Cheapest Spotter That's Worth Carrying

[Jsunkler]

I like my Leupold 25x50mm spotter. Its super compact, lightweight, and take up little to no room in my bag. It does not compare to my 85mm Swaro but when weight and me not being picky on trophy size come into play it fits the bill. You can usually find a used one on Ebay for sub $300.

 

[Ryan Avery]

Oh I disagree, I had a gen 1 Razor and the Vanguard was better and still cheaper then that price.

I agree Tim, that Vanguard is very underrated for the price.

Ryan, maybe you got the best Gen 1 Razor spotter and I’ve been looking through some of the worst. But they are terrible IMO.


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[Fatcamp]

I like my Leupold 25x50mm spotter. Its super compact, lightweight, and take up little to no room in my bag. It does not compare to my 85mm Swaro but when weight and me not being picky on trophy size come into play it fits the bill. You can usually find a used one on Ebay for sub $300.

I found the performance of my 20X50 Leupold during low light conditions almost unusable. I really like it otherwise, and was really happy the day I bought it, but it is gone and a Vanguard took its place.

 

[tdhanses]

If you honestly believe that a $500 dollar spotter will hang with the big boys there is nothing I can do to help you. Good luck.

Completely agree and the Razor is a $500 scope all day long. I think you must of received a fluke that was good because the Razor is no where close to the Swaro I had. The Vanguard was better then the razor optically and has more of a neutral tone it produces compared to the greenish yellow tint of the Razor. Not sure if you ever looked through one but that Vanguard is the best value spotter I’ve owned and not just quickly compared.

Not going to lie, when I first had my Vortex Razor I thought it rocked, after a year of use I wasn’t impressed. At that time it was the most expensive spotter I had owned. I picked up a Vanguard based on Darin Coopers review of it against the Swaro HD. I then compared the Vanguard to the Razor for a few months and making the decision to keep the Vanguard was easy, it was just better.

It’s been a few years and a few spotters since so I don’t remember the specifics exactly of what the big difference were but I do remember the Vanguard amazed me optically and with image tone for the price and the Razor didn’t after having owned both for a year minimum. Also both have the same warranty.

All this said, your eyes and mine will never see the same, the biggest diff we may experience could be just that, our eyes see what they see.

 

[realunlucky]

I have vanguard it'll hold it's own but don't look though a top tier spotter you'll never be the same. I was super impressed with the new Nikon but it's also over your current budget

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[idahohikker]

Holy Vanguard lovers up in here. I'd take a look at one of those for the price range.

 

[Newtosavage]

I'm very happy with my tiny, light and sharp Nikon ED50. Hardly even notice I have it until I need it.

 

[cornfedkiller]

I use the Vanguard Endeavor 14-45x60

Is that a typo? I'm not finding that scope.. only a 15-45 x 65mm

 

[Newtosavage]

Holy Vanguard lovers up in here. I'd take a look at one of those for the price range.

I bought one and returned it the same day. I was not at all impressed. Same issue I always seem to have with every Chinese optic I look through - tons of distortion. Went to a Nikon ED50 and never looked back.

 

[tdhanses]

I bought one and returned it the same day. I was not at all impressed. Same issue I always seem to have with every Chinese optic I look through - tons of distortion. Went to a Nikon ED50 and never looked back.

I might be wrong but I thought the body of the Nikon ED50 was made in China, only the eyepiece was made in Japan.

 

[Newtosavage]

I might be wrong but I thought the body of the Nikon ED50 was made in China, only the eyepiece was made in Japan.

That's correct, but it must be made to Nikon's specs because the image shows very little, if any, distortion. The eyepiece is a Nikon, from Japan.

 

[eoperator]

Check out the Athlon ares you may be surprised.

 

[tgus59]

Thanks for all the responses! I figured there was some value to be had somewhere.

 

[willfrye027]

I like my Leupold 25x50mm spotter. Its super compact, lightweight, and take up little to no room in my bag. It does not compare to my 85mm Swaro but when weight and me not being picky on trophy size come into play it fits the bill. You can usually find a used one on Ebay for sub $300.

Does it add much in terms of judging deer compared to a good pair of 15s? I can only afford either a nice spotter or nice 15s and a cheap spotter this year..

 

[Jsunkler]

Does it add much in terms of judging deer compared to a good pair of 15s? I can only afford either a nice spotter or nice 15s and a cheap spotter this year..

I really can't say as I only run 8x42's or 10x42's and spotter, have only looked thru 15s a handful of times. Personally I like having the 10's for glassing and then switching to the spotter to assess an animal.

 

[Fatcamp]

Does it add much in terms of judging deer compared to a good pair of 15s? I can only afford either a nice spotter or nice 15s and a cheap spotter this year..

My 20X50 was head and shoulders above 10X binoculars when it came to daytime judging. Just poor lowlight performance.

 

[cornfedkiller]

Been researching the Vanguard after all the suggestions here and it seems to get beat up pretty bad on Amazon?

 

[Dioni A]

If you could come up with a grand that's used non HD swaro territory!!!!

 

[Ndbowhunter]

The vortex razor we used last month was the newer version..

Really impressed with all the vanguard fans on here.

No bullshit what's the cheapest spotter you'd trust in a brooks range sheep hunt?

Under the assumption vortex gen 2 was bottom level and meopta s2 was probably getting more into the excellent range, but both are knocking on alpha class.

 

[Fatcamp]

The vortex razor we used last month was the newer version..

Really impressed with all the vanguard fans on here.

No bullshit what's the cheapest spotter you'd trust in a brooks range sheep hunt?

Under the assumption vortex gen 2 was bottom level and meopta s2 was probably getting more into the excellent range, but both are knocking on alpha class.

If I could afford to hunt sheep cost of the spotter wouldn't be an issue.