Spotting Scope

[bench]

Looking to purchase a spotting scope to be used for F/TR 1000yd shooting.
What type and power would be a good choice without putting a mortgage on the house.

 

[NateHaler]

this topic has been discussed, oh, about a trillion times on various shooting boards since the internet began. Try reading the archives. As always, the answer to your question is "it depends".

10 seconds of searching yielded this: http://www.accurateshooter.com/category/optics/

 

[40X Guy]

I just bought a Pentax PF-80ED 20-60X off of ebay used after reading and studying most every thread here and other places. I did not want to spend over 1000 dollars and lucked into this Pentax which included the zoom eyepiece. Make sure you buy a good tripod which can also be found on ebay. Look for Bogan tripods.

As far as scopes these scopes are all at 1000 or under and have great glass. Kowa, Vortex Viper, Pentax PF-80ED, Celestron Regal, Bushnell Elite, Nikon, and Leupold SX-2 Kenai. Stay away from the cheaper end. And also remember you can't see bullet holes at 1000 yards with any scope in crappy conditions much less perfect conditions.

Frank

 

[bench]

40Xguy,
Thanks for the information you answered my questions and now I can start my search for some optics.
Bench

 

[Nodak7mm]

I tend to to my best to get the best bang for my buck too. And it is very hard with optics, very little offerings for decent qaulity at a decent price, generally you get what you pay for.

Like Frank said, your not gonna see bullet holes at 1K, dont care what you buy..

A spotting scope in the F-class/High power game is primarily for scoring & reading mirage, so with that said, I got to spend some time behind a couple of Celstron Regals ED scopes, while also comparing to Kowa's and others. The one that did impress me the most was the Vortex Razor, wow. But for 1600$ is should be wow!!

Anyways I got a Celestron Regal 65ED and I am very, very happy with it. I think it would get a "Best Buy" nod from Consumers Reports if reviewed.. 399$ online and now I believe Champion Shooters even carrying them.

Google it for yourself...

Rod

 

[Sully2]

I just bought a Pentax PF-80ED 20-60X off of ebay used after reading and studying most every thread here and other places. I did not want to spend over 1000 dollars and lucked into this Pentax which included the zoom eyepiece. Make sure you buy a good tripod which can also be found on ebay. Look for Bogan tripods.

As far as scopes these scopes are all at 1000 or under and have great glass. Kowa, Vortex Viper, Pentax PF-80ED, Celestron Regal, Bushnell Elite, Nikon, and Leupold SX-2 Kenai. Stay away from the cheaper end. And also remember you can't see bullet holes at 1000 yards with any scope in crappy conditions much less perfect conditions.

Frank

Great minds think alike.... . I have the 65mm Pentax...with the same eyepiece...but I still cant see a "bullet hole" at 1000 yards.... :'(

 

[FroggyOne2]

Nate,

No offense, but your response sir was so, ummm, so "Hide" like. The man is looking for personal opinons!

As for spotting scopes, there are several to look at, though I feel the best bang for yor buck is the Kowa 821SV, with the 25X LER lens. If your budget will not handle that, from what I understand, Vortex is making a pretty decent mid priced 80mm. Personally, I am using a Leica 77mm APO, but when I bought that one, I was looking real hard at the Vortex Razor spotting scope. With it's large 85mm objective lens and running the eyepiece at 20X, you would be ablee to several targets and what is going on with other shooters, plus you should be able to see the layers in the mirage.