What would you recommend for a $1000 spotting scope?

[alexnelon]

IMO there's no spotter in that price range that is worth buying new. $1,000 is kind of a dead zone.

Used Kowa if you can find one, or used Nikon for ~$400 and use it while you save up.

But also, good binos way before spotter.

 

[Alpine4x4]

Dont sleep on Athlon if you want to save some money. The Ares 65mm is a great little scope for the money and the Cronus 86mm is solid, especially if found used. Not Kowa/Swaro quality, but easily as good as the comparable Razor scopes.

That said I only have my scopes in the truck now. I went to a 10x Swaro on the chest and a 16x sig Zulu6 in the pack. The 16x gets me the info I need and is much lighter. The areas we hunt are steep valleys though so you dont really need the range of a spotter.