Best spotting scope

[GAME TIME]

I am looking at purchasing a spotting scope I'll be using it for elk, moose, and deer. What would be the s__it Of all scopes on the market today for make, model, and power. If you had a choice, what would be the one:?:.

[Sitkaspruce]

Do a search, lots of info on this subject.

For me it would be the new Leupold HD or the Swarovski HD, but since I do not have the funds for them, I settled for a Baush and Lomb Elite 20x60x70. It does what I need. Not a bad scope for the money.

Do a search though, as you will see lots of great info here on the site.

Cheers

[BlacktailStalker]

I do a lot of research, on everything you can imagine if it even remotely relates to an activity I do as a hobby and with many things, you find there are always 3 top contendors and say 3 mid grade contendors that do just fine without the dent in your wallet of the first three.
The deciding factor for me is almost always the warranty. The warranty usually speaks volumes about the quality of the product.
After that, look for a feature that one product offers that really catches you, that the others don't and go with that one. Or maybe it will be the eye relief, weight, available accessoires etc etc.
That being said, for myself, it will be Swarovski 65mm HD 20-60x eyepiece on a manfrotto tripod. The fitted case is a necessitiy but sucks a$$ that its priced as high as it is after you buy such an expensive unit.
I am 110% satisfied with my EL's I bought last year so I expect the spotter will perform the same and is a major contributing factor to my decision.
Good luck.

[Kechika]

Swarovski HD65 ATS or STS

[KevinB]

It all depends on your limitations for weight and size, if money is no object, but since you didn't say what they were, I'll assume that you would have similar limitations as most other hunters...:wink:
Both the Nikon Fieldscope III 60 mm ED and the Swarovski 65mm ED get a lot of votes as the best of the smaller scopes. This is in birding circles where the users tend to be a lot more demanding (and have more money) than hunters. I haven't looked through either of them, though. I have tried out the Leupold 12-40 (the non-HD) and I liked it a lot, I could only guess that the new HD version that sitkaspruce mentioned would be that much better. Either it or the Nikon would probably be my first choices if I was looking for a scope for hunting (and backpack hunting) and I had some money to burn (I wish!). A nice thing with the Leupold, is that is drops down to 12X at the low end, which is mighty handy on days with lots of mirage, dirty air (think early season up high, in a bad fire year), or when you are doing a lot of scanning with it. And unless the air is perfectly clear and still and you have a really really good (heavy) tripod, it is often hard to use anything past 40X or so anyways.

If weight and size are no object either, and since you asked simply what the best scope is optically, period, have a look at this 9 pound beast:

http://www.betterviewdesired.com/Tele-Vue-85-APO.php