Spotter/tripod set up for occasional use?

[Kurts86]

Spend the money on great binoculars and a decent tripod. Skip buying a spotting scope until you have great 10x and 15x binoculars and a fleet of various weight tripods.

15x binoculars are way better on the range for calling shots in real time than a spotting scope hence their use in PRS. Video feed systems are way better for looking at targets in detail than spotting scopes especially on mirage heavy days. The idea of spotting shots on paper at longer range is silly when we have steel or shoot n see targets. Only niche competitive target shooters are going to need to call bullet holes on paper at 300, 600 or 1,000 yards.

Spotting scopes are niche tools for most people and they are pretty horrible to use until you spend $2k or so on one. I had a Vortex Razor 65 and it was poor in low light and too heavy for its marginal value. The older Kowa 55’s are the only spotting scope I would buy in your listed price range but they come with a very narrow FOV.

There are legitimate uses for spotting scopes but casual use every few seasons on a hunt is not one of them for me.

 

[LaHunter]

I try not to take the easy way out on here and post questions that have been answered several times, several ways, over several years, but after a couple days of reading threads, figured I’d throw my situation and question out there for input.

Use: Occasional rife range, once every 5-7 years a mule deer rifle hunt, once every 3-5 years an antelope rifle hunt. Yearly glassing in MI for deer and turkey’s. May move to NM in a couple years and hunt western game more often. Ideally use it as a shooting rest as well.

I deer hunt (archery and rifle) quite a bit in MI and use my binos often, so maybe it’s worth just upgrading my them with a decent tripod?

Budget ~$1500

Whatcha think?


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Given your budget of $1500, I would recommend spending that on a set of used alpha 10X42 binos and a tripod. I depend on my binos a lot during a hunt, second only to my boots. Save up and get a good spotter later. It has been mentioned before, but a cheap spotter is frustrating and a waste of extra wt in the pack, especially in low light conditions.

 

[Skerhunter]

You must have gotten a lemon. I had one for several years and three buddies still use them. I have hours of video through one. I bought a Meopta S2 since, bought and sold an Swaro ATC and still feel like the 65mm Razor is a good piece and a great tool.

Here are a couple pics from the Razor, I had a first gen and these were taken by holding my old iPhones up to the spotter.

Buck at 300 yards, killed him with my bow
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Group of bucks a little over 1/2 mile with a iPhone 6 (shitty camera) Pretty sure you can tell if there shooters or not.
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Another pic of the big buck in the middle.
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Here’s a group of bucks at 11am in August at 700 yards.
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Bull elk at 800 yards
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Here is another bull with the 65mm Razor at 700ish. He’s laying just above the key.
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Sweet pics! I just found that the vortex 65mm under performed in most situations when lighting was not ideal even at reasonable distances - I don’t carry my spotter to find game inside of 1000 yards I can do that with my binos.

I saved some of the best pictures I got out of mine. Below is a bull at 300-400 yards hour before sunset.



This is at 800 a few hours before sunset.



Compared to an alpha glass it is not even close.