Leupold Golden Ring Spotting Scope

[270Shooter]

Thinking about picking up this spotter its 15-30 power and only wieghs 21 ounces. Just wondering what everybody else thinks about this one.

http://www.opticsplanet.net/leupold-golden-ring-15-30x50-compact-spotting-scope-kit-58390.html

[grizzlygibbs]

I have been researching spotters for quite a while now.  I pretty much eliminated this one.  not that it looks like a bad scope, but my father in law has the next one up and its the 12-40x60 and i was not very happy about it when we used it deer hunting.  its a great scope but i couldnt zoom in as far as i would like when were were trying to size up a group of bucks.  So since the regular golden ring couldnt do what i wanted it to do, i figured this one wouldnt be any better.  Good luck on your selection

[270Shooter]

Yea i knew it wasn't going to zoom really far, but i don't really need it to, And i like how light it is. Is the image quality good?

[grizzlygibbs]

his 12-40x60 has good quality, i just had higher hopes than what it had i guess!


Go with ED or HD glass as well, dont skimp

[7mag.]

Don't save money on a spotter. Save money and buy the best, you won't regret it. I went through a few low to mid-range spotters and finaly saved my money and bought a Sworovski. Wish I would have done it years ago, a lot of money, but worth every penny. If you use a spotter to hunt with, you are severely limiting yourself if you have anything else.

[ghgetter]

I have both the 15x30 and the 20x40. Two different scopes for two different applications. I have many friends Swarovski's and Zeiss but you flat cant beat buying local. Leupold stands behind their products.
15x30 is in my opinion hands down the best packable spotting scope on the market. I spend most of the early season going up 2500' to 4500' in elevation and the last thing I want to be doing is lugging more weight than I need to. This scope lets you dial in on what you are looking at but doesn't have the low light clarity that its big brother does...there is no question about that. But when you need to go light it is a great scope.

The 20x40, again my opinion, will hold a candle to the German optics. You wont get the last 2 min of light like you will the big boys but you are paying $1,000 less. I have used this scope for the last 4 years and would recommend it to anyone...get the HD. Great clarity in most ALL situations...just the last couple minutes of light. PM me if you have any more questions and I hope this helps.

[mossback91]

Don't save money on a spotter. Save money and buy the best, you won't regret it. I went through a few low to mid-range spotters and finaly saved my money and bought a Sworovski. Wish I would have done it years ago, a lot of money, but worth every penny. If you use a spotter to hunt with, you are severely limiting yourself if you have anything else.

OH mammy those swarovskis are awesome i spent some tiem with a wildlife biologist and man he had swaro binocs and swaro spotter and its just amazing how nice they are........from what i ahve seen there is nothing better

[BIGBULLBALLS]

Save your money and buy a Swarovski.  Take the thought of anything else out of your head.  Its not the last 2 minutes you are gaining its more like 20 minutes which is an eternity for the "golden" hour.   If 40x zoom is all that you need you might consider a lower end scope ($800-1200) but when you want a 60x zoom spotting scope everything under $2000 is junk IMO.  I spent an arm, leg, and several toes on my HD Swarovski spotting scope but it is worth every penny.  Glass more, hike less.

[7mag.]

To add to my earlier post, this is my first year with my Sworo 20-60x80 HD spotter, and I can't say enough about it. I researched spotters for over a year and looked at every make and model I could find. I even had salesman outside with spotters on tripods, so I could compare them in real light. I have counted points on deer easily from over a mile away, and I have seen more animals glassing than ever before. It has changed my way of hunting. If you are hunting the high country, or looking for bears, there is no substitute.

[blacktail stalker]

I have that spotter. It's worth the money and well built. However, don't compare it to fullsize units, because it wont compare. Field of view is much smaller, and I noticed you have to line up your eye just right to get the full image. Also you will be dissapointed at low light.

I recommend it for a packing scope, when you can't afford the extra weight of packing a full size unit.

[MAVsled]

i've used 4 different spotters in the last 12 years. My last one was a Leupold 30x-60mm. It was a good scope but I wanted better clarity.

This past fall-hunt season I used my new Swarovski HD 20-60x/80mm spotter.
OH MY GOD...what a difference and how I wished to have spent the $$ earlier on this brand.

Hunting eastern WA mulies, I can spot deer and bucks for a couple miles away. Perfect for the spot & stalk.
Accompanied with a buddy this year hunting for late archery season blacktail, used it to good advantage in viewing far off clear cuts and then driving or hiking the logging roads to stalk blacktail bucks we spotted.
This was a real advantage on gated roads that had some vantage point of the upper areas beyond the gate, time saver.

[Intruder]

Spotting scopes are a tough nut to crack for me.  It seems really hard to find a balance between optical performance, price, and practical functionality.  To get great optical performance you're gonna pay a lot $ and end up with something that has an 80mm obj and when you add in the tripod that isn't going to be very packable.  On the other end, the low power compacts don't seem to really cut the mustard even if they are higher end like the Leupold mentioned.  Based on what I've seen some of the medium priced ED glass stuff in the 65mm range is a pretty good compromise between price, optical performance, and practical usage.  It's light enough and small enough to be somewhat packable.  Due to their weight you don't need a real heavy super quality tripod to make em steady. The optical performance on em is pretty darn good out to 35x-40x which is usually adequate.