Mean Matt McCord, SASS #24683 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 For those of you that do long range and/or benchrest shooting, what level magnification of spotting scopes do you prefer? I'm not looking so much for brand names right now as I am for the level of magnification, so you can easily see the target at say, 100 yards. As usual, thank you in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Original Lumpy Gritz Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 First you say "long range", then you say 100 yds. Celestron is what I use. Has served me well out past 1K yds. http://www.opticsplanet.com/celestron-regal-m2-80ed-spotting-scope.html They are a bit heavy so you must use a sturdy tripod or bench mount. Most 'spotting is done with about 25-30X You want the higher power of a variable to read mirage(go out of focus for this)and that helps you to read the wind. LG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Dan Blodgett, SASS #75655 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 I have a TSN1 Kowa. 25x resolution and clear focus is more important than power. I can see bullet holes at 200 but never really saw them at 300 yards. When shooting High Power, Palma and 1000 yard matches spotters were always placed in the targets where rounds hit. After the first two sighters with spotters during 200 Rapid strings I could check quickly the bullet holes for first 2 rounds for record prior to the mag change at 200 to see if my rounds were in the black. Normally only did that when winds were weird and I thought there was a correction between the spotters and the record strings. With glass you get what you pay for one can easily tell the difference between a 50 and 300-400 dollar scope. Beyond a certain point one probably pays more for the name than the difference in optical quality Zeiss and Svorovski are fantastic but worth the $ that is a question answered best by you and your banker. A good coach set up over you with a good scope can actually see the air disturbance of your rounds as they go to the target to tell where rounds hit in addition to reading the wind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoss Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 to be truthful. when I shoot my "cowboy long range" 45-70 at 100-200 yards., i just use a pair of binoculars. I generally use a sheet of posterboard, marked off into quarters. Pretty easy to see them big ole bullet holes in the white paper. but again, I'm just trying to ring steel at 100 yards or so, not shoot precision out to 1000 yards. I get a little tickled at the long range guys at the range, still just shooting 200 yard (max distance at this range) with a scope and spotting scope, shooting about 1 round every 10 minutes. But I guess they laugh at me for banging out 20 or so rounds in a half hour and going home. To each his own! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Tombstone, SASS #49630 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Cpt Dan is right, you could have a 100 power Barska and see holes a lot better with a 20 power Leupold. Stores like Cabelas usually have an area where you can look through them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irish ike, SASS #43615 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Go on line and do a search, "best spotting scopes for BPCR shooting" and you'll get all of the info you need. In some cases spending a lot of $$$$$ isn't the solution.. Ike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Original Lumpy Gritz Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Bird watching sites have great info on scopes also. That is how I learned about Celestron. LG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack, SASS #20451 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 I have 4 spotting scopes. 2 cheap ones: a Swift from the 60's that I still use the most on 100-300yds. (muich better than the cheap new ones). A newer Redfield that I loan to people. An expensive custom Leupold with a custom grid that I use for serious work out to 1000 yds. and a 6" Celestron scope that I use out to 2500yds. For nearly ALL spotting inside 500yds 25X is about as good as it can get. Much higher and you get into problems with mirage although the Leupold I run up to 60X, and the Celestron I run up to 100X if necessary. I strongly suggest spending as much as you can afford. If a Kowa, Swaro or Zeiss is out of your range the Vortex RAZOR is the best value out there in my opinion. The military teams that come through my place bring almost every scope made and I still like my choices. IF I had to buy another scope it would be a high end Kowa but I can't get a grid in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo Dick, SASS #12880 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 I don't know that the issue is so much magnification power as it is optical quality. My Leupold is a 12x40 power, but works better than cheaper scopes of greater magnification. I rarely have to crank it up to full power. Don't invest in a decent scope and then scrimp on the tripod. I've seen some very decent scopes on lousy tripods and wondered what the owner was thinking. A decent name brand camera tripod (I use a Bogen) can be had for not too much and will help you realize your scope's potential. Another thing I never understood was someone who will spend big bucks for a rifle scope that get mounted on a rifle that's used once a year who will then buy a cheap spotting scope that gets used every trip to the range. I'm not against saving money, I've had my Leupold for probably 20 years. Computer design has improved optical design and helped bring down costs and there may be cheaper alternatives that weren't available when I bought my scope but cheap, bad optics (or tripods) are not a good deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.