Economy spotting scope

[4Patriot]

Can anybody recommend an economical spotting scope that would be good to 300 yds or more? Have been shooting with a friend at 100 yds using his Alpen scope, which works up to 45x. Generally we can see what we need to, but I'm sure that wouldn't do the trick at 300 yds.

[Divernhunter]

Economy and "good to 300 yards or more" do not belong in the same sentence. There are good/excellent spotting scopes then there are the rest. Most of the rest are just a waste of money.

[JMP]

Right now, you can get $1,000 off a Hensoldt spotting scope at EuroOptic. They are one of the very few actual spotting scopes because they have a first focal plane reticle so you can actually "spot" your shooter's impact and measure a correction. There are high magnfication observation devices, which people often refer to as "spotting scopes". Vortex makes decent scopes like this.

[sholling]

As others have said, when it comes to spotting scopes good quality and economical don't belong in the same sentence. There are lots of cheap $80-200 Chinese made spotting scopes on the market but in my experience they are too foggy or washed out at high magnification to be of much use at half that distance.

[teflondog]

The best budget spotting scope I've used is the Redfield Rampage. It gets blurry on max magnification but the lower settings should be enough for 300 yard spotting.

[Paperchasin]

A Konus 20-60x80 is pretty good for the money

[ExtremeX]

OP, what is your version of "economical"?

My friend has an Alpen, 20-60x80mm, which I believe cost about $400-500 and I would lump that into MY economical bracket... It does a great job and provides a good price/performance/quality ratio. I don't really have any issues spotting 308 size holes on paper at 300, or bullet splash on freshly painted steel at distances out to 800-900 yards...

Beyond that to really find a respectable increase in performance you need to start looking at the 800-1k and up price points. The Vortex Razor to some people is still an economical value option since its a lot of scope for the money.

The Hensoldt / Zeiss JMP mentioned is also worth a look... I don't know much about them, but for 1k his post peaked my curiosity.

[bombadillo]

Best bang for the buck for 600 and under yard shooting is a Konus Konuspot 80 or Konuspot 100

http://www.amazon.com/Konus-7122-20x-60x100mm-Spotting-Scope/dp/B001DX7Q9Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434758777&sr=8-1&keywords=konuspot

http://www.amazon.com/Konus-7120-20x-60x80mm-Spotting-Tripod/dp/B001DX7Q8W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1434758792&sr=8-2&keywords=konuspot

The 80mm version is the cheaper one at $229, and the 100mm version is $300. I really believe the 70 dollars spent is well worth the money though. It is what a lot of high power guys start off the game with and upgrade to a kowa, and some say there isn't that big of a difference between the low end Kowa scopes and the Konus.

I have a Vortex Nomad and I feel like it is better than the Redfield Rampage which I also owned. It is lighter, a bit more compact, and I could resolve images better at 300 yards or so than I could with the Redfield.

Hope this helps some.

[JMP]

The Hensoldt / Zeiss JMP mentioned is also worth a look... I don't know much about them, but for 1k his post peaked my curiosity.

That was a typo, I meant $1,000 off in the form of a gift certificate, not $1,000 price. However, I am not aware of Zeiss spotting scopes with reticles for spotting, and generally Zeiss is a far cry from Hensoldt in terms of the optical quality. While Hensoldt is made with Zeiss glass, it is at the highest level of quality tolerances that come from the Wetzlar facility. I believe Bushnell has come out with a budget spotting scope that is similar in feature to the Spotter 45.

[HK Dave]

If you can find an old bushnell elite 20-60x80mm, I think you will be surprised at the quality for the money. I think I sold mine a litte while back for less than $500.

[skibuff]

Does anyone have experience with the Leupold 20 - 60 x 80 SX1 Ventana Angled Spotting?

http://www.opticsplanet.com/leupold-20-60-x-80-sx1-ventana-angled-spotting-scope.html

[4Patriot]

Thanks, guys, I'm happy to have these suggestions, or any others that come along. Will look into them.

[skibuff]

http://www.opticsplanet.com/ is having a 10% off fathers day sale until Monday.

[F4E Phantom]

I was surprised on how good a Konus is. I don't remember the objective or model. My Burris Landmark x 60 is only good at 15 -20x. I've seen a Burris x80 that was okay. I would stay away from any objective smaller than 75mm.