First spotting scope

[Cdneville]

Looking to buy my first spotting scope. Want to hear everyone’s opinions on magnification and why. Also weight comparisons/packability.

 

[gr8fuldoug]

What is your intended use?

 

[Cdneville]

Planning to hunt antelope in Wyoming. And Colorado mule deer

 

[idahohikker]

Athlon Ares 65mm for sure is a strong contender for anything except the alpha glass. Great glass, very small and packable so you’ll use it. Use the search function here to read lots of positive reviews and the full review I posted. You can get it for around $500.

 

[gr8fuldoug]

Athlon Ares 65mm for sure is a strong contender for anything except the alpha glass. Great glass, very small and packable so you’ll use it. Use the search function here to read lots of positive reviews and the full review I posted. You can get it for around $500.

It would be our pleasure to hook you up with the Athlon Ares 15-45x65 ED Spotting Scope for $499.99 as a member here. It is our pleasure to discuss different options with you. Please give us a call, 516-217-1000.
Have a great rest of the weekend
Doug

 

[Forest]

I havent looked through that Athlon but it does get good reviews for sure. It all depends on how much you want to spend. To this day I regret buying a "budget" spotter for my first one. Wish I would have lived without it for another year or two and bought at least a mid tier spotter. Just my opinion, the lower end glass is better than it used to be tho.

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[brmtn]

If you're hiking a lot and want to bring a scope then a 60-65 and a lighter tripod make sense. For less mobile scouting, a bigger lens and heavier tripod will be great. Even a great 65mm scope hits its limit pretty quick in that kind of country, especially in low light. If I were elk/muley hunting out there I would have an 85mm+ at camp and for general scouting and some good 10x binos for hiking/hunting, but that's me (I used to survey mule deer, sage grouse and bighorn in the OR desert). Being your first scope, look for something used or with good resale value. If you like using a scope alpha glass is worth it. Cheers

 

[ddavis_1313]

I’m new to spotters myself but I was able to pick up a razor HD 16-48x65 angled for $500. Other than a few little scratches on the housing, glass is in perfect condition. Haven’t had a chance to try it out on extreme ranging or low light but I feel I could get plenty of detail within a mile under normal circumstances.


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[Ledd Slinger]

For Mule deer you'll want some big glass for low light performance when the big boys come out to play.

Big question would be what your budget is.

I owned the Meopta S2 HD 20-70x for a long while. Absolutely amazing spotting scope in every aspect. Bought the Swarovski ATX 95mm and 65mm setup. Had it for about a year and just recently sold the Swarovski to go back to the Meopta. The Meopta is one of the best values on the market and matches or beats any of the most expensive glass ever produced in spotting scopes.

 

[Cdneville]

My budget is around 1k.

 

[HighVoltageHunter]

What bino’s are you running?
Are you doing any other hunting throughout the year?

 

[Cdneville]

What bino’s are you running?
Are you doing any other hunting throughout the year?

Bushnell 10x42 I use for whitetail and turkey hunting

 

[Ledd Slinger]

That's a tough crowd there. There are a lot of options under $1K.

As I'm sure you've heard and/or read many times, "everyone's eyes are different". My eyes seem to prefer optics with deep rich color contrast and top notch low light performance more than anything else when it comes to a hunting optic. Top level resolution is the next most important factor to me. Nice thing about top shelf glass is you can have it all

For those reasons I use Leica Noctivid 10x42 binoculars and the aforementioned Meopta S2 HD spotting scope. They give me a massive edge in the field for finding big game in any weather or lighting conditions. To me it is worth the extra money spent.

For a person looking to just see bullet holes in a target or be able to tell if a piece of steel was hit at long range, top level contrast and low light performance may not matter to them nearly as much.

Nice thing about spotters under $1K is that pretty much every major sporting store will have a decent selection for you to look through. Look through as many as you can side by side on tripods outside the store. Preferably at long range objects and less than ideal conditions if possible. Everything looks great on a nice sunny day which makes it very hard to pick the finer details apart from scope to scope. I would recommend you try to avoid traveling to stores and evaluating scopes on days with really nice conditions. Most stores are willing to take the time to set up the demo models for you so don't be afraid to ask. Keeping your intended purpose of the scope in mind, make a decision based on what your own eyes prefer.

 

[HighVoltageHunter]

My suggestion would be to sell your current binoculars, combine that money with the $1,000 and buy a pair of used Swarovski SLC 10x42’s (or similar). Also invest in a tripod to mount them on.

You will see more with a good pair of bino’s mounted on a tripod than a lesser quality spotter.

I did this years ago and it worked out very well for me.

 

[Eric4]

I'd also recommend upgrading the binoculars+tripod before investing in a spotter. Maybe others are more tolerant to this, but I can only look one-eyed for ~15mins before needing a break. My swaro 8x30 habicht, and optolyth 15x63's I can spend hours looking through.

 

[Jimss]

I've gone around and around with a couple guys on this website in regard to 15x vs spotter.....so thought I would try to put this baby to rest! Sorry if I'm sabatoging your post but it may help in your decision for a spotter vs 15x binos.

There is no way I'd go without the best spotter you can afford if you are trophy antelope and deer hunting. It's pretty tough to tell if antelope bucks have 5 1/2 or 6" prongs, 6 1/2 or 7" bases, etc with 15x binos. at long range. It's pretty easy to spot antelope with 10x binos and use your spotter to size them up. Same exact thing with muley bucks. Determining if a muley buck has 2 or 3" brow tines, and 5 or 7" tines is tough with 15x binos at long range. I spent the summer scouting sheep and went back and forth between my binos and spotter all day long every weekend for a couple months.....never had eye trouble.

I tried my spotter out at 15x because I was curious and had been given a bunch of grief from a previous post I made against using 15x binos for field judging game on this website. I couldn't even come close to field judging ram horns across a canyon when my spotter was set at 15X! I also had 2 cameras with me. One had a zoom out to 20x and the other went out to 30x. I couldn't field the rams with 15x power but could just about count rings at 30x. Now that I've checked into it I'm 100% sure the same is true with field judging antelope, deer, mtn goat, and all big game species. Definitely go with 10x binos plus spotter for Wyo antelope and Colo muleys! 15x binos are great for SPOTTING game in brushyt country that all looks similar. 15x ARE NOT powerful enough to field judge game at long distances! I would agree that 15x binos would have been super nice to have when I was directly across a 2 mile canyon of cliffs and rocks....to spot rams but I would only be able to spot them and not field judge them. My 10x were a little too small of magnification. If you locate a dinky coues buck at 3/4 mile away with 15x binos you will definitely need a spotter to field judge their tiny tines at long range. There's no way I'd leave a spotter at home on any hunt I'm field judging game!

I'd agree with the post above. Sell some old equipment or stuff you never use and buy the best spotter you can afford. I'd rather buy an almost new Leica or Swaro scope than a brand new other brand. Viewing through crystal clear glass for days upon days is super important to me! If you spend much time field judging game you'll likely be buying another spotter down the road if you buy 2nd best.! If field judging bucks isn't important it may not matter?

 

[IAbowhntr]

At a $1000 your used options become well worth it, should be able to find a vortex razor or Kowa for that or less. If you are looking for new in that price range Leupold just released the SX-4 proguide spotters at 949.99 I believe, don’t have a ton of experience through that glass yet but the SX-5 really impresses me so far. And through personal experience beats any of the razor spotters.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

15x binos are nice, but they will never give you what a spotter can. If you're a meat hunter, binos are just fine and will get the job done. If you are a trophy hunter, especially for mule deer in western mountains or wide open plains, a good spotting scope is an absolute MUST HAVE tool in you arsenal.

I know the budget is at $1K, but if you can wait and save some more, you'll never regret buying a true alpha level spotter.

If you have time to read, I'll share a hunting story where my extra money spent on a Meopta S2 paid off....

I was hunting mule deer with a buddy over on the plains. I had my original Meopta S2 HD 20-70x82mm (now have a new one with the 30-60x WA eyepiece) and he had an original Vortex Razor HD 20-60x85mm. We spent a ton of time in our glass during the 4 day hunt. It was pretty hazy and cloudy one of the days so conditions were less than ideal. While watching a couple mule deer bucks harass does, at about 1.25 miles away. I was calling out the exact length of each tine on the better of the two bucks as he was moving his head and rack around. The buck had pretty good forks with one front fork a bit weak. Mass wasn't the best, but he also had a single 1.5" brow tine and about a 3" to 4" extra tine on the top left fork to make the semblance of a trident. My buddy said he couldnt see the brow tine or kicker and wasnt totally sure about the front forks. He thought the weaker right front fork was just a main beam with no fork. I told him to have a look through my Meopta. He walked over and put his head down on my eyepiece and said "Oh yeah! I see them". Then after about a minute or so behind the Meopta to get a good look at the tines in the Meopta, he lifted his head, looked at me wide eyed and said "WOW! I gotta get me one of these".

I looked through his razor and played with the eye cup and focus trying to see the same brow and kicker I was seeing in my Meopta through the hazy conditions of the day. No chance. The difference between the Meopta S2 and the Razor in those conditions was night and day. Not even in the same league. On one of the nice sunny cold days we had on the trip, his Razor worked great (although still not quite on the level of the Meopta). In less than perfect conditions there was no comparison between the two pieces of glass.

Having confirmed the right front fork and seeing the brow and extra tine on the buck through the Meopta, my buddy got a little more excited because he wanted a buck with a little character. After looking a little more and debating with me and himself, he finally decided to make a stock. I watched him through the Meopta as he snuck all the way over to make the kill. I went over to meet him after I heard the shot and watched the other deer run off. Buck down! Boned it and packed it out.

So I guess the point of the story is that a good aplha level spotter can sometimes be the difference between a successful hunt and a miss judged opportunity when the conditions aren't the best for glassing. Something to think about...

Here's some pics of the buck. The sky and haze cleared up by the time we got it packed out and I got a good shot of the rack against the fading light of the sky. You can see it's hazy in the first couple photos. Pretty nice buck and a great day of hunting

 

[AkMtnRunner]

I've gone around and around with a couple guys on this website in regard to 15x vs spotter.....so thought I would try to put this baby to rest! Sorry if I'm sabatoging your post but it may help in your decision for a spotter vs 15x binos.

There is no way I'd go without the best spotter you can afford if you are trophy antelope and deer hunting. It's pretty tough to tell if antelope bucks have 5 1/2 or 6" prongs, 6 1/2 or 7" bases, etc with 15x binos. at long range. It's pretty easy to spot antelope with 10x binos and use your spotter to size them up. Same exact thing with muley bucks. Determining if a muley buck has 2 or 3" brow tines, and 5 or 7" tines is tough with 15x binos at long range. I spent the summer scouting sheep and went back and forth between my binos and spotter all day long every weekend for a couple months.....never had eye trouble.

I tried my spotter out at 15x because I was curious and had been given a bunch of grief from a previous post I made against using 15x binos for field judging game on this website. I couldn't even come close to field judging ram horns across a canyon when my spotter was set at 15X! I also had 2 cameras with me. One had a zoom out to 20x and the other went out to 30x. I couldn't field the rams with 15x power but could just about count rings at 30x. Now that I've checked into it I'm 100% sure the same is true with field judging antelope, deer, mtn goat, and all big game species. Definitely go with 10x binos plus spotter for Wyo antelope and Colo muleys! 15x binos are great for SPOTTING game in brushyt country that all looks similar. 15x ARE NOT powerful enough to field judge game at long distances! I would agree that 15x binos would have been super nice to have when I was directly across a 2 mile canyon of cliffs and rocks....to spot rams but I would only be able to spot them and not field judge them. My 10x were a little too small of magnification. If you locate a dinky coues buck at 3/4 mile away with 15x binos you will definitely need a spotter to field judge their tiny tines at long range. There's no way I'd leave a spotter at home on any hunt I'm field judging game!

I'd agree with the post above. Sell some old equipment or stuff you never use and buy the best spotter you can afford. I'd rather buy an almost new Leica or Swaro scope than a brand new other brand. Viewing through crystal clear glass for days upon days is super important to me! If you spend much time field judging game you'll likely be buying another spotter down the road if you buy 2nd best.! If field judging bucks isn't important it may not matter?

While I do agree that a scope is best to judge with, with as high of usable magnification as possible, a spotter set to 15x is nothing like 15x binos. I am not a vision specialist but there's something that happens when both eyes are feeding the brain to 'see'. If I may, I would estimate that using twice as many eyes with a bino has a doubling effect of the information gathering ability, to compare to a spotter of twice the magnification. In other words, a 15x bino may be just as helpful as a 30x scope of equal glass. Again, I can't justify that with any science or explain it but that is what I have experienced after testing a lot between the two setups.

To the OP, I second the recommendation to save a bit more, even if that means selling some other gear or even borrowing for this season and waiting until next year to purchase. Used spotting scopes at around 1800 and above or call Doug to buy new, will get you a scope you'll love for a lifetime and keep their value too. Your time and other financial investment in your hunting are too valuable to compromise on your greatest asset in the field: vision.

I would look to the Meopta S2 / Cabelas Euro like the last member talked of. Once you get to that level, you're there at alpha level glass and any above that, you're just paying for maybe a little less weight, slightly better FOV, ergonomic preferences, etc.

 

[Jimss]

There is absolutely no way 15x binos are similar magnification than a 30x spotting scope. 15x is 15x is 15x! The size of tines magnification through 15x are approximately 1/2 the size of 30x spotting scope so it's nearly impossible to field judge game at long distance! No way can a person looking through 15x with 2 eyes all of a sudden increase magnification to 30x!!!! You are correct that it may be easier on the eyes to look through 2 sets of glass with binoculars but there is no way you are going to be able to field judge unless you get a lot closer to game. I switch back and forth all day between my 10x binos and spotter so it's not like I am constantly looking through my spotting scope with 1 eye all day. I can also guarantee that I can spot a ear, tine, etc in brush or rocks at long distance with my 60x that you will miss with 15x binos....because you can't distinguish them when they are so small with binos! Take your 15x out and compare them side-by-side your spotter and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about!!!!!!