SmallCaliberCentral

Hello, I’m back for some more great advice.
I’m looking into spotting scopes and would like to hear your opinions. I am from WA state and also hunt Idaho. Mostly all spot and stalk, in big canyons. So I need to balance the power of the scope with the weight since climbing hills leaves me with limited backpack space.

Thanks in advance!
RLKondo

RL, as you know there's lots of choices here. I've been a lifetime user of Leupold as most here know, and have two of their armored spotters, a 10-20X backpack mini unit that's great for outback hunts when weight and size are critical, and for range and casual use I use their 25X 50mm unit which is a bit larger in both dimensions and weight, but still usable for backpack use. Both units are threaded of course for tripod use in the field, fully armored also with great lens coatings that give great resolution and color rendition all the way to the edges of the field of view.

I see in the current Leupold catalog that only the mini 10-20X is still offered from the two I have, but they still have quite a product lineup of 'backpack worthy' spotters. This is another case of "buy once, cry once" and be done with it. Optics Planet has great sales on this stuff that you may want to check out.

Again, lots of choices, but these two have been with me on some knarly hunts and are still in perfect condition, and have served me very well over many years.

Thanks RIO!
Leupold was the direction I was headed. I was looking at the Gold Ring - 12-40x60 mm.

The armored version you mentioned is that the Mark 4 version? I couldnt find the difference of the tactical Gold sting compared to just the Gold Ring. Can you explain the difference?

Also thanks for the Optics planet suggestion, luckily I have a few points saved up from my Cabelas Credit Card that I will use.

Always good to hear from you, thanks for the info!
RLKondo

RLKondo wrote: ↑Sat Jul 21, 2018 12:29 pm Thanks RIO!
Leupold was the direction I was headed. I was looking at the Gold Ring - 12-40x60 mm.

The armored version you mentioned is that the Mark 4 version? I couldnt find the difference of the tactical Gold sting compared to just the Gold Ring. Can you explain the difference?

Also thanks for the Optics planet suggestion, luckily I have a few points saved up from my Cabelas Credit Card that I will use.

Always good to hear from you, thanks for the info!
RLKondo

RL, no, my Leupy spotter is an older model, prior to the release of the 12-40X 60mm. Both mine are 50mm objective with the Alumina lens covers, but are Gold Ring units. Not sure, but the tactical unit has more reticle options for LE and MIL use, the standard Gold Ring models are usually aimed at hunters and birders.

You will not be disappointed with the 12-40X model. My rat shooting buddy from Leupold uses that spotter, and we've done LR shooting out to 1K yards using it. Still light and compact enough for backpack hunting also.

Well,
I bought once, cried once, and am done with it, but have a smile on my face!
Thanks for the advice, I went with the 20x60x80 Gold Ring. It’s not compact, but for the canyons I hunt and having youth on my side, I won’t regret the size or weight (it actually is very light) in my pack.

First time I pulled it out, I was able to see the bullet trace, as my buddies were shooting. blew me away.

My dad has a late season white tail tag in 2 weeks, so we will get it dirty and should be able to view some great animals.

Has anyone used the camera attachments for the spotting scopes? Just curious of which brand/models would be best.

Stay safe!
RLKondo