Spotter for 1500yrds and in?

[FUNCTIONAL]

So I'm slowly finding a few places around me for 1500yrd shots and decided a spotter is worth the investment at this point. I am trying to keep it under $900 and all I'm trying to do is spot the impacts on steel up to 1500yrds. I don't need to see bullet holes on paper at any distance but would like to see the hit marks on steel.

Just from the optics I've been through I'm kind of partial to Vortex with their warranty and quality but if I get a better product for the money I'm not opposed to anything else.

I've been eyeing the Viper HD line and the Razor HD 11-33x50. Not sure if they clarity increase from the Viper to Razor will overcome the max power difference between them.


Any help would be appreciated in what powers will work and pointing me in the correct direction. When it comes to spotters and past 1K I really don't know shit.

 

[FourT6and2]

I am in the same boat. Shooting 1500 yards and in. I was going to go with the Vortex. But I found a good deal on the Meopta Meostar S2 from Sport Optics. It's awesome. Better optical quality than anything I've seen. And you should be able to get one with the eyepiece for about $1800. I posted another thread with video looking through the scope if you look for it. If you're trying to keep it under $900, you're going to have problems seeing anything at 1500 yards. I did try a Sightron that was pretty nice and very affordable. You're going to need more than 33x magnification. Might as well just use your rifle scope at that point if your spotter doesn't go higher than 33x. My S2 goes up to 70x and even with mirage, it's easy to spot at distance.

http://shop.opticsplanet.com/sightr...4A8b1zYlBKNL9TZ5IQM7PRAflwlL90U59sxoCSIjw_wcB

 

[Sheldon N]

At $900 I'd buy a used Razor HD 20-60x85 (prior generation). There are some good deals out there with people selling their spotter to upgrade to the newest generation Razor.

 

[devldogs55]

Edited.. I think they're sold out now, but I'm sure EuroOptic was running a phenomenal deal on the Gen 1 Razor 20-60x80.

 

[MilDot1960]

So I'm slowly finding a few places around me for 1500yrd shots and decided a spotter is worth the investment at this point. I am trying to keep it under $900 and all I'm trying to do is spot the impacts on steel up to 1500yrds. I don't need to see bullet holes on paper at any distance but would like to see the hit marks on steel.

Just from the optics I've been through I'm kind of partial to Vortex with their warranty and quality but if I get a better product for the money I'm not opposed to anything else.

I've been eyeing the Viper HD line and the Razor HD 11-33x50. Not sure if they clarity increase from the Viper to Razor will overcome the max power difference between them.


Any help would be appreciated in what powers will work and pointing me in the correct direction. When it comes to spotters and past 1K I really don't know shit.

I think you are getting this whole HD thing confused, The term HD when it comes to Glass does not mean the same thing as it does when we talk of Cameras and TV's,

HD Glass does not mean High Definition, What it does mean is that as the sun goes down the Greens vanish from our eyes spectrum and gets over powered by the Blues in the spectrum and what HD and ED Glass does is correct this for as long as possible after sundown and before Sun-up by boosting the contrast/Green colours in the spectrum, where as Cameras and TV's the term HD refers to the Resolution of them

All HD/ED Glass will do for you is let you see for about another half an hour after sundown and half an hour before sunrise,

Leupold and Vortex call it HD Glass and Bushnell call it ED Glass but they are both the same,

Hope this helps.

John.

 

[FUNCTIONAL]

The HD in the names was more for reference on which Vortex models I was looking at. I know everyone has their brand of "HD" glass and it can vary on what you get for that particular brand. I do know at least in rifle scopes the Viper glass is not as clear as the Razor...how this translates to spotters and if for my intended goal I will benefit much from the big price jump. I really didn't know the specifics you just pointed out though Mildot1960...always good to know a little more.


Sheldon N....not a bad suggestion...didn't know they sold for that price point used. Will definitely keep my eyes peeled when I have the cash in hand...just doing my research at this point.

 

[FourT6and2]

I've never heard of ED glass having anything to do with low-light or performance after sunset or anything to do with contrast or color.

ED stands for Extra Low Dispersion Glass. HD is just a marketing term and means the same thing. When white light (what we see) passes through a lens, it is diffracted and dispersed. That means that the red, green, and blue light that makes up an image your eye sees are not all focused to the same spot. And you see that as chromatic aberration—you see color fringing on the boundaries of objects in the image. ED glass helps focus all three colors of light to the same spot so your eye sees one image, instead of ghosting. Aberration can't be eliminated completely. But it can be controlled and reduced. That's what ED glass does. And there are different types of ED glass as well.

And you can see different kinds of chromatic (axial) aberration depending on where each color is focused to. If red and green are focused to the same point but blue isn't, you get one type of fringing, if green and blue are focused, but red isn't, you get another, and so on.

The net BENEFIT of ED glass reducing CA and other aberrations might be that you can see better when it starts to get dark (among other things). But that is not the explicit effect of ED glass, in and of itself. ED glass merely has less dispersion than non-ED glass. That's it. Is ED glass worth the added price? I think so. Then you have even more expensive things like fluorite lenses and lens coatings and apochromatic lenses, and so on.
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[MilDot1960]

The thing with all this HD/ED talk is it does get confusing, The ED Glass is only a Colour/Spectrum Correction Coating and the HD thing is also a Coating that helps low light correction, The Glass is the Glass is the Glass etc

All this will drive you Nuts, because it seems that Leupold seem to use at leased 4 types of coating and they all seem to cross over in to each others territory, But when you read what Bushnell say that makes even more to think about but they only tell you part of the story.

The Viper and the Razor are both HD models, so I would think that the price reflects either the build quality, All this ED/HD talk is just muddying the water, So just pick the one that works best for your eyes and your Budget.

I have read all the ED/HD stuff from all the well known makers and I still think that most of it goes right over our heads and most of us our eyes are too old to get the full benefit out of a $3/4000 spotting scope and anyone with 40/50/60 year old eyes is not going to see any major improvements between a 4k scope or a $1200 Scope, and anyone who says otherwise is talking Horse Feather, Health is a major part in this and also People who have had laser eye surgery are not included in this because their eyes are not the same as most of us.

 

[NukeMMC]

Used Kowa TSN

 

[southerngolfer]

I use the gen 1 vortex razor 20-60x85 and its has amazing view. We've used this to spot deer well after sunset. My old bushnell spotter is decent but really distorted past 500 yards. The razor at 900 is still very clear, not crystal clear, but clear