Spotting Scopes

[Deane Thrower]

Hi Lads,

Just thought I would see what everyone's feelings are in the way of spotting scopes. What do you feel are the brands to buy, what power etc. I am looking at buying a premium brand and I'm after some ideas what direction I should head. Thanks guys

[David Dundas]

Hi Dean

Would certainly be worth having a look thru some of the better scopes at one of the long range shoots. The scopes the guys use at 500 and the 1000 metre events are usually pretty good.
I myself wanted to see to .22 shots at 200m so got myself a 20-60x Pentax ED scope which I like. It has a large eye piece (1.5 inches) which many people have commented on how confortable it is to look thru - this is good if using it alot or if your eyes arent as good as they used to be. The Pnetax scopes come out of Japan and have the low dispersion galss (ED glass), I found the Pentax to be a bit cheaper than some of the bigger name brands at the time. Prices have changed alot in the last few years so best to compare all again - the ED glass scopes were once rare but I believe alot of manufactures are doing them these days.
Equally as important is a good quality (smooth and stable) tripod to mount it, those cheap little things from $2 shops are next to useless for a large scope - they just keep vibrating ! So a good camera tripod with a smooth Pan head is the go - cost plenty but you will have it for years.
Have a look around Optics planet for different models and prices and then you really need to look thru a few to get an idea of how much you need to spend to get the desired result.

I am sure other will add their 2 cents worth here as well,

Regards

Dave Dundas

[Les Fraser]

ii agree David you certainly get what you pay for in relation to spotting scopes. I use a Kowa 20-60 zoom 87mm Objective but i will say that at Canberra on a hot day with lots of Mirrage the scope doesn't get past about 25x because you just can't see anything.

Just food for thought. With the fly and if you are shooting with someone with a scope the best situation is one spotting scope and the other guy over the rifle.

looking back over my shooting years my spotting scope gets little use so i put the extra $$$ into a top line scope for the rifle and spot with it 90% of the time now.

I use the Kowa for shooting full bore where you are using open sights out to 1000yards and need a spotting scope to see your fall of shot.

Anyway there are lots of options out there.

the top brands are
ZIESS
KOWA
LIECA
SWAROVSKI

There are others but these seem to be the most used.

cheers Les

[Rod Davies]

Since I am an a bit of a budget, I was wondering about the Celestron 100mm Regal scopes. Have any of you   checked these on 500m targets? How did they go?

[Anthony Hall]

Hi Mate,

I have a Celestron 80mm (I think it is 20-60x80) ED

Sure, it is not a Zeiss, Leica or Kowa.... but at a third of the price of these.... it is pretty bloody good.  The majority of its use for me is helping others at our local range during club shoots, or setting up flags for a match....  I have it on a Sinclair bench post stand and can move from bench to bench very quickly and clearly see all calibre holes out to 300.  At 500 on a good day, it will show holes (especially .30 cal).... but is not as good as the nightforce on my rifles...

Depends on your expectations and budget....

Cheers

Anthony

[Rod Davies]

Anthony, is yours the Ultima or the more expensive Regal model? I was hoping that the bigger 100mm objective would have made it better than my rifle scope, or it will not be as handy.

[Anthony Hall]

Hi Mate,Mine is the Ultima ED ... so while it is the ultima, it is the better one with the ED glass....It is good, handy and has its uses.... but the only scopes that I have ever seen that beat the Nightforce Rifle scopes for seeing holes at 500 are the Zeiss/Leica/Kowa end of the market.CheersAnthony

[Dave Groves]

I've got a Nikon ED which I am very happy with and have been speaking to NightForce recently, an angled eyepiece version of their Spotter on the way for people to have a look at at the September Fly in Canberra.

The nicest scope I have looked thru behind my Nikon was a Zeiss and it was extremely nice but 3.7x the price of my Nikon.

The thing I notice most with really high end euro optics like Leica, Zeiss etc is that they are very forgiving when focusing, I have been focused on the 1000yds targets and look at a parrot eating on the 800m mound at the Canberra Rifle Club wth the bird only 100m away and still very crisp without altering the focus, this doesn't happen with my Nikon although the glass is very nice in that scope.

As others have said, take the opportunity at matches to look through as many scopes as you can and choose what you like the best, your personal preference for glass plays a big part in optics choice as clarity and colour contrast are in different ratios in different scopes to cater to different tastes, budgets and markets, personally clarity is more important in our discipline as I don't particularly care about true colours, I care about seeing bullet holes!

Cheers.

[Dave Groves]

Hi All,
            I've been meaning to post on this again since Wagga.

I received a Nightforce 20-70 spotting scope the week before Wagga to show around, I used to travel to Adelaide a lot for work and asked Nightforce 8 or more years ago on a trip when they were going to introduce a spotter into the range.

I was talking to Ray Dennis of Nightforce earlier this year and suggested that now that the company had introduced one, he send a spotter over for the September Fly for people to have a look through.

Purchasing good glass is in my opinion a lifetime thing, if you buy a great scope, be it a rifle scope or spotting scope, you'll probably be using it for a lifetime and passing it on to your kids. It's a bit hard to make a decision to drop $3k on a scope without knowing that it would do the job you had in mind.

Further to this, glass is a very personal thing, what one person really likes, another sometimes really doesn't, so the opportunity for people to have a look through and trial the Nightforce offering in a real world situation I think is invaluable.

Putting the NF product alongside a lot of other brands Saturday morning I wasn't surprised there wasn't a lot of difference under the morning conditions, I had already compared it to my Nikon and whilst good, the glass wasn't any better than that in my Nikon to my eye. I had put the scopes side by side at home and was looking at a light pole 450m away, the resolution and colour looked pretty similar to my eye.

Saturday didn't really make it work very hard, the Nikon kept up all day and I was happy with the quality of the optics, but 300m isn't really a big test for a spotting scope.

Sunday was the 500m Fly Shoot at Wagga, the last 200m of the range are very flat and the sightline of your scope is probably less than 1m from the ground across the whole area, once mirage comes up, it is a challenge to see what is going on.

Early in the day, the NF and Nikon were side by side, you could see the same things, but as the day went on and the mirage built up, the NF started to get a lead on the Nikon, the NF doesn't "cut through" the mirage, but we were able to see 6mm bullet holes all day, it seemed that when the wind blew the mirage away or there was a "hole" in the mirage, you could see it more readily with the NF.

Overall I was very impressed with the scope, but that's my opinion and everybody has one, if you're in the market for a new spotter, have a look at the NF, it will be a tripod behind my bench at the Fly on 27 September at Canberra. It goes back to NF the next week so it can go elsewhere for display purposes, so take advantage of the opportunity to form your own opinion on it.

Cheers.

Dave.

[Anthony Hall]

Hi Dave,

That is a fantastic initiative... 500 at Canberra in September can be a great test of optics.... I look forward to comparing it to some of the Zeiss, Leica type optics on the day.

Do you know what the Street Price of the NF spotter is ?

Cheers

Anthony

[Deane Thrower]

Thanks for all the replys guys, and sorry for my tardy response. It certainly seems there is no substitution for optics, which is also the case in scopes. In reality it makes sense that we spend big dollars on rifle scopes and really we are asking the same if not more of spotting scopes.

Having spoke to PVM at batemans bay and looked through his ziess and Swarovski scopes there is no question that you get what you pay for, glass and ED glass especially is where it's at.

I am keen to have a look through Dave's nightforce aswell. Again thanks for the input guys and now my rifle is almost finished I look forward to seeing you all more often.

Cheers

Deane

[Anthony Hall]

Hi Deane,

It will be great to see you at more shoots....

Optics are important, but as they come under the nice toys category....  lots agree with the philosophy  ... "He who dies with the most toys wins "  

Bit like rule ten in the Fly :)

Cheers

Anthony

[Rod Davies]

Another option to consider for less than half the price of some of the scopes mentioned is the Vortex Razor 85HD.  Not long ago I was looking into a spotting scope for Flyshoots and my research found the Vortex Razor 85HD was ALMOST as good as the super expensive scopes mentioned, but at half the price or less.  As my funds were limited, I bought one just before the Wagga Fly and looked through a few other top end scopes while I was there. While of course it was no better than the Zeiss, Swaro type scopes, it did not seem any worse than them in finding bullet holes. My spotter and I were able to find every bullet hole at 500M at Wagga, though naturaly some took a bit more looking. While the scope is not a budget scope at $2000, it is a bargain compared to other top performing scopes.

[Pete van Meurs]

Hi all,

The subject of the Nightforce spotter has aroused some interest it seems. I also had a chance to look thru the sample that Dave Groves had on display and found it to be impressive. As the conditions were good at the time it was an ideal opportunity to compare with the others (in mirage one will not see 'jack-shit' thru any scope). I thought that the scope gave little if anything away to my 20 year-old Swarovski and bugger-all to my current Ziess (costing somewhat more).

On the subject of price - I can supply the Nightforce 20-70x82 with either angled or straight eyepiece for $3100 on C/card or $3000 cash (direct deposit) if anyone is interested in buying one.

Pete