Free: Contests & Raffles.
Quote from: Bob33 on May 06, 2015, 03:35:34 PMQuote from: bearpaw on May 06, 2015, 03:16:03 PMBuy a decent spotter or don't waste your money, save until you can get a good one! The cheap ones are hard to use for extended times and they simply are not clear enough. I would get no less than a Nikon. I like the Leopold 12x40x60 the best of all spotters. It's compact, lightweight, long lasting, and good enough to look through all day. I've had the same one for 17 years and still prefer it over more costly spotters due to the reasons stated. I had a Swarovski that was great but got tired of packing the bulk and the weight. Funny you should say that. I have a Leupold 12-40x60 HD spotter and a Swarovski 20-60x80 spotter. I use the Leupold much more. However, I had the Swarovski out this past weekend in the Blues looking at sheep, elk, and bears - and it sure was nice. I'm in the same shoes as you two, except I went with the big Zeiss 85mm HD. The Leupy is priceless and was worth every penny spent.
Quote from: bearpaw on May 06, 2015, 03:16:03 PMBuy a decent spotter or don't waste your money, save until you can get a good one! The cheap ones are hard to use for extended times and they simply are not clear enough. I would get no less than a Nikon. I like the Leopold 12x40x60 the best of all spotters. It's compact, lightweight, long lasting, and good enough to look through all day. I've had the same one for 17 years and still prefer it over more costly spotters due to the reasons stated. I had a Swarovski that was great but got tired of packing the bulk and the weight. Funny you should say that. I have a Leupold 12-40x60 HD spotter and a Swarovski 20-60x80 spotter. I use the Leupold much more. However, I had the Swarovski out this past weekend in the Blues looking at sheep, elk, and bears - and it sure was nice.
Buy a decent spotter or don't waste your money, save until you can get a good one! The cheap ones are hard to use for extended times and they simply are not clear enough. I would get no less than a Nikon. I like the Leopold 12x40x60 the best of all spotters. It's compact, lightweight, long lasting, and good enough to look through all day. I've had the same one for 17 years and still prefer it over more costly spotters due to the reasons stated. I had a Swarovski that was great but got tired of packing the bulk and the weight.
I just picked up a Zeiss Dialyt. The best glass in the industry, lightweight, economical, bombproof and quick and easy object acquisition.My dads friend had one that was 20 or so years old that I used on a sheep hunt a few years back and when Zeiss decided to bring back this classic I had to jump on it. My son should have it in his pack 20 years from now. My friend had a new Alpen spotter on that same trip and it was unreal how the 20 year old Zeiss Dialyt outperformed the new Alpen. We put them on the same Rams numerous times that trip. On several Rams quite a ways out with the Alpen you could only see a dark stripe where the horn crossed the muzzle whereas with the Zeiss we could see one side had lambs tips and the other side was broomed.
Quote from: MtnMuley on May 14, 2015, 10:00:52 PMQuote from: Bob33 on May 06, 2015, 03:35:34 PMQuote from: bearpaw on May 06, 2015, 03:16:03 PMBuy a decent spotter or don't waste your money, save until you can get a good one! The cheap ones are hard to use for extended times and they simply are not clear enough. I would get no less than a Nikon. I like the Leopold 12x40x60 the best of all spotters. It's compact, lightweight, long lasting, and good enough to look through all day. I've had the same one for 17 years and still prefer it over more costly spotters due to the reasons stated. I had a Swarovski that was great but got tired of packing the bulk and the weight. Funny you should say that. I have a Leupold 12-40x60 HD spotter and a Swarovski 20-60x80 spotter. I use the Leupold much more. However, I had the Swarovski out this past weekend in the Blues looking at sheep, elk, and bears - and it sure was nice. I'm in the same shoes as you two, except I went with the big Zeiss 85mm HD. The Leupy is priceless and was worth every penny spent. We have a Vortex Razor HD 85 w/20-60 and 30WA-MOA eyepiece and a Leupold 12-40x60 and a Leupold compact 25x50 and I would suggest looking for a used Leupold Non HD 12-40x60 if you want to stay around $500. It will serve you very well. Don't worry about in being non ED or HD. That is nice to have especially if you do a lot of bird watching too, but a non HD 12-40 will serve you just fine. We use ours as much or more than the other spotting scopes.
Quote from: JDHasty on April 15, 2016, 09:48:33 AMQuote from: MtnMuley on May 14, 2015, 10:00:52 PMQuote from: Bob33 on May 06, 2015, 03:35:34 PMQuote from: bearpaw on May 06, 2015, 03:16:03 PMBuy a decent spotter or don't waste your money, save until you can get a good one! The cheap ones are hard to use for extended times and they simply are not clear enough. I would get no less than a Nikon. I like the Leopold 12x40x60 the best of all spotters. It's compact, lightweight, long lasting, and good enough to look through all day. I've had the same one for 17 years and still prefer it over more costly spotters due to the reasons stated. I had a Swarovski that was great but got tired of packing the bulk and the weight. Funny you should say that. I have a Leupold 12-40x60 HD spotter and a Swarovski 20-60x80 spotter. I use the Leupold much more. However, I had the Swarovski out this past weekend in the Blues looking at sheep, elk, and bears - and it sure was nice. I'm in the same shoes as you two, except I went with the big Zeiss 85mm HD. The Leupy is priceless and was worth every penny spent. We have a Vortex Razor HD 85 w/20-60 and 30WA-MOA eyepiece and a Leupold 12-40x60 and a Leupold compact 25x50 and I would suggest looking for a used Leupold Non HD 12-40x60 if you want to stay around $500. It will serve you very well. Don't worry about in being non ED or HD. That is nice to have especially if you do a lot of bird watching too, but a non HD 12-40 will serve you just fine. We use ours as much or more than the other spotting scopes. I had a Leupold 12-40×60 and really liked it until I put it next to my buddies leupold kenai last November while hunting mule deer. His kenai was far superior to my 12-40×60. So I sold my leupold and bought a razor and absolutely love it.
We did some long range target practice this weekend and the Swarovski spotters were fantastic.I'd save and not compromise. The high quality optics allow you to spot effectively all day.
I just picked up the Leupold 12x40x60 this past week, haven't really tried it outside yet but I will this weekend bear hunting in Copalis. I bought the Swarovski 30-70x95 two years ago and it had a wow factor off the charts, I could see Jupiter moons with it but I over bought, it wasn't really practical to carry due to size and weight and really big even to put on my truck window mount so I sold it and bought the Leupold for its all around use and packability.