Budget spotting scope recommendations

albertacoyotecaller

albertacoyotecaller

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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Location
Peace River, Alberta
Always used a straight 20x Burris spotting scope until this fall. Was trying to spy on some elk and it just didn’t cut it so looking for a new spotting scope. Something with a bit more power and larger objective. Looking at $600-1500 budget. Recommendations please.
 
The cheapest I would go is Vortex Razor, Tract Toric, Maven S1. Good performance to cost, especially with the Tract. Used or on sale might get them down to the upper end of your budget. Good luck!
 
albertacoyotecaller said:
Is Kowa preferred over Leupold? I know nothing about Kowa. I can get a Leupold Alpine sx-2 20-40x, 85 mm for my prices range. Only problem is living away from retail centres I don’t have much opportunity to look through different optics.
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Kowa Prominar Spotters are as good as it gets when it comes to spotters, right up there with Swarovski. I don't think Leupold makes a spotter with glass that can match up with them. I don't have experience with their cheaper models
 
albertacoyotecaller said:
Ok, thanks, I know nothing about spotting scopes. Any preferred dealers on CGN carry Kowa?
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I bought my Kowa binos and spotters from the US. I know Shooting Warehouse carries them in Canada. I bought a pair of RF binos from Robbie and he was great to deal with, took the time to call me to give me advice on my purchase and he shipped my binos lightning quick.
 
Should be able to get a used Leica Televid in that price range.

They are heavy and dont come up often, but great glass that will hold its value.

Kowa is legit. I picked up a Kowa TSN-3 on the EE, put a new eyepiece on it - $1k all in, fantastic 70mm scope, very light weight.
 
Pentax, Kowa/Howa, Athlon...even Sightron

Anything ED or UHD does offer an edge at LR for resolution from these brands

Eyepieces matter alot. Variable eyepieces can be less quality vs a fixed mag. A fixed in the 20'ish mag range tends to offer a great image. The Sightron from a few years back had one of the most useable variable eyepieces... no idea on current manf.

Pentax 65mm body is great... variable eyepieces is not. I merged the one from the 80mm spotter but that created other issues.

If the budget allows an ED small body Kowa and eyepiece, live happily ever after.... yes, an eyepiece can cost alot of money.

Jerry

PS... refer to birding sites for their review on spotters and binos. Optics is their schtick and they are very picky about the same things we need to see game under challenging conditions.
 
albertacoyotecaller said:
Always used a straight 20x Burris spotting scope until this fall. Was trying to spy on some elk and it just didn’t cut it so looking for a new spotting scope. Something with a bit more power and larger objective. Looking at $600-1500 budget. Recommendations please.
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In that price range I would look at Nikon. Great glass. - dan
 
I ran a Pentax 65ed for a bunch of years for a mountain scope, loved that scope but it took a fall no scope would have survived. I glued the two halves back together. I find it still “very close” to par with the Swarovski I replaced it with.
 
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