I’m Looking For Good Spotting Scope What Do You Recommend?

albayo

albayo

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I’m Looking For Good Spotting Scope What Do You Recommend?

I have an older Bushnell Sentry II 50 mm Prismatic spotter scope with a 32x eye piece.

I have been using this one for the past 30+ years, I would like a bigger and better model.

Best quality scope for the money is my goal.

I going away from collecting, and I want to spend more time on the range with my friends while I can.
 
The Pentax 80ED is a great 80mm optic in the 1500 dollar range (body and eyepiece). It was also designed to work with their excellent XW astronomy fixed power eyepieces. I have the 20-60 SMC zoom and when I really want to see some detail I put in a XW fixed eyepiece.

I have been very happy with the 80ED, very sharp images.
 
Hey Albayo I also have an older Bushnell as well, on high power you can see faint black spiders webs on the glass it will have to do for now.Have a look at the Gundealer in Mcadam he a couple of used Nikon's spotting scopes with a good prices.Good Luck finding one.
 
Definitely need to know a budget. Of the top tier spotting scopes the Meopta S2 is a great value, but it's still a $2500 spotting scope. Is this the range you are looking for?
 
I have a Nikon ED82 that i'm VERY happy with. 25-75 zoom eyepiece, and just scored a 30x wide angle eyepiece from Ebay for a good deal.

Less than $1400 invested, and I'll never need another. Unless I want something small!

Also - for hunting and a more compact package, you can't beat a Leupold Golden Ring... one in the EE the other day for around $1000.
 
I have a Bushnell Elite 15-45x60 and it's a very good piece of glass for around $600. Made in Japan, rubber coated and compact. My usage doesn't justify spending more than that and this line from Bushnell is a great value vs performance. I have the matching binos and they are just as great,

Patrick
 
Kowa. $2400 + . Best money I ever spent on optics. I had a Bushnell Elite before that was very good, but the Kowa blows it away.
 
I just got back from the West Indies Fullbore Championship. Only 4 Canadians went, 3 of us used Kowa spotting scopes and one Votex. Out of the 50+ competitors there, more than 1/2 of them where using Kowa spotting scope.
 
I use a Kowa 663, with long eye relief 20X eyepiece. Outstanding scope.

A friend who has been a long time Kowa user, has been trying out a Vortex Razor with 85mm objective. So far, he hasn't brought the Kowa back out...
 
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+1 for Kowa optics.Does anyone have any experience with the Kowa 770 and 660 series spotting scopes? How do they compare to the 880? It seems as if they would be a good scope for back pack hunts.
 
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tiriaq said:
I use a Kowa 663, with long eye relief 20X eyepiece. Outstanding scope.

A friend who has been a long time Kowa user, has been trying out a Vortex Razor with 85mm objective. So far, he hasn't brought the Kowa back out...
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which Kowa doeas he have tiriaq? if it has a smaller objective, that would be understandable as the Vortex would be so much brighter.
 
OP,
At this point, almost anything you get will be an upgrade over what you already have. The Kowa is a popular option for good reason. If you want a spotter with a reticle and more compact design, I would suggest the Hensoldt/Zeiss Spotter 60/45. We had one out next to a newer Zeiss and new Leica last winter with the Spotter 60 coming out marginally ahead of the Zeiss and noticeably better than the Leica. All of the spotting scopes were excellent and we were splitting hairs on many observations but that's what you will get when comparing all of these top tier optics.

It would be best if you could meet up with some other shooters or bird watchers to compare a few side by side, that way your eye could decide what it likes best.
 
I am definitely going to check out your suggestions.
Since I put this post up, I went to my optometrist now he is sending me to a specialist he found something but didn't tell me what.
That could be the reason I didn't think my expensive scopes were of poor quality.
 
This mountain summit was photographed just before sunset with a Pentax 80ED, Pentax XW 10mm eyepiece and an i-phone 4 (old pos). The mountain was 15 km away.
The picture does not do the actual image justice, there was nothing up there that could not be seen with the utmost clarity. The magnification was 52X fixed.



Pentax has some of the best eyepieces made and they are huge. Their XW astronomy fixed series are incredible. I bought both the scope and the eyepiece (one) for 1500 bucks brand new.

 
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