Best backcountry spotting scope

WestNE

WKR
Joined
Aug 10, 2014
Messages
514
Don't overlook the Kowa 601 and 602. Shop hard and you can get one and a zoom eyepiece for under $600. Considerably smaller and lighter than the 66mm Kowa 's and one of the few small scopes that offer a usable 60x view if conditions allow. Also nice that you can get away with a lighter tripod and achieve a stable view.

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6.5x284

WKR
Joined
May 7, 2015
Messages
1,062
Location
NW MT
Leica APO Televid 65mm angled for me! Light and great glass. I think you only lose about 5-7 minutes to the 80mm in terms of light and glassing time. Could be significant, but you can still glass well before and after legal light with a 65mm depending on the range.
 

meta_gabbro

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 22, 2020
Messages
252
Resurrecting this again for a more budget-friendly lightweight scope, the Celestron Hummingbird. ~$250-300 for the 9-27x56mm, so it's definitely on the cheaper side for glass, but it's got ED glass, it's only 20 oz, and has a slightly larger objective than the Nikon ED50. Image quality is pretty good at full mag, and low light quality is approaching what you get with 60mm scopes. Warranty isn't the greatest, so there are tradeoffs.
 

TravisIN

WKR
Joined
Oct 8, 2017
Messages
1,050
Resurrecting this again for a more budget-friendly lightweight scope, the Celestron Hummingbird. ~$250-300 for the 9-27x56mm, so it's definitely on the cheaper side for glass, but it's got ED glass, it's only 20 oz, and has a slightly larger objective than the Nikon ED50. Image quality is pretty good at full mag, and low light quality is approaching what you get with 60mm scopes. Warranty isn't the greatest, so there are tradeoffs.

Now that this is resurrected, Athlon ares 65 mm will be mentioned a lot.


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300wmxcr2

FNG
Joined
May 15, 2020
Messages
35
To the OP, really hard to answer without knowing your price range. Is it $200.00 , $1500 or $3000.

There are scope in all price ranges that you can see through.

What do you want to be able to see, turkey at 200yd or elk at 2 miles. Do you want to know if the turkey is a tom or jake or score the elk before stalking for 3 hours.

Without kowing these, short answer is the best name brand used scope you can afford.
 

yeti_man

FNG
Joined
Apr 18, 2020
Messages
19
Vortex Razor 11-33x50 - compact, light weight. Solid choice considering they are about $700 give or take.
 
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