Spotting scope for out West

[Chasing elk]

I plan on taking my first out of state hunt next year. I will have 6 preference points for Antelope in Wyoming.

I am going to attempt to draw a tag. Future hunts include Wyoming Elk hunts, mule deer hunts, and more antelope hunts.

I want to buy a nice spotting scope that will last years. Buy once, cry once. I was looking at Kowa spotting scopes.

What are your thoughts on them? Which spotting scope would you go with? To be able to see 1,000 yards or more.

 

[Dimperatrice]

Well man I don’t have any experience with Kowa or really anything else since I just bought my first spotter (Vortex Razor 27-60 x 85). Bought it used off a buddy who just bought a swaro and I gotta say it’s not a bad starting point for me. Used it on a spring bear hunt a few weeks back and was honestly really happy with it. I know eventually I’ll look to upgrade but not for a while.

 

[duf duf]

Kowas are great scopes. I would say figure out which one fits your hunting style the best. Whether it's a light weight compact spotter or a larger objective. Larger objectives are going to gather light better and at the end of the day give a better glassing experience while a smaller more packable scope would be more convenient for backcountry style hunts. I personally would land on a 66 mainly for backpacking but also performs very well and incredibly versatile.

 

[elsb0048]

I plan on taking my first out of state hunt next year. I will have 6 preference points for Antelope in Wyoming.

I am going to attempt to draw a tag. Future hunts include Wyoming Elk hunts, mule deer hunts, and more antelope hunts.

I want to buy a nice spotting scope that will last years. Buy once, cry once. I was looking at Kowa spotting scopes.

What are your thoughts on them? Which spotting scope would you go with? To be able to see 1,000 yards or more.

Honestly in your shoes if I was looking to buy once cry once on a high dollar spotter and never owned a spotter before I might try to borrow or rent one for a single hunt first. Maybe rent a kowa 66.

I used my friends swarovski ats 80 for a 4 day trip and was shocked at how hard it was for me to use. Woulda regretted if I bought one like that even though they're great for many things. Turns out my tastes run to more compact straight spotters. Would be worth a $200-400 rental to make sure I spend $3k correctly

 

[Matt5266]

Id go middle ground objective wise for an all around spotter. Something in the 65mm range. Swaro or Kowa Prominar

 

[flyfisher117]

What do you want to see? Are you judging trophy class or just want to see that it’s legal? Packing in or road hunting? What is your Bino situation?

 

[captainmoose]

love my Swaro atx scope. Weight isn’t terrible it’s held up through all kinds of hunting trips last 4 years. And is crystal clear.

 

[go_deep]

Using a spotting scope is not cookie cutter, so deciding which one to buy isn't cookie cutter.

Since you said your going antelope hunting first, I'd buy a used 65mm Razor for your antelope hunt. Get a good tripod (you'll need one no matter the spotter you buy) and window mount. Go use it on the hunt, it'll be more than good enough to judge bucks at 3/4 of a mile, and then once the hunt is done decide. Was that scope good enough, was it to big, did I not use it as much as I thought?
Maybe you keep that one, maybe you sell it and basically get all your money back, and upgrade glass, but buy a smaller or bigger size, but that puts you in the sweet spot on a hunt where a spotter is good to have in big open country that you can give it a true trial run.

 

[sodaksooner]

Yeah, it's tough. Go to Scheels and try them. You have one right there. They will most likely let you take them outside to look. they carry a bunch of different spotters. Personally I went the bit of a value route. Got a closeout Vortex razor Gen 1 20 - 60 x 85 and for my use case makes a lot of sense. Got a bit lucky and was in Phoenix. Stopped in at Bass pro and they had a few left. Got a huge discount and a veterans discount on top. Its got decent glass for the price. I don't use a spotter enough to justify Swaro and the like. Love the dual focus knob. Brother has the gen 2 and had to admit he actually likes mine better. All that being said, doing it again, I would do a straight through and not angled, but a lot of that is personal preference. We don't use them for elk, unless scouting and that is most of our western hunting. Get a good tripod too. That makes all the difference. I have the vortex carbon fiber one and it's ok, but that scope is pretty heavy. Looking at selling that and picking up a Tricer. Just a couple of hundred more with their basic head. If you are goat hunting make sure you get one that is tall enough to stand with. Window mount wouldn't hurt either like go_deep mentioned.

 

[sodaksooner]

Also love it for range work, both archery and gun and it really makes backyard birdwatching fun.

 

[Kurts86]

Make sure you have alpha glass binoculars before a nice spotting scope as binoculars are the 90% tool and a spotting scope is the 10% tool.

I really like the Swarovski ATC and would go Kowa 55 as well. The smaller spotting scopes actually get packed daily which was not the case with 3-4 lb 65mm+ options.