Spotting scope for 50m outdoors

[inzl]

Can anyone recommend a good spotting scope make for 50 m rifle shooting indoors and outdoors, as well as for 10m indoors. I'm willing to invest up to 200 eur.

I'm currently using Hawke Nature 20-60x60
http://eu.hawkeoptics.com/hawke-nature- ... scope.html . It works well for 10m, but for 50 m it is horrible, I can't see my shots. The view is often too dark, and not sharp enough.

[mtncwru]

I use a Konus 80mm 20-60x spotting scope for smallbore and am not limited in hole-spotting by the scope. There have been days that, depending on the background behind the target, the angle of sun, the backer on the target, etc., that I have not been able to spot shot holes, but the scope has never been the limiting factor.

[Muffo]

look up ng spotting scopes. one of the best scopes i have used for 50m. it barely gives anything away to my vortex razor hd

[gstarik]

I think you should get a scope with a ler (long eye relief) x25. So you can see the target without being so close with your eye to the scope. Kowa makes great scopes but they are expensive.

[Rover]

Many are so enamored of the zoom concept they forget how poor a cheap zoom is. Buy a single power (25X) eyepiece with long eye relief (you'll probably be wearing glasses) and see what good is.

[Krenovian]

I use a Konus 80mm 20-60x spotting scope for smallbore and am not limited in hole-spotting by the scope. There have been days that, depending on the background behind the target, the angle of sun, the backer on the target, etc., that I have not been able to spot shot holes, but the scope has never been the limiting factor.

For the money it is hard to beat a Konus. Paid $168 usd for mine. I use it at 50m for biathlon out in the snow in all sorts of weather and lighting conditions. No problems.

CJ

[inzl]

Thanks a lot to all. I have been following up ~200 eur models and it seems that there will be not so much difference with the current scope. I am inclined to increase the budget to 400-500. I am thinking about Vanguard Endeavor, because it also rotates around by itself, so potentially no need for a ball-head on the tripod, any opinions? http://www.vanguardworld.com/photo_vide ... sectionTop

[dc.fireman]

Hi Inzl - I concur with the above posts, regarding the Kowa & Konus spotting scopes.

I used both for NRA Outdoor Prone smallbore rifle shooting. I used a Konus 20-60x80, which at the price, I couldn't beat. There were multiple options for a head mount, and stands. It's only limiting factor was the amount of light/ clarity at full zoom - I achieved the best results using about a 27 - 30X zoom on it. I was able to easily determine bullet holes at 50 yards, and well enough at 100 yards. Mirage was also easily readable.

The Kowa 82SV was 4x the price, and the money seemed to be spent on clarity. It is a fixed 27x LER scope. It has a separate body & eyepiece combination. If you desire a different magnification, you'll need to purchase a separate eyepiece to do so. The clarity is what you might expect from a $1K spotting scope. Mirage,bullet holes, and everything else are very clear.

Both scopes have a swiveling band around the body, so that the scope may be rotated around to accommodate the eyepieces being in various positions/angles to the shooter.

I might also add that I use the Creedmoor Sports 'Polecat' head & 1" Stand/tripod to mount the scope. It allows the scope to be positioned further over towards my non-aiming eye, minimizing movement to 'spot' my shots.

Best of luck to you, and I hope this helps.

-tc

[JasonM]

I am completely impressed with the Celestron Regal M2 80ED LER that I got a few weeks ago. It comes with a fixed 27X long eye relief (LER) eyepiece, a case that can be left on it during use, and ED glass. I've used it in a smallbore silhouette tournament (Conard Bernhardt Cup) and at the outdoor smallbore 3p/prone matches in Wenatchee, WA this past weekend. I compared it side-by-side with a fairly new Kowa 80mm LER spotting scope. I couldn't tell a different in the clarity/color of the image, but the Kowa actually seemed just slightly more magnified (like it was 1x or 2x more) even though both eyepieces were quoted as 27x on 80mm scope bodies.

Here's where I bought mine, but there are lots of places that sell them: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... m/alsVwDtl

In my opinion, the two most important factors for this discussion are quality glass and eye relief. There's a huge difference in trying to use a spotting scope with 22mm or less eye relief and one with 32mm of eye relief, especially in position rifle matches. There's also a huge difference in having quality glass when it comes to actually resolving details on the target like scoring rings. If you can afford a Kowa scope body and LER eyepiece, that's great. It's not necessary, though. As has been mentioned, having 30+ power zoom isn't necessary and it's very expensive to make glass good enough to have a zoom above 30 power actually able to help resolve details. Cheap zooms don't actually help resolve more. They just make the fuzzy view bigger and the field of view smaller. I wish Celestron packaged their 65mm scope bodies with the long eye relief eyepiece. That would actually make a better combination for smallbore, both indoor and outdoor. The 80mm scopes, including mine that I just got, are arguably overkill for smallbore matches. I also shoot highpower silhouette and other matches that the bigger scope is great for, but for smallbore having an 80mm scope just makes the gear case heavier to travel with.