leupold spotting scopes

[wastickslinger]

I have the Winde River Sequoia. Not a bad scope but in hind sight I would have saved some coin for one more season and bought the gold ring. It is like night and day difference.

[Red Dawg]

So I am now ready to buy a leupold HD spotting scope. Does anyone know where a guy can look and find a good deal on one. Trying to save a few bucks since i will be hunting out of state this year.

[bobcat]

You could try this:  http://www.bearbasin.com/spotting.htm#leup_spot

Or check ebay. You might find your best deal on there.

[Hunter4Life]

I own a Leupold Gold Ring compact spotting scope and it is fantastic.  Very bright and clear.  Well worth the money.  Plus you can't beat Leupold's warranty.   I will be the first to say I am biased toward Leupold products.  I own eight rifles and all have gold ring scopes, plus I own a Leupold RX-IV Digital Laser Rangefinder and the Gold Ring 10x42 HD binoculars.  I have never had to take advantage of Leupold's warranty since I have never had a problem with any of their products.  All are extremely well-made.

[wannahunt]

I have used the Leopold 15-30 goldring for the last three years and it's been great. It's light enough to back in and as clear has anything I have looked thru except maybe a Swarovski 20-60 power that I got a chance to use in Yellowstone park a few years ago. It was really nice but I wouldn't want to pack it around or pay for it ($2000.00 I think). I bought my Leopold down in Oregon and saved the sales tax any way.

[Intruder]

elknut thanks for the info. i have looked though vortex optics before and was not all that impressed but maybe i was looking through there bottom line optics i dont know .

I can give you an unbiased take on the Vortex products I've looked through.  Price point to price point they compete extremely well with other manufacturers.  In general my experience is that they are often superior in optical quality to the competition while costing less.  Their spotting scopes and binos IMO are some of the best values on the market.  In the full size bino the Razor and the Viper are reeaaaally nice.  I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better value in binos than the Viper.  I've looked through the Diamondbacks and they're OK.  Never looked through any of the small framed binos.  The rifle scopes are nice too but they don't distinguish themselves as well in the price ranges they sell.  They are competitive but not necessarily better.  I wouldn't hesitate to put 1 on a rifle but I think there are as good or better value propositions out there. 

I know a lot of folks are Leopold fans and I mean no disrespect.  They are a fine product (I own 3), however in just about every price point that they sell a product(bino/scope/sprotter) there are better quality products available from other manufacturers.... often for less $ even.

My point here is not to disway anyone from buying Leopold or to bash Leopold, or to try to convince anyone to buy Vortex but rather try to offer some objective perspectives to the mix. 

[groundhog]

I think the leopold gold ring is hard to beat for the money. I have a small fixed 20 power that I love for backpacking. I have a friend that has several wind river products and there is no comparison. Personally I would highly reccomend the gold ring. You won't be disapointed.
We did an interesting test on Kodiak last year. I have a pair of 10x42 Leicas and my buddy has a pair of 8x? Leicas. We were glassing Blacktail deer that were close to a mile away. Without a rest we both agreed that we could see better through his 8x Leicas. They were both just as clear but there was less "shake" realized with less magification. With a rest the ten power were better. Considering the fact that the 8x wiegh considerably less I think if I had it to do over I would buy the 8x. I usually have a spotting scope with me for a better look so I probally don't need to be packing the heavy 10x all day. Just an observation. good luck

[Intruder]

I think the leopold gold ring is hard to beat for the money.

I would respectfully disagree.  "For the money" there are better scopes.

Personally I would highly reccomend the gold ring. You won't be disapointed.

I would agree with this however.  They are still a quality product that you can rely heavily on.

[Jamieb]

Some of my hunting pards have a larger gear budget then I do and their using Leica or Sworo's. I use a leupold goldring 12x40. I've had their spotters set up along side of mine. The leica and Sworo are better but I don't feel there's enough of a difference to justify paying that much more. I've had many mid priced spotters, Burris, Bushnell, and Nikon, I think the gold ring is better then any of the others I've had. I got mine off Craigslist, spotter, soft case, and Leupold tripod for $500. and have seen a couple of others come up but they have been sold when I called. I know I'm biased and freely admit that I'm a Leupold slut. Leupold is about the only rifle scope that I'll put on a big game rifle, I've been using them for along time and their about as reliable as it gets, And when I have sent scopes in for work the service has been better then great.

[Jamieb]

While were talkeing spotters. I picked up a addapter to conect a camera to a spotter. So far I've forgoten to bring it alont when I've been in the woods so I havent realy gotten to use it yet but I think it will work fine as long as the light is good.
Heres a picture.

[Jeremiah P]

Elknut, just wondering what you thought of the compact spotter, I am currently in the market for a light weight but efficient spotting scope. Let me know, right  now its between that and a leupold gold ring 15-30 compact, but I like the price of yours, let me know.

[Elknut1]

 Jeremiah P, I've compared the Impact Spotter to the Gold Ring Sequoia as well, only because a good friend has the 15-45, the Impact tops it both for clarity & light gathering, this was also his conclusion as well, it took less than 10 seconds to see the difference, both were on tripods when viewed. PM me if interested & I will take care of you with the best price!

  ElkNut1

[Vek]

Went to the range about a month ago.  Partner had the Vortex Nomad 20-60x60, and I had the pentax PF-65EDA scope body with the pentax XW-14 eyepiece. 

The pentax scope/eyepiece combo yields a fixed 28x. 

We both agreed that the view through my pentax absolutely blew the Vortex out of the water, and the vortex was his scope. 

I got my scope body for $400, and horsetraded for a used eyepiece at $200.  New, the eyepieces are about $340 full retail. 

If you do a little research, you'll learn that for a given objective lens size (60mm, 65mm, or whatever), there is a level of magnification above which resolution does not improve (as a matter of physics).  In the case of a 60-65mm lens, that is just over 30x.

If you do some more research, you'll learn that it's easier to make a fixed power eyepiece than a variable power eyepiece, and the fixed eyepiece will have greater field of view and greater eye relief.  the obvious tradeoff is that you can't crank the scope to 60x.  In reality, though, my scope at 28x gives near-limit resolution, and a huge field of view.  Additional magnification at that point would only give a bigger, blurrier-looking image.  Kind of like blowing up a low-resolution digital photo.