get that 'rep'? By having 'many' warranty claims ! Many other manufacturers have the 'same' Lifetime Warranty, but you don't 'hear about' all the claims 'dealt with' because there aren't that many claims. JMO and what I've read. I have 2x $700 Athlons and a Vortex and a few others, and I've NOT had any warranty claims . . . Yet. And the "V" I got used for Less than Half-price, not because I was looking for one. It was 'too good a deal'. :rolleyes:
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Fair enough man . I think I’m going to go with a Leupold spotter
 
coyoteshooter said:
i have 2 old bushnel in 45x ....got a 60x eye piece for the one....look for an older one for 200$ and your worries are over or go to cabelas or some where ...look through some at the end of the store or ask to go outside and view road signs at distance tune them in at 200 yds good luck have fun don the older ones are very good out to 200 yds on 25 cal holes
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Have a bushnell model you recommend I should look for ?
 
I picked up a Vortex Crossfire HD spotting scope during one of Prophet River's open box/demo sales and I've been very happy with it. I have had several Vortex products (some of them are 15+ years old and have never needed to use their warranty).

There are good deals to be had if you wait for demo models, slight blemishes, or good used spotting scopes to show up on the EE.
 
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homer76 said:
I picked up a Vortex Crossfire HD spotting scope during one of Prophet River's open box/demo sales and I've been very happy with it. I have had several Vortex products (some of them are 15+ years old and have never needed to use their warranty).

There are good deals to be had if you wait for demo models, slight blemishes, or good used spotting scopes to show up on the EE.
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Right on , im a new member . How long does it take for me to
Be able to purchase something on here or even sell
Something myself ?
 
sillymike said:
Celestron spotting scopes are pretty good.
- Had the chance to play with one of their Regal M2, while birding... if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was pretty darn close to my Pentax PF80... as a bonus, they accept 1.25" astro eyepieces.
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Cool! I was looking at Pentax on eBay . Are the older models a good option? Would you recommend that before an entry level vortex , athlon, Hawke , Leupold etc ?
 
If I was buying a used spotting scope I would look at an older Kowa, ( or Spacemaster made by Kowa), Pentax, or Nikon in that order. I would buy one of these before a new cheap Chinese scope. A angled eye piece scope is easier on the neck when glassing any more than 5 minutes.
Fixed 10x, 15x or 20x eyepieces usually offer more eye relief than zoom eyepieces.
 
It really depends what are your need (and expectation).
- The Celestron Ultima a not bad, but I'm pretty sure you are stuck with their zoom eyepiece...
- I'd look for a Regal, or if you browse market place, there are always interesting stuff turning up.

Personally, once you've played with quality fixed eyepiece, it's hard to go back to a zoom. (you'll lose of FOV/eye relief). 25x LER is probably the one I used the most.

- I used to have an older Kowa spotting scope, and something "happened" to my eyepiece... before the Internet-days, getting a replacement was kind of a challenge...
- Probably still have a few Spacemaster laying around, they were good enough for pistol shooting (20y-50y)... The wife was using a 20 (or maybe 22x) eyepiece... and when we were mostly shooting indoors (winter league) I'd use a 15x eyepiece... that is, until the wife tried it wanted one of her own. Being the nice guy, I just gave her mine... thinking that I'd just buy another... Long story short, we stopped shooting bullseye before I found another one... I have since learn that the Opticron HR eyepiece work, and are supposed to be real nice...

Anyway, that's the reason why I went with the Pentax, 1.25" eyepiece easy to come buy... and star-watchers (like birder) can be picky about.

For your budget, if you don't need something waterproof. The Kowa TSN-1 can be had for reasonable $ from Japan. There's at least two local birders that went that route and are happy with their purchase.
- While ED glass are nice, if you're not into birding, use it in low light... we've done without it for quite some time...

Just to throw another wrench in the discussion. Scout the bird forums.
 
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