Looking to purchase a spotting scope. Have never had or used one before....

Do you prefer/recommend an angle or straight eyepiece - primarily intend to use for bench shooting at the range.

I have one of each but prefer my angled eyepiece, particularly from the bench. You can set your angled scope up so that you just barely have to turn your head away from the butt stock of the rifle to check your groups.

Straight

Your other eye can help get your glass on target. With an angled spotter, that eye is looking at the ground. And, 8 hours straight on an angled spotter makes my neck hurt just thinking about it. I have spent 8 hours on a straight spotter many times, with no neck pain.

Straight, same reasons as FiremanJG.

I’m not a bench rest shooter but for hunting I use straight. For UTV, Truck, blind and field it’s just a percentage more applicable then angled

Straight is more convenient for use off of a car window mount or deer blind window. Otherwise, I prefer angled for use while standing. The scope is positioned lower to the ground which means the tripod usually is steadier and less influenced by wind vibration, which can be a major issue on high wind days. Looking up into trees or up hill, angled is much easier, just make sure to use a tripod that goes down low. So, think about how it will be use most of the time and choose accordingly. Also, placing the scope position low while standing allows people of different heights to use it quickly such as looking at animals, birds, or targets far away.



In prone, position the scope to the side and the angled eyepiece is easy to use and the scope stand is offset out of the way.

Here is an example:

If prone, buy a good enough rifle scope that you don't need a spotting scope.

If 90% of your need for a spotter is to spot your own shots off the bench (or prone) then maybe an Angled is right for you.

If you at all plan to use it for hunting, whether its from the truck window or a tripod in the field... or you are glassing for others, then I would go straight-- Target acquisition is SO much easier and faster with the straight and, like JG said no neck cramp.

Not sure what your experience or budget with spotters might be but my advice is if you want USEFUL high magnification you need to get QUALITY (Swaro, Kowa, Leica, etc) and you need the largest OBJ lens you can manage for your purpose. If you just need 20-30x and something easy to tote then that opens your aperture quite a bit.

^^Yes

The purpose of the spotting scope os to be more compact than a rifle and rifle scope, plus the ability to mount it to various types of tripods or window mounts. AND! To be able to see what you can't see with your rifle scope. In order to see what you can't see with your rifle scope, you need to buy high quality glass, therefore the price can get pretty steep.

i also have one of each i have the straight on a rifle stock for looking at deer down the sendero for a better look than 10x binos and the angle is used when shooting targets either on a tripod or a stand like in the picture above just pick one you can see clearly thru and youl be happy

No wrong answer...your best bet is to see if you can look at a few outside and see which you prefer. I had an angle and everyone told me how great the straights were so I bought one...I didn't like it and much preferred the angle.

It really is personal preference. Good luck!

I have a Razor 11-33 angled. I wish it was straight, but the angled is fine on a bench.

The glass quality is excellent and the price was reasonable and it's compact. But you get out of that arena as soon as you increase magnification, so you've got to decide what's most important. I do agree that a spotting scope with bad glass is basically most useful as a hammer. I would never waste my time with a spotter with crummy glass. If you want to sacrifice on magnification to keep price & size down, I think that's reasonable. But if you need high magnification, there are just very few sacrifices to be made if you want it to be useful.

Since this touched on glass quality too I would add that I have found that eyepieces that are single power versus variable power in my limited experience have been of higher quality.
I have the Vortex Razor 20-60 which is very good but put in the 30x with Mil reticle and it’s another animal entirely.
I was considering selling and going to Kowa until I compared with that eyepiece and I just can’t see enough difference to justify.
Last week we were using my Vortex and a Swaro to judge elk at 2500+ yards and my buddy with the Swaro kept coming to my side of the Jeep as it seemed to him you could see more detail thru mine.
I have only owned straight but have used angle at matches where IMO they have their place.