I realize it's been a while since this thread was active, but I finally made it out to the longer distance range with my Celestron Ultima 80 spotting scope with the added Baader Hyperion 8-24 Eyepiece, and as promised some time ago, I wanted to give a range report. Let me just say, I was surprised at how well my spotting scope performed. I was at a range with up to 1000 yd shooting for two days, and I really got a chance to put it to the test it over the two day period.
When I arrived the first morning, the weather was cool (40's and 50's) and the skies were perfectly clear (It did warm up into the 70's later, but was always very sunny with little to no cloud cover ever). I setup the scope and pointed it out to the 600 yd mark. Before I even put out my target, I noticed there was a large 18" splatter target setup at the elevated 600 yard point. At that distance, I could clearly see the multiple bullet holes already on the target. Granted, these were spatter holes, but I had no problem seeing all the holes on the target. I too happen to be using splatter targets, and had no problem seeing the details of my my 30 caliber bullet holes at 600 yds. My buddy was also shooting at the steel targets (8" and 12") at 600 yds, and when I spotted for him, I had absolutely no problem seeing the bullet hole details of his shots on the white and orange freshly painted steel targets.
At one point, I saw a shooter venture out the 1000 yd mark to place a target. He actually placed a large silhouette target of a villain pointing a pistol back at you. I'd guess the target was 36" by 24". I could easily see the detail of the target. However, I was not able to see bullet holes on that target, as it was non splatter, yellowish in color with the outline in thick black ink. There were however several steel targets at the 1000 yd mark, and I was able to clearly see bullet marks as they hit there.
I do however want to mention a couple of things. First, when I packed up all my gear before the 3 1/2 hour drive to the range, I forgot to pack the original eyepiece that came with the Celestron Ultima 80 scope. I would've loved to compare the original scope eyepiece to the added Baader eypepiece, because I now have no way of knowing how well the original eyepiece would have performed under those clear conditions at that distance. I don't think the original eyepiece is bad, I just think the Baader optics are superior, and that increased optics quality makes a difference when seeing detail at that distance. I also wanted to report that on both days, as the day went on and the sun got stronger, we did get a mild amount of mirage kicking in. When that mild mirage kicked in, I did have difficulty, and often couldn't see the bullet holes on the splatter targets at 600 yds. I've experienced a strong mirage at that range in the Florida heat before, and when the mirage is kicking, even at shorter distances (300 yds) it's tough to see any bullet hole detail with any optics on any target. I'm also not sure how well I'd see the bullet holes on non-splatter targets at that distance. I noticed someone shooting at a large white paper target with the targets in red ink, and I did have difficulty seeing his bullet holes at that distance.
I also wanted to mention that my buddy was amazed at how well the spotting scope performed. He was previously at that range with me when the Florida sun was blasting and the mirage was heavy, and we were seriously frustrated with any optics (riflescope and spotting scope) even at 300 yds. However, on these two day, he loved the spotting scope and felt that the approx. $500 overall investment was money well spent.
Given this weekend's experience with the spotting scope, I'm more than happy with the upgrade to the almost $300 Baader eyepiece on the Celestron spotting scope. Given some of the prices I've seen out there for quality spotting scopes, spending under $500 (approx. $170 scope & approx. $290 eyepiece & $20 cover) appears to be a very viable option for a respectable spotting scope setup for longer distance shooting at the range.
Attached are a few pics of the finished scope and replacement larger eyepiece compared to the one it comes with.
Adrian
