I was buying fishing stuff and I got this on the side. Not a Leupold or other brand name, but for $50, I was willing to make the jump. I am still in need to get some rifles sighted.
Firefield Spotting Scope Kit | Bass Pro Shops
According to google maps, this is 234 yards away from my back porch across the lake. Photo taken with my phone staring down the tube.
I reckon I will be able to see holes in targets at 100 yards.
You can see some distortion and chromatic aberration as one would expect from inexpensive optics, but I agree with you — that’s a nice scope that should be good for your purpose.
The image quality per dollar spent has gotten incredible on the lower end of the price scale.
Occasionally the LooseRounds guys post about Unertl optics made in the 50s. It’s amazing how far the technology has come.
What’s the max magnification?
Boris, the specs on the web site say 20x to 60x zoom range.
Do people make fixed magnification spotting scopes? Those are likely to have better image quality, certainly quality per dollar — zoom is optically complex and requires a lot more glass than a fixed telescope.
Thanks – I hadn’t noticed that in the capture.
Re fixed mag spotting scopes, marketed for that purpose, I don’t know offhand. Perhaps, though, a fixed-mag rifle scope would serve the same purpose?
Either way you’d have trouble beating this price point.
True. I wonder if small telescopes meant for the amateur astronomy market would serve. I have a couple but they are quite a lot less compact (to put it politely) than a spotting scope. On the plus side are good tripods and the option to slip in the eyepiece of your choice (which sets the magnification).
Hm.. here is an example: https://www.meade.com/telescopes/refractor/adventure-scope-60mm.html . I don’t know that one, but Meade is a well known brand.
Good thought on the amateur astronomy market.
On the minus side you’ll probably need to put an image erector in the optics chain or all your windage and elevation corrections will be in reverse… 🙂
That depends. The Meade unit I mentioned and a bunch of others come with erector prisms, that’s the right angle widget in the eyepiece.
Wow. Wonder where it was manufactured
What does it look like, naked eye?
To my untrained eye, loos damned good. But I am sure one of the top notch brands would look like 4K plus IMAX 🙂
For longer distances I’m a big fan of the Shoot-N-C targets; use those and a scope like that, makes it a lot easier to spot shots.
Just ordered mine. Thanks for the 411.
Been looking at getting a spotting scope for a while but balked at the prices for something i was seldom going to use.
My preferred cheap scope is a Celestron Mini Mak. As the name implies these are reflector scopes using mirrors for magnification. This makes them lighter and cheaper https://www.celestron.com/products/c70-mini-mak-spotting-scope
List is $125 but street price is more like $80. While it might not be up to spotting deer at twilight it’s very good on the range in daylight