80mm or 60mm spotters.

[AkMtnRunner]

This is not true, as far as I experienced. The 60 and the 80 used the same system for me with no issues. I did not use a heavy or stout set up either. I was all about the weight staying low. I went with a pan head and tripod capable of both, yet as light as out there. Slick CF tripod, Sirui fluid head. Again the weight diff from the 60 to the 80 is minimal for all of my hunting, elk at 10,000. I only hike 3-4 miles a day and carry the spotter only on rifle hunts. During archery I only use binos. If I remember right my weight diff between the 2 was only 6-8 oz. It really boils down to what hunt and where and type of animal preferred (freezer meat or trophy mount)

If your tripod setup is rigid enough for an 80 and you also use it for a 60, of course that weight difference is moot. But it is still a fact that a 60 requires less tripod rigidity than an 80 to have equally stabilized images.

 

[Dinglebottoms]

If I had it to do over again, I’d hunt with binos and a tripod and take note of situations where I wish I had a spotter. Most of those times for me are at the truck or close to the road, so I’d go big. I think if you do this for a season, you’ll know what you need.

Good plan for sure

Buy a Kowa 55X and Kowa 88x and don’t look back. Use whichever makes the most sense.

- From a guy with an STX 65/95 and Kowa 554.

my wife would best me to death I think ha ha

I'm the opposite of most - I'd go with a high end, smaller scope. In my experience, the bigger glass really benefits at the first/last 15min of daylight. For me (mostly Sheep/goat hunting), they've been spotted and evaluated well before this. I'd rather have something that is easy to use/light to carry and comfortable to sit behind. I'll pay a weight penalty for bigger binos (12x or higher), since 90% of my glassing is using these.

Take all this with a grain of salt - pretty much any guide you see will be using 80mm+, and I'm guessing they know more than me with my 1-2 trips a year. I've just never felt that a bigger scope really helped me much.

makes sense for sure!

 

[Dinglebottoms]

You never said what your current optics set up is and what terrain you typically hunt. I suggest putting your money into the optic that you will use the most, which is your chest glass. If you are happy with your chest glass then a spotter or bigger binos are a next logical step. Spotters are for looking at game, and generally not for looking for game. Do you need to count points or are you just looking to find more game? If it's the latter I suggest a 15x or 18x bino as a compromise. You can stay on glass longer and find more animals. They are a more valuable tool if you are just looking to fill more tags.

So I hunt southern Idaho which can be rugged for sure, I’ve got mid tier 10x42 binos that I’m happy with. I’m looking to getting prepared for sheep but in Idaho we don’t have to count rings on sheep IF I ever draw. And as far trophy hunting goes a bull that’s 340 vs 360 either ways getting shot or a 160 vs 180 mule deer too. So maybe I will look into these bigger binos. I was also wanting to digiscope with the spotter too but idk if that’ll happen often enough to use it either

 

[Beendare]

Heck

 

[Dinglebottoms]

Also consider pack space. An 80-85 takes up a LOT of space.

For sure and that’s another thing I have of concern too

You never said what your current optics set up is and what terrain you typically hunt. I suggest putting your money into the optic that you will use the most, which is your chest glass. If you are happy with your chest glass then a spotter or bigger binos are a next logical step. Spotters are for looking at game, and generally not for looking for game. Do you need to count points or are you just looking to find more game? If it's the latter I suggest a 15x or 18x bino as a compromise. You can stay on glass longer and find more animals. They are a more valuable tool if you are just looking to fill more t

Heck the 10's on a tripod might be good enough for ya....most times it is for many guys inc myself and its sure nice not hauling the scope around.

Of course, If you do buy an expensive scope...you are almost obligated to drag that thing around to justify it to yourself- Grin

Heck the 10's on a tripod might be good enough for ya....most times it is for many guys inc myself and its sure nice not hauling the scope around.

Of course, If you do buy an expensive scope...you are almost obligated to drag that thing around to justify it to yourself- Grin

>

That’s true for sure I’m thinking that for my needs the higher power binos may be just the ticket good enough to spot mature animals to where I can make the call for a stalk. And all I care about if I draw a sheep tag is a mature animal and that’s about it so I may go that route for sure

 

[Blue72]

For sure and that’s another thing I have of concern too



That’s true for sure I’m thinking that for my needs the higher power binos may be just the ticket good enough to spot mature animals to where I can make the call for a stalk. And all I care about if I draw a sheep tag is a mature animal and that’s about it so I may go that route for sure

Good move