Kowa vs Maven Spotter

[Air Bear]

What changed on your part where you sold your spotter since it wasn’t getting much use, to forecasting to rarely needing a spotter, to now buying and keeping a Maven?

What’s the cost of your desired Maven? Why not rent alpha for those infrequent hunts that are expected to occur every 4-5 years?

Mavens are $1600-$2000 while you can rent a Swarovski spotting scope for about $175 a week. While not accounting for inflation and using your 4-5 year hunt cycle, a $1600 Maven will take you 36-45 years to break even, a $1800 Maven will take you 40-50 years to break even, and the $2000 Maven will be 44-55 years. (Tongue in cheek) Over your estimated 3-5 decade time frame just to break even over renting alpha, just buy alpha as the price isn’t that much more and over that time frame the increased cost is immaterial.

I’m all for building an optics arsenal. But unless you recently discovered a lot of use cases for a spotting scope to make it worthwhile to purchase, you may want to reconsider. I’d be saying the same thing if you said you were grabbing a Kowa or Swaro as there is zero ROI.

I suppose a couple of things have changed. First, in the end i was not impressed with the spotter i bought, second was the infrequent open country hunts.

I did not know you could rent optics. Who do you rent through?

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

I suppose a couple of things have changed. First, in the end i was not impressed with the spotter i bought, second was the infrequent open country hunts.

I did not know you could rent optics. Who do you rent through?

There is at least one site sponsor that rents optics but I cannot recall the name. You can also use the search engine of your choice.

 

[littlebigtine]

Kowa 884/774 are as good as it gets and typically you can get them used at around $1800-$2100. Ive flipped spotters numerous times in the last 5 years and swaro and kowa keep their resale value very well. If you are patient and wait for the right deal you can typically get your money back and sometimes more.

That being said, it is not a necessary piece of gear for hunting.

But if you love to watch animals and digiscope they are priceless imo. I currently have a Kowa 884 and it is my favorite of all the scopes ive used in the past. Swaro 85,95, 80, 56, kowa 774, maven s.1a

 

[cuerro viejo]

With the Kowa 773 on sale I am having a tough debate between that or the Maven S.1A. Anyone have any input?

Only other glass currently are 12x50 binos.

Maven runs a strong third. Real strong

12x bino paired with STC is hard to beat performance to weight