Kowa Spotting Scopes

Mik123

Mik123

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Does anybody have any experience with Kowa Spotting Scopes? I'm in the market for a hunting/range scope and they seem to get favorable reviews.

Thanks,

Mik
 
Exceptional glass, and with that comes a hefty price tag. What is your budget? I have one of the low-end models and it is fantastic.
 
I have had the chance to look through a line of approx 25 different spotting scopes from all different brands and models all set up side by side on the same range, sorted by price. Kowa was the most expensive there, but was noticeably clearer and brighter than units only costing a small amount less.

Great optics in those scopes.
 
there is a reason they are favoured among the bird watching crowd. Great glass, strong used sale prices, high demand, they are great. Friends use them more than swaro on the range.
 
I bought two for our gun club and am very happy with them...go to Peelee wings to check out prices. h t t p://www.peleewings.ca/
And for tripods I went with Rayvin .
As others mentioned they arn,t cheap but are very good.
 
I have used an elderly Kowa 20X compact for years. This season I have upgraded to a 663 with 25X LER eyepiece. Outstanding instrument.
I used the 20X on a Freeland stand with RayVin head. Because the 663 is larger, I still use the RayVin and Freeland post, but with a larger three legged base that I made.
 
Thanks for all the responses. I'm looking to spend about $800-900 so that would be lower end of the Kowa line. It's looks like the 661 with the 25X LER eyepiece would be a good fit for my use. Guess it's time to start saving up.
 
Mik123 said:
Thanks for all the responses. I'm looking to spend about $800-900 so that would be lower end of the Kowa line. It's looks like the 661 with the 25X LER eyepiece would be a good fit for my use. Guess it's time to start saving up.
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Hhhmm, I actually own this model the TSN-661. It's quite a decent piece of optics for sure. I would suggest you choose two other accessories very wisely; first off decide whether of not this will be used from the prone position only on an uneven an perhaps a grassy surface. So you would need something like the Ewing tripod for that. Or you could get by for table top use only, something like the Vortex short table top tripod. It looks like a close copy of the Bushnell table top tripod IMO. Number two as soon as you can afford it, purchase the zoom eyepiece of 20-60 power.

Unless you want a camera adapter, you would be done here.

PS: Stay away from the cheap tripod that Leupold sells with thier compact spotting scopes. The name brand to avoid IIRC, is Celestron. It is just garbage quality IMHO.
 
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Kowa are excellent but you might also want to look at Pentax, they offer 65, 80 and 100mm scope bodies, straight and angled, and the eyepieces are superb. CameraLand sometimes has deals and these ship to Canada with no issues.

The support issue mentioned above is also important, there are several ways to go depending on the intended use(s) but get something suitable, there is nothing more frustrating than a scope that you can't position, adjust or secure properly.
 
Here is a really great comparison for you.

Both these pics were taken on a hot day at 600 and 1000 meters using an Iphone camera.

The first two pics are a Nightforce NXS 5.5-22x56mm riflescope with a 30mm tube, which is already outstanding glass.


Here is 600 meters.



Here is 1000 meters, the sun came out so we started getting some mirage, but you can still see the orange hit markers on the targets just fine even through the mirage and the distance.



This is the Kowa at 1000 meters. Talk about insanely clear glass. I forget which model it was, but it was one of the high end fixed magnification ones.

It is stupidly easy for a spotter to watch the bullet trace out to 1000 and past... it's almost like cheating... almost. :cool:





And for some perspective, this is 1000 meters unmagnified.




A Kowa spotting scope and a really good tripod are on my list of wants/ needs for long range shooting.
 
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Kevin M. said:
A Kowa spotting scope and a really good tripod are on my list of wants/ needs for long range shooting.
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One of the guys I used to shoot BPCR with has his set up on an astronomical telescope tripod. Not ridiculously heavy tripod but the adjustment for pan/tilt is via flex shaft which means you never touch the scope and thus no vibration.
 
The Kowa are excellent - there is no doubt that they can claim to be the very best. If you have a budget of $900 though please consider the Pentax 80ED; you will find this to be the value buy in that range.
 
B&H Photo sells Kowa spotting scopes too. No problem shipping to Canada since they are not ITAR controlled.
B&H now have great international shipping pricing which *includes* brokerage.

Kowa units are sold with eyepieces as a separate line item, so order carefully.

ht tp://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=kowa+spotting+scope&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=
 
My Kowa TSN 82SV is likely my last spotting scope (unless I win the 649 Saturday night draw) and it's spooky great! :D

Here's my strategy for you to save up quickly for any optic you want! :)

Go to your wife or partner or husband or meaningful other and declare that you QUIT Drinking! :eek:

But you are putting those savings to an optics budget/fund from now on. You get what you want, your partner gets a DD forever. Here's the rub : When you DIE, they get all the assets. Hey, you are dead so who gives a shzt? :evil: Everyone benefits.

You got to enjoy it while you were alive. Speaking of good health, time to hit the gym! :D

Cheers and keep helping them nooobies out there! :wave:

Barney
 
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