After my first trip to Colorado to hunt, I am looking to add a spotting scope to my pack. Lots of great choices out there, and if it were not for weight/money, I would probably be done already.
Here are some of my issues that make it difficult to choose:
I wear glasses, have deep set eyes, and a lot of astigmatism. What that means is without glasses, I cannot ever get it fully 'razor' crisp. Its always just a little off.
With glasses, I cannot get enough eye relief to see the whole magnification range on most scopes. The exception on what I have been able to look through so far is the Cabelas/Meopta Euro and the Leupold Gold Ring.
Money: I am not in the Swaro class. Just can't get there. Hoping to keep it under 1500, but realize that may not happen. Very open to used.
Weight: I really like the Cabelas/Meopta. Seemed bright, sharp, I could see all the way to the edge at top power. But its an 82, and just at 4 lbs. I am going to pack this, so I think I will need a significantly lighter option.
From what I can gather, I need about 17mm of eye relief to see. I am only guessing this because on a big Razor , I can see edge to edge up to maybe 25 or 30mm, and they list their eye relief as starting at 17mm and going down to the 16's. For this reason, the new Kowa 55 appears out of the running....eye relief is too short. The Meopta claims 18mm across the range.
The Leupold is light, has the eye relief etc....but the glass, especially for the money....does not seem right. Not that it is useless, obviously, but I want better glass than they are offering there. I already have a cheap spotter for use at the range. POS is useless as the sun starts to fall.
I have looked at various other options, not found anything with the eye relief/weight I am hoping for...without even thinking about cost. Any suggestions would be much appreciated...FYI, as far as size, I am very open...but lighter is better and I don't want something that is useless at first and last light because of size or quality. Nor is something that I leave at camp because it is too heavy useful, so I guess balance is the way to go here.
Thanks!
Here are some of my issues that make it difficult to choose:
I wear glasses, have deep set eyes, and a lot of astigmatism. What that means is without glasses, I cannot ever get it fully 'razor' crisp. Its always just a little off.
With glasses, I cannot get enough eye relief to see the whole magnification range on most scopes. The exception on what I have been able to look through so far is the Cabelas/Meopta Euro and the Leupold Gold Ring.
Money: I am not in the Swaro class. Just can't get there. Hoping to keep it under 1500, but realize that may not happen. Very open to used.
Weight: I really like the Cabelas/Meopta. Seemed bright, sharp, I could see all the way to the edge at top power. But its an 82, and just at 4 lbs. I am going to pack this, so I think I will need a significantly lighter option.
From what I can gather, I need about 17mm of eye relief to see. I am only guessing this because on a big Razor , I can see edge to edge up to maybe 25 or 30mm, and they list their eye relief as starting at 17mm and going down to the 16's. For this reason, the new Kowa 55 appears out of the running....eye relief is too short. The Meopta claims 18mm across the range.
The Leupold is light, has the eye relief etc....but the glass, especially for the money....does not seem right. Not that it is useless, obviously, but I want better glass than they are offering there. I already have a cheap spotter for use at the range. POS is useless as the sun starts to fall.
I have looked at various other options, not found anything with the eye relief/weight I am hoping for...without even thinking about cost. Any suggestions would be much appreciated...FYI, as far as size, I am very open...but lighter is better and I don't want something that is useless at first and last light because of size or quality. Nor is something that I leave at camp because it is too heavy useful, so I guess balance is the way to go here.
Thanks!
