Spotting Scope or High Power Bino?

[eaglemountainman]

does anybody here leave the spotter behind on a high country mule deer hunt and just use 15s?

No.
At 28oz, my spotter always gets a ride.

But, I don't use 15s either. I scan with 10.5X44s on a tripod and 8X33s on my chest for offhand.

 

[TheGDog]

this is what I'm debating in my head... Are 15's enough to cover what I can reasonably get to in a day

If you don't already have pricey-glassed 10s... get those (or a 12x) first.

If you can hand-hold the 12s Ok? I'd say be happy and run with just that one for a couple of seasons then re-visit this question later after you've had some time under your belt with using the 12x, 10x with the primo glass.

If you already have some kick butt 10s? But you have this desire to bump up to something that reaches farther, definitely strongly consider getting some good-glassed 15s that will sting the wallet a bit.

Sometimes to offset the weight of carrying the 15s, I'll carry a little set of compact 8s that I can use for quick hand-hold confirmations here and there before I'd decided on a spot to drop the pack and setup the tripod.


Also... let's say you end up with 12s... but still decide you'd like to reach out farther. In that instance bumping up to 15s would be silly, so you'd no doubt go up to a spotter. Personally I think I'd recommend getting a straight-scope spotter in that instance. Much quicker to swap over to that after you've already found an area of interest in binos on the tripod. You're already pointed pretty much spot-on in the right direction.

Personally, It's kind of a stressful pain in the butt to have to re-acquire target when switching from binos over to an angled spotter, when there is something of urgent interest you want to continue tracking.

You can still do it.. but you have to remember to note a couple larger objects nearby to your target object to sort of walk-your-eye-in to it after you switch over to the angled spotter and have to re-acquire target.

Buncha hassle you don't need to be dealing with in the heat of the moment, is my personal feeling on that one. Especially since you likely have to lower the tripod when you switch over the angled-spotter. (But some do allow you to rotate the body of the spotter while it's mounted on the tripod. My little spotter doesn't have that ability.

If you do get a spotter, I'll just say I really appreciate the dual focus knobs that give the user that fine-focus control. But I really don't like the small, limited FOV when looking thru the spotter.