Spotters Help building a spotting scope

[daleyj45]

Gentlemen, I come to you seeking your infinite knowledge

Bossman wants me to build him a spotting rig. Says he's willing to spend around 10k. My initial thoughts are Leupold mk4 12-40 with tmr reticle because it seems to be popular and seems to have a lot of available accessories. Would like some sort of mounting system like a SLICK kit or something similar. If im way off on any of this stuff please correct me, thats what im here for. Would like to get clip on night vision that could be mounted on rifle as well as in front of spotting scope (if this blows the budget of 10k out of the water that's cool just let me know what to expect.)

Buy once cry once mentality on this one boys. Pictures encouraged.

Input that I would like:
is there a better scope that I should be looking at?
is 12-40 power enough magnification? (shooting out to 1000 ish)
best reticle?
mounting kit options?
night optics (what is a good setup and what price to expect)

I have a pig0311 tripod that it can go on but may get a dedicated tripod for it as well.

 

[robozebra]

I have a Spotter 60 with SLICK-H. It’s a great spotting rig. Had a PVS 27 with it. Wasn’t a big fan of that set up though with the magnification. Bet Spotter 45 with SLICK-H and a PVS-27 with illuminator or a thermal (? xELR) would be hard to beat. Now, the thermal would go WAY over $10k by itself. Throw a radius or if budget allows RAPTAR or STORM (I had a RAPTAR and now have a STORM). I have my rig sitting on RRS tripod. Very stable platform.

 

[Conqueror]

10k is a lot of dough, what exactly does your boss want to do with it? You can get top of the line spotter, tripod, cage, etc. well within that budget, but if you’re trying to get a 15x or 20x capable thermal clip on within that budget it’s going to get very challenging.

 

[longshot2000]

If you go with Mark 4, be sure to get the Cadex inverted cage.






If interested, DM me. Not a commercial, but these are fantastic, and we keep a few in-stock for special requests.

 

[fdkay]

@gr8fuldoug

 

[brianf]

is this product research or a actual project for fun

it sounds like you looking to make a product

you do know building a high quality magnified optic is not something you "just do"

never mind the acquisition of lenses from the same suppliers which other spotting scopes are made

sorry to say im thinking troll...hope im wrong

 

[kthomas]

What exactly is the purpose of this setup?

Binoculars are a lot less fatiguing to look through than spotting scopes, and a good set of 15x bino's is more than enough for shooting 1,000 yards. The king of the hill is the Swarovski 15x56 SLC HD's, though other solid contenders would be the 15x56 Meopta Meostar's, 15x56 Zeiss Conquest HD, and Maven B.5 15x56 or 18x56. Bino's won't have a reticle option though.

Night optics is probably going to be a big "depends". I have little experience with that, perhaps someone like @TheHorta or @wigwamitus can help with that. While $10k may seem like a lot, it's going to be very easy to exceed this budget just in this category alone.

RRS is the gold standard with tripods. They sell attachment accessories. Or you can go with something like the Abel Table. Again, depends on what gear you end up with and how you want to use it. I'll let others fill in this gap.

 

[LAW-DOG]

Binos are great for spotting. Swaros are the best but not by much over the meostars & maven b5. If you had them side by side you would be surprised just how close in quality they are. The 15x56 are best on a tripod but if you want to hand hold them too the swaros are the easiest to hold by far do to ergonomics & weight. After testing them all I went with the maven b5 18x56. I liked the b5 18x power vs 15x meostar & they have 15% off coupon code going on. Only thing I don’t like is the maven faster focus vs the others. I really liked the slower focus of the vortex uhd 18x56. If you had to have 15x then the meostar is tough to beat especially with the sales for it going on. Sale price of the maven b5 is like $1350 & the meostar is around $1450. With those prices it makes the swaro a hard sell for not much gain. When swaro comes out with the NL Pure then it will be a big jump in performance vs maven/meopta/vortex & I will definitely pick one up. If you really want a good spotting scope that has great optics & a reticle checkout the Nikon 82mm ED monarch. A lot of the birdforum guys say it close to the kowa 88 or swaro atx & I agree. I got the mrad 30x & 30-60 wide fov eyepiece. Manfrotto 290 & 128rc head for a tripod is really good for the $$ & so is benro. RSS are higher end & start out around a $1000 go up from there. I think for shooting from a tripod RSS is a great choice but for bino or spotter the manfrotto or benro $150-250 range works great