Rifle Scopes Optical Performance : Spotters ~V~ Scopes

[Pete E]

From purely an optical performance perspective, are spotting scopes better for say resolving bullet holes at distance than a comparable spotter?

I ask this after reading the thread concerning how far people can spot bullet holes with thier rifle scopes.

A couple of folks with highend x25 Premier and S&B scopes mentioned they could pick bullet holes out to 500m and this struck me as excellent and better than many low end spotters I've seen.

However, if we compare optics of similar quality, magnification and objective lens size, will a spotter usually perform better?

Montana Marine who I think posts here, has mentioned in the past using a SS 16x42mm rifle scope mounted on a tripod as a "field spotter"....Frank has also spoken quite highly of the 15x50mm Vortex Recon spotter as being very practical bit of kit, so I wonder how they compare opically in the field?

Maybe Frank could do a brief side by side comparrison?

 

[samnev]

Re: Optical Performance : Spotters ~V~ Scopes

It depends on the relative quality of the optics on the spotter and the scope. With either my Leupy Vari X III 6-5-20x40 or my NF NXS 8-32x56 I could clearly see 22 cal holes at 100 yards and beyond @ 20x. But until I got my Leupold HD spotter I coluld not se the holes at 100 yards with my cheap Winchester 15-45x60 spotter with it's lousy resolution.