Spotting scopes?

[Ucsdryder]

Who carries a spotter? Do you carry them to judge animals, find animals, look in your neighbors window?

I don\'t see the need for archery elk, but like the idea for rifle hunting and scouting. Last year I scouted an elk spot and could barely see 50 elk a couple miles away through my 10x binos. There was a bull in the group and I could see the sun reflecting off his horns every few minutes. He looked huge but I could never get a good look.

Can you get a decent spotter under 1k or buy once, cry once?

 

[elky McElkerson]

my Viper HD, cost me under $600 new and they are pretty dang good. i put up a tiny note at 70 yards and could read it fine. the Leica i have are clearer and brighter, but i could still read everything. they gave up very little.

i use them all the time. saves me some walking of stalking a doe or something. they are not that heavy for day pack hunts. not so sure i would backpack hunt with them.

 

[iccyman001]

I bounced the idea back and forth, but in the end I don\'t think I\'ll buy one.
The ONLY reason I would buy one is for scouting purposes only.


When I am hunting, I just don\'t see myself needing anything other than nice binos.
I can spot animals with them and make a good enough call on whether I want to pursue or not.
When we went on my Oryx hunt we had nice binos and a nice spotter. The binos mostly picked out where they were, then we used the spotter to determine size. That was nice because we had so many people out there and someone else carried it.

For a solo hunt, I just don\'t want that extra weight.



Now scouting is a whole different story....
I would have less weight scouting anyways because I am not hunting, so I could get out there and find some good vantage points to glass from.
It could also help me pin point monsters and watch their patterns.

 

[Ucsdryder]

I bounced the idea back and forth, but in the end I don\'t think I\'ll buy one.
The ONLY reason I would buy one is for scouting purposes only.


When I am hunting, I just don\'t see myself needing anything other than nice binos.
I can spot animals with them and make a good enough call on whether I want to pursue or not.
When we went on my Oryx hunt we had nice binos and a nice spotter. The binos mostly picked out where they were, then we used the spotter to determine size. That was nice because we had so many people out there and someone else carried it.

For a solo hunt, I just don\'t want that extra weight.



Now scouting is a whole different story....
I would have less weight scouting anyways because I am not hunting, so I could get out there and find some good vantage points to glass from.
It could also help me pin point monsters and watch their patterns.

You basically said exactly what I feel. Is it worth it for scouting only? Hard pill to swallow. Maybe next year. I don\'t think my marriage can handle another big expense! :lolno:

 

[ltsheets]

If you\'re wanting one for scouting only, I\'d heavily consider keeping an eye out for a used Nikon ED 50 or the Vortex razor compact 50mm OBJ spotters. Plenty for scouting and very light if you decide to carry it while hunting solo.

 

[elky McElkerson]

the very first hunt my brother and i did unsupervised we were chasing deer. big mulies.

we were hunting Animas NM and we saw some brown bodies up on the highest ridge. none of our binoculars would decipher any more information than that. so we did what a couple of young - dumb - and enthusiastic youths would do. we climbed that bad boy. there were times we would have not rejected the option to use a rope. it was ugly. we got to the top, walked along the spine and found those brown bodies. we relocated them!! you know what? they were not deer. they were big horn sheep. blew our minds. they were stunningly beautiful and some were what we would call trophy animals. they all looked awesome. and we were so high in elevation. while i appreciated laying my eyes on some amazing animals, that hike would have best been not done and if we had a spotting scope (or even better binos maybe) it would have saved us some energy.

i killed a deer the next day on the next smaller ridge, and we needed every bit of juice we had left to get it down the mountain. gutless method was unknown to me back then.

 

[ltsheets]

Great advice elky! I would add that if you intend to use a spotter for glassing and not the occasional gauging of animals, buy once cry once applies. I got a headache from too much cheap spotter use on my first elk hunt here.

 

[Billy Goat]

I\'ve been thinking about making just such a purchase for same (scouting) use only.

I plan to go into elk camp a full week before 1st rifle opens this year, and hope to do a LOT of scouting. packing a spotting scope and tripod sound pretty manageable when you\'re not lugging a rifle.

I\'m watching the lightly-used market around here on craigslist and offerup. Wanting to spend about ~$200-$300 on that mid-range type glass. all the cheap stuff is pretty worthless, and the \"sure enough good\" stuff, at >$1k is just too pricey for me. If I\'d have had Elky\'s story, maybe I\'d be willing to pay the premium! =)

 

[ltsheets]

Vortex Viper or either of the compacts I recommended shouldn\'t be more than 600 or so used.

 

[Ucsdryder]

I played with the vortex razor 11-33x50. I liked it a lot. Clear as could be and the perfect size for backpacking and carrying around all day. The big question is will I regret only having 33x zoom? Bigger is better? I wanted to look at the same spotter in the viper line but I don\'t think they make them. The 15-65 is significantly heavier and bulkier, but has 2x the zoom. And am I nuts to consider paying 700 dollars just to see an elk that I don\'t really care how big it is because I\'d shoot it if it\'s legal?!?! Why is everything so dang expensive!!!!

 

[Ucsdryder]

Picked up a new toy. Vortex razor 16-48x65 and a vortex summit ss-P tripod. Hoping to take it on an early elk scouting trip this weekend. Loaded it into my pack and boy does it feel heavy!

 

[Don K]

Looking forward to your review.

The scope you have is twice the weight of the 11-33 50.

I have been shopping for a spotter for awhile and still trying to decide if its worth the investment, or should I pass on one. I picked up some Viper Binos and a vanguard tripod a few weeks ago .

 

[Ucsdryder]

I\'ll give a review when I get back. I was planning on going with the 11-33 but everyone I talked to said to go with the midsize if you are only going to have 1.

 

[elky McElkerson]

that\'s a good scope!!

compared to my Viper, i can see the difference.

test it with a dollar bill at say 80 yards. reading text at that distance really illuminates a scopes super powers or lack of.