Looking to buy a nice spotting scope and wanting to see what people like. Daily use i can see one of my feeders at 700 yards and plan to start traveling to hunt out west in CO, NM, ect.. Angled or straight? Budget +/-$1000 and dont mind spending more if i am getting something tangible for the extra money.

How important is size? I LOVE my Vortex Razor 11-33. Optics are among the best I've seen. Size is great. You just only go to 30x, but there's very little 33x with great optics can't see at sub-1500 yards. 700 yards is a cakewalk for it

Used they go for $550-$600 or so last time I checked.

Have you looked at the Athlon Ares series? Great scopes priced well under $1,000.00

Since you're going to hunt west, consider Alpha glass but in 10X or 12X binoculars. You can also mount them to a tripod. As is the case with any optic, high magnification does not replace glass clarity. I can see anything I want to, farther than I should be shooting an animal with 10X Leica binoculars. I have shot rifle matches where we were being effectively spotted beyond 1000 yards with 12X and 15X binoculars. They were Swarovski, and expensive. In optics, you get what you pay for.

Zeiss binos are the first to come to mind to save a little money, but still have excellent glass.

When you say out west do you mean hiking miles and glassing or walking 30 yards from truck and glassing? Do you mean judging trophy class/counting rings or just general curiosity?

My group of friends loan/borrow from each other depending on hunt.
80mm STS Swaro
65mm STX Swaro
50mm vortex razor straight

All three have huge pluses and huge minus. There really isn’t a do it all spotter. But if I could only use one it would be the 65mm Swaro. I’m not a fan of an angled spotter, it’s just personal preference.

Last year I used a spotter onl on one out of 4 western hunts(3 mule deer one elk). I rely on 11x/12x/15x bino on tripod way more. This year out of two western hunts I used a spotter for first time in 20 years of archery elk hunting. Where I was at was very conducive to it and very appropriate due to quality we where after. For reference I normally don’t even take Bino’s archery elk hunting.

This is generally how I roll out west 11x and 15x Maven’s

Also how I roll, and being on a budget I snagged a pair of Meopta MeoStar B1 10x42s for 600 bucks on ebay. I've found them to be outstanding, especially on my tripod.

Appreciate the responses!

I'll say go with 10X binos and a good spotter.
15x with 10x is just not what I would carry, take a spotter over 15x binos.

Leupold Gold Ring spotters are nice and maybe an older HD model for saving some dough. They are lighter weight than a Swaro.

Spotter gets used quite often up here for deer and pronghorn hunting, elk is open country and we just don't need it very often for them but it would be handy in some areas.

I'll admit I am not a Vortex fan , just haven't looked through one I like but haven't looked through all of them. If folks recc. a Vortex based on their experience I would listen.
We have a Swaro that we use all the time, Leupold Gold Ring goes in the pack for field spotting mostly.

I'm more than pleased with my Meopta. I dont remember the exact model (S2?) but it was their more expensive option. Worth every penny IMO

One like I have had forever is in classifieds. Leupold 12-40x60. HD Gold Ring. Im sure there are better out there, but its decent.

Swarovski is the gold standard spotter to me. 80mm for higher power early or late or very long distance but you pay with weight. Leupold gold ring for light and compact in a pack. Straight or angled eye piece depends on your hunting style. Straight for level ground or getting high and glassing down hill. Angled shines. if you glass uphill from below. Straight if you are glassing from a vehicle.

Edit to add: high end binocs on a tripod is what I mostly use. Zeiss Victory are my binoculars of choice. If you are trophy hunting in big country and want to assess trophy quality, binoculars may spot the animals but a spotter will let you spend your time hunting for the quality of animals you are pursuing.

I'm one of the friends with the 80mm Swaro. I found mine like new in the box for $1900. I'd do that again tomorrow and any other day of the week. There's just no comparison in the clarity from a Swaro spotter in my opinion. Size to me would depend on how I'm using it or what kind of deal I ran across.

I'm in the market for one myself, and all the comments above certainly help. Thanks to the OP and the commentors. Glad to be a part of the THF family!

i have the smaller athlon ares gen 2 and really like it and its quite small

I have this one and the Meopta S2. The S2 is as good as spotters get with the exception of the modular Swaros but I'm not paying $4k+ for any glass. The Ares is an amazing performer, especially for what you pay.

I bought a kowa 884 this year and couldn’t be happier. After reading reviews this one is on par or slightly ahead of the swaro in similar size and i paid half the price as a swaro.

With kowa releasing a newer model in the 88 series, you might be able to find a screaming deal on a used kowa 883/884 scope. They are great.

Fyi, 883 is angled and 884 is straight. I bought the straight and it works great for me, but ymmv and its largely personal pref on straight vs angled

Kowa really making huge waves in spotter market

We just got word that we have more TSN-883's and 884's on the way in. Brand new with the TE-11WZII 25-60x eyepiece and Kowa fitted case for only $2,549.99 shipped

If looking for a used spotter checkout, Long Range Hunting Forum. Might find a deal.

As someone who hunts by glass 99% of the time, here are my two pesos.

How happy are you with your current binoculars? If not happy, look at upgrading them first. You do this as it is this pair that you use the most; both in TX and out west. Next is to grab a tripod and head if you do not already have them. Learn how to glass if you do not already know how. There is a massive difference between what many call glassing (reality is they are looking... can tell since they look like Stevie Wonder) and actual glassing.

After a few hunts out west, look at possibly grabbing a dedicated pair of binoculars for glassing big country (ex: SLC 15s).

Side note: Out west you will have places that you can glass for miles yet if you turn around, you can only see mere feet. The point is out west is so varied that there is no single optic that is ideal for all locations and all species. Does not matter if it is binoculars or a spotting scope; you are going to be making a compromise somewhere.

Using your preferred search engine, search for "angled vs straight spotting scopes". Plenty of info out there to show the Pros and Cons of each. I personally prefer the straight as it it is easier to get on target (once something of interest is found with my SLCs). But if you are guiding others, the angled can be a better choice.

Save your pesos while you figure out exactly what/where/how you want to hunt. My Kowa 554 goes with me on mountain hunts (ex: Kodiak mountain goat) or chasing bear in AZ; the small size, light weight, and awesome glass makes it worthwhile to bring along. It is not the best choice for big country and small animals (ex: Coues white tail). My STX 65 goes with me when I need "more" than my Kowa 554 but I still have to be concerned with weight and/or space (most mule deer, Coues deer, elk, etc hunts). My STX 95 gets the nod when I do not care about weight nor space (ex: Coues in Mexico).

I strongly recommend looking at the Kowa 55x, 77x, 88x, and their 99x. The fluorite lenses (all listed except 77x) are awesome and competes very favorably with Swarovski.

Swarovski Optik ATS-65 HD Spotting Scope with 20x60 = 2,300
Kowa TSN-553 55mm Prominar Pure Fluorite Spotting Scope w/ 15-45x Zoom Eyepiece = 1500

vortex is always a great lower cost option


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