I'm upgrading my optics. I will have 1500 of which I will spend about 400 on a new scope. That leaves 1100 for spotter and binos. I'm not asking for specifics, just how would you allocate the rest and why. My existing bino is fair and existing spotter is junk. I have more $ in a year but will need them this fall. Thanks.

You need to share more detailed usage information.
It would be my pleasure to discuss options with you if you have a few minutes to give a call, 516-217-1000
Doug

Me personally, use your money to upgrade only one item now. I would do either the scope or the binos. When you have saved up more, then do the other. I would rather have two really nice optics even if I have to wait 2-3 yrs to save up, than buy all 3 now but be forced to buy lesser quality and then be in the same boat again, dissatisfied, 2-3 yrs down the road. Not sure how often you use a spotter, but I own one and never use it. It’s to cumbersome to lug around. A good pair of binos essentially replaced my need for a spotter.

Thanks to both. I will call but I will use these for hunting out west. Pronghorn, cues deer, elk bear., goat. This year it will likely be Pronghorn in Wyoming and cues in Arizona. If we don't draw Pronghorn we will hunt elk in Colorado.

Theringworm, that's what I'm wondering. I may decide to forego a spotting scope.

Best money I've ever spent to date were on my Leica Geovids. I'm about to buy a Swarvo spotter, so that opinion might change.

In that price range -Zeiss conquest 15x56 Followed by Maven 15x56.

Even if you decide to go with a great all round 12x/11x mag, I still recommend Getting a good tripod and head, S&S Archery has a good combo Sirius t-o24sk and VA-5 head for $318.


Jan NM mulie- 11x Maven- bog bino holder- element tripod(can’t glass standing up)

First off, I'd buy a rifle scope that is known to hold zero and not have shifting POI problems. I'd probably lean towards the SWFA SS 3-9x MQ reticle. Find one used for around $450. Then I'd spend $675 on a Tract Toric UHD bino. Superb optics, well made, on par with Meopta Meostar HD, SLC's, Conquest HD's for way less money. That would leave about $400 for a spotter. I'd wait on the spotter, save up some more cash, then start looking again. You really get what you pay for when buying high magnifacation spotters.

Get some quality binos first. That being said a great spotter would save you boot miles on an antelope hunt.
10x binos with good glass would do. 15x get very heavy on all day hunts and are big to keep out of the way while crawling on an antelope stalk.
Camofire has some Leupold binos on today.
Don't go cheap on a spotter either, like said, you get what you pay for.

Thanks. I've already purchased one good tripod for the Binos. I'm waiting on the spotting scope tripod to see how heavy it is. I will get another in any event as two of us will be spotting on and off. When we go for Cues deer there will be three of us (son and daughter) so we will switch off. I don't expect the pronghorn glassing to be too intense but I do expect the Cues to wear us out glassing.

I suspect the 15s would be cumbersome and probably not fit in the bino case well. I have 10X now and will likely stick with that power for glassing. I will check the Camofire deal.

We have an old Leopold Var I or Var X (I will have to check) on there now. Not the best reticle for hold over but a good scope. The other one is a Nikon prostaff BDC. It will probably work of my son. Practice with the range on the Leopold and I may be able to just estimate hold over and windage since 400-500 will be our shooting limit. Cues is archery so it doesn't matter. The more I think about it the more I'm inclined to make due with the scopes we have as they have proven good before, and add the $ to the spotting scope.

Are you happy with the bogo bino holder? I've looked at the Vortex and other but they have some negative review about attaching and detaching.

For tripod head I use most, I like it over the Kramer design bridge pinned type quickconnect. It is a lot heavier option relatively speaking though. I struggle to glass with the Kramer style with a ball head. Feel like I’m always touching bino and messing up position and eye peice width. Now with a pan head they are equal.

Weight wise the swaro version looks to be a lot lighter but I haven’t used it

Bog Pod bino holder is great, as Bobo says. I've been using it for a few years now.

jnd59 , hate to say it but even if you stick with your current scopes, given the fact that you may be spending hours a day behind the glass, $1500 for bino and spotter is stretching it. I'd allow that much for the spotter alone. The Leupold Gold Ring HD 12-40x60 is compact and has very good glass, tremendous eye relief, and is very, very tough. If you're lucky you can find one used around $1000.

Depends on how you hunt. They are a lot lighter then toting a spotter and have a wider FOV,

Mulie/coues, aoudad and some pronghorn I prefer 15’s over spotter. My range finder is 7x so I normally don’t carry my bino in a chest harnes, input them in the lid of my pack.

Exception on pronghorn is, at my ranch I use a spotter out of the truck pretty extensively, occasionally I’ll carry bino’s.

I don’t use bino’s personally under 11x.

I may review my needs for this year and move $ to glass. I was going to purchase new packs but I have good osprey packs I used for climbing and backpacking in Colorado. Neither the antelope or cues deer require a lot of meat packing. The only problem is they are blue. I guess I could put a camo pack cover on them. That would free up another $700. The only other items I was going to get were a topper for the truck and a winch. I can build an inexpensive topper. It won't look good but will do for these trips. I've been back and forth on the winch. I've never taken one before and have been lucky I guess as I've never had to deal with mud in Wyoming. I'm not really worried about Arizona. Skip them and I have a lot of $ to put towards glass. It's all a balancing act, I guess.

I used a 12k traveler(tractor supply) with a snatch block this year. For price it worked well. I suggest a 30’ recovery rope like a bubba rope if you get a winch.

I'd spend all the money on the scope. You can spot with a rifle scope but you can't shoot with binos. Your budget will get you something nice that can serve multiple purposes.

To each his own, but "glassing" with a rifle scope and/or big game hunting without binos is the last thing I'd ever do. Good hunters use their binos 10 times more than the scope. A guy can easily own great binos and a great scope for $1500.

Understood, but if I had to choose one, I'd choose the scope. I'd hate to have a crystal-clear view of my ultimate trophy through my binos in low light, and not have a shot because I have a big dark blob in my scope. I do agree that he can get a good combo for $1500.

I was thinking along those lines. I've fished down Padre island so I already have a good stock of recovery tools. That puts my glass budget near 2800. Wow, I can't believe I'm considering that much for glass. That's a whole nother hunt. But, I have five years left on my self imposed age limit for goats and that's a once in a lifetime for me so I won't want to scrimp on glass for that trip. So, at 2800, If I can make do with the osprey packs, how much for binos and how much for spotter? I'm thinking 900 and 1900. I'll get the scope next year. Do those numbers make a significant difference in quality or would I just be buying a name over my original budget?

That may have been true 30 years ago, but nowadays any $300 scope is going to have glass that will get you through legal shooting light. Finding good glass in a scope is very easy.

You have more experience than I do, and I respect your input, so I won't be too argumentative. I have scopes from $89 to $2500 and I think they hit a different level of clarity and light transmission from Japanese makers and only get better with Euro makers. $700ish would be my baseline for a really capable scope. Unless it's a fixed power. My SWFA 6x is excellent for $300.

I'll throw in my two cents...

Buy Swarovski SLC 15s, the Swaro SLC tripod mount, and a binocular harness such as Alaska Guide Creations. You will be looking through them from dawn to dusk. While they are expensive they will make finding game, especially Coues, easier as well as reduce eye strain that will arise with lower quality glass. Get your son and daughter tripods as well since you cannot hold a pair of binoculars steady enough to pick apart the terrain looking for a 90 pounds animal; they are called the Grey Ghost for a reason. Having a clear outline of a Coues is the exception; normally you get a tine, an ear, or maybe a flick of the tail.

If you are able to scrounge up some more money, upgrade your rifle scope second. Clarity trumps magnification. Magnification is helpful for hunting Coues. Sucks being able to see the Coues in the SLCs and not being able to see the deer in your scope. You can have the world's best rifle scope but it does you no good if you cannot find the animal first. Do not entertain any ideas of glassing with your rifle scope. Waste of time and horrible etiquette (never know if someone will pop up in the distance).

Do not spend money upgrading a spotting scope unless the score of the animal is paramount. Glassing is more effective with the SLC 15s than a spotting scope; this is coming from someone who has the STX 65/95.

Do not worry about the color of your backpack. Depending on where you are hunting in AZ, the animals are used to seeing a variety of colored backpacks going north.

This image shows a very easy to find Coues at around 1300 yards. A single blade of grass moving against the wind allowed us to find this buck bedded down. He scored 108.25"; just missing the book. Any blurriness or color issues are due to my POS phone camera.


This image shows the norm for finding a Coues. This buck lived to see another day. Any blurriness or color issues are due to my POS phone camera.

The main thing is your gear works for you. That's where everyone needs to be. You only have yourself to please and obviously you're there. Wasn't trying to be argumentative with you either bud.

Unless you are counting rings on a sheep for sizing up mtn goat bases....I would fore go the spotter. Even on pronghorn most can’t judge to the inch enough to matter. Most people see a pronghorn look they like and shoot it, or size it up by the prong being past ear tip and length is two plus ear lengths... boom

12xish or 15x and good tripods and head and be done with it. Put rest the money into more tags.

For 15x I wouldn’t buy anything but swaro or lecia(geovid are very heavy but have range finder ), conquest, Maven.... in that order. I don’t know if I’d go below those choices.

12xish... swaro (el or Slc HD) or best deal on lecia, Maven, Zeiss, or Meopta.

There is no arguing king of the hill in optics, its swaro. But there is a hell of a battlefield for second and third place, especially with the price points. 2nd and third is very subjective also.

I’m a fan of Maven for the price but honestly don’t think you can go wrong with Zeiss, lecia and even Meopta in the 1000+ price point.

Short answer you have a great budget. 900-1900 is very appropriate for good glass.

If you sat next to jgraider on a hill side glassing for mulies or coues deer for 5 hrs straight you would start to understand. If he was guiding you, you would love him and if he was hunting with you, you would hate him out of spite

His FOV and ability to truly break down a hill effectively and efficiently with his bino’s will smoke the rifle scope. This isn’t even counting comfort factor. He does have a wall full of very large mulies. It’s just a different game with lower animal densities and bigger country. Not to mention he has a wall of some really nice big deer.

In all honesty It’s really hard to understand where the quality is best served until you do it.

Thanks all for the input. I think I will buy two very good quality binos this year. One 10 and one 12 or 15. I already have another tripod in the budget. And get the spotter before the goat hunt. With two, my kids are using good glass also. I'm not worried on Pronghorn, I've used the same redfield binos I used for duck hunting since I mainly use them to see if bucks are in a herd. But better glass makes it easier. I expect there will be $ left for a decent scope upgrade. So 800-900 each for two binos and 450 for a new scope. I have a vortex tripod and will buy a better one for the bigger bijo/spotter.

Make that $2000 for binos

I agree with others who have said to upgrade one at a time.

That being said, to answer your original question, I'd get an SWFA 12x fixed-power scope, a pair of Meopta Meopro 10x42 that Doug has on sale, and find a used Vortex Razor 11-33 spotter. $300 for the scope, $400 for the binos, $450 for the spotter, and you're in under budget with good glass all around. If you could swing $1800 right now, I'd find a used SWFA HD 5-20 to replace the 12x scope with. Then upgrade the binos and spotter down the road (you shouldn't need to upgrade the scope for hunting). Other option would be to stick with the 12x scope, forgot the spotter, and upgrade to something like low-end Swaros or Meostar HD binos that will not need to be upgraded, ever.

Ultimately, you'd be set with a Vortex AMG 6-24, Swaro SLC binos, and a Swaro spotter. But we just spent like $8,000 of your money, so those type of suggestions aren't all that useful when you're on a moderate budget.

So there's a lot of ways to split it up, but really it's your usage that will determine the 'best' way to split it up. I'd probably buy a 12x fixed power scope and spend the rest on a spotter or binos, whichever you expect to use more.

I know Vortex has had some problems with their lower end glass. There is a Vortex Viper PST 6-24x50 with an EBR 1 MOA reticle on sale for basically $500. I expect this would be a heavy scope but I'm shooting a Winchester 30-06 lightweight which may come out even. I know this is a loaded question, but I don't have experience comparing glass at different costs. Would this be equivalent, better or worse than the SWFA SS 3-9? The 50mm would give my old eyes more light but I'm not sure about hunting with a 50mm scope.

Thanks

If the SS 3-9 is the same quality glass as the SS 5-20 then it far out classes the Vortex. I’ve owned the 5-20 and the Vortex you mention and there is no comparison. The Vortex is acceptable glass though and far greater magnification than the 3-9. I would feel more secure with the SS as far as reliably. Finding a SS 3-9 may be an issue. They were back ordered last time I looked.

In stock as of this morning.

https://www.swfa.com/swfa-ss-hd-3-9x42-tactical-30mm-riflescope.html

It also like the Maven’s and have the 11x45 pictured in Bobo’s Post. I sold my 30 year old Swaros for more than I paid And bought the Maven.... so far no regrets.

Thanks to both. I'll stick with the suggestions all have entered here. I'm not sure what i would do with a 24 power anyway. If my son decides to take up long-distance shooting, which he may, I would likely get him a specific gun and optics for that purpose.

Any way you chose to go I would be watching SWFA'S Sample List.They will be demo's or refurbished but you could get better quality for the money you spend.Just a thought.

The SWFA 3-9 HD glass is going to be far, far better than the Gen 1 PST glass. I don't think you can go wrong with the SWFA 3-9 HD on a hunting rig.

This is what my son wants to put on his hunting gun after learning about and looking through the 5-20 on his other gun.

Swfa 3x9 is what I'm going with. Just waiting for the right price.

Sign up for their email list. They usually have a few 10% off sales and usually a pretty good Black Friday sale.

Just to follow up, I went with a maven B-1 for my 10 power. Still looking for the second one, probably a 12x. I'm thinking I'll get the same scope for both rifles and put the Leopold on a 700 rem 300 wby and sell it to cover the second scope.