Spotting Scope

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

What's the budget? If you can crank it up to $500-$550, the Celestron Ultima ED Glass 22-66x100 looks pretty strong - very hard to get ED glass that cheap ordinarily.

Most days I use 9x60 binoculars or just the rifle's scope at 25 and 50, and a Celstron C130 Mak reflector past that, but that's only to 200, not beyond, though I think it would do 300 and 400 quite easily, with a dirty bird/shoot n c target. Occasionally I'll use the Celestron C90 Mak, but at 150 and 200, it's definitely not as good as the C130 Mak. At 100, either work. These are good under-$300 budget choices, but they're not as durable as refractors, if say, you drop them.

It might surprise you that NcStar makes Redhead brand.

Thank you Mark - I'm glad to know that tidbit of information.

 

[de-evoproject]

That's easier said than done - try spotting shots at over 500yds with a scope that goes all the way to 20x and you'd have a hard time finding holes in paper (or even chipped spots on white-painted steel).

A good spotter is well worth the money when playing at those distances (its truly handicapping not to have one).

Now my little Burris is good to past where my scopes are, but its not enough to reach out further, so I'm upgrading.

I've had a friend spot out of his Vortex 6-24 rifle-scope but even he was limited to about 700 or so yards before we just really had to use the spotting scope to really see where the hits were going (especially with my wild shots at that distance - lot of white in between my paper-holes ).

+1 While rifle optics should be the first priority, a good spotter scope is definitely a big help. Especially if you go shooting with partner and want to know exactly where your rounds are hitting. Very useful for sighting in at ranges over about 300m and very, very useful for getting accurate round placement at 500m+.

 

[ez bake]

doh - dup post.

 

[LtCCMPUnit42]

+1 While rifle optics should be the first priority, a good spotter scope is definitely a big help. Especially if you go shooting with partner and want to know exactly where your rounds are hitting. Very useful for sighting in at ranges over about 300m and very, very useful for getting accurate round placement at 500m+.

I agree that spotting scopes do a better job. I'm just a tight a$$, and won't spend that money on anything without crosshairs.

 

[spyglass]

Well, I'm more of an optics nut than a gun nut, and buy & sell on ebay all the time. If you can give me a few perameters, I think I can pretty well steer ya to the best for your purpose. First is the top $....next, objective size (60mm, 70mm, etc) and physical size & weight....and last, the max magnification you think you'll need. I've owned about 6 and have tried many others owned by members of my birding group, from the absolute top brands to what I'd hafta call.....complete toads. Lemme know....

 

[Profreedomokie]

We as Americans have always been backasswards on optics. In Europe they put a $600 scope on a $200 rifle and we do the reverse. Spend the money and get a good quality spotter and you won't regret it later as your needs may change. My first one was a low end model that you could see .22 cal holes in the black on a sunny day ok. When the clouds rolled in ,forget it. I sold that scope and bought a Swarovski. Way more money than I wanted to spend at the time but, I have never regretted it on the range. Later on if you no longer need the scope ,you will get more of your money back on a quality scope.