Spotting Scope under $300

NDHunter

Veteran member
Feb 25, 2011
1,166
25
North Dakota
Cabelas right now has the Nikon Prostaff on sale for $300. I bought one and while I haven't used it hunting yet, I have used it out scouting and am VERY pleased with it.
 

Bitterroot Bulls

Veteran member
Apr 25, 2011
2,326
0
Montana
I have owned the Nomad. Not a bad scope for the money. It suffers from mediocre resolution, and shows significant Chromatic Aberration (CA). The Theron utilizes an Extra Low Dispersion (ED) Objective to cut down on CA.

You know how birders are about their optics. Here is a birder's take comparing the Saker to a much more expensive Nikon Fieldscope:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=193685&highlight=Theron+Saker
 

karaRobert

New Member
Aug 13, 2018
4
0
San Jose
To save more money, used Leupold 15-45X60 spotting scope for Highpower in the Midwest or in the last two years. It's a "OK" scope, with a glass that will show mirage well, and you can see .22 bullets holes at 200 , sometimes three ... but never beyond this range.
 
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HighPlainsHunter

Active Member
Mar 1, 2018
419
3
Laramie
In that price range I'd probably look for a used Nikon ED50 or a Pentax pf65. Steiner also made an 80mm spotter with fixed eye piece that I would probably look for in that price range.

From my experience most spotting scopes with a MSRP of under 300 are not worth looking through if you have good binos, especially at high power, low end spotters are nearly worthless IMO.

Better to save your money and if you have low or mid range binos go ahead an upgrade them first. Someone else on her put it like this, better to have one ferarri, than a garage full of Chevy/ford/dodge/etc.....
 

JimP

Administrator
Mar 28, 2016
7,070
8,347
70
Gypsum, Co
My first spotter was a Baush & Lomb Discover 15-60x60 that I purchased close to 30 years ago. And while it isn't the best out there it is far from the worst. I think that I paid under $300 for it and they can still be bought for around $100 today. I even had a camera attachment for it that made it one hell of a telephoto lens.

I still pull it out when I want to look up at the moon or the stars.
 

Catahoula12

Very Active Member
Apr 26, 2013
709
123
Colorado, was Az.
Upgrade your binos first. Seriously save your money for a high end spotter. I would be bummed that I spent the money on something that ended up a disappointment. Good luck!
 

TheGrayRider

New Member
May 26, 2018
9
7
Midwest/South
Cheap never lasts. Send the cheap glass directly to the landfill.

Save as much money as you can and buy alpha glass - Swaro, Zeiss, Lieca,...

You will not regret spending the money. Life is short!
 

hoshour

Veteran member
Of all the advice I have heard and read, maybe the most consistent advice on western hunting is to save up and buy the best glass you can afford. You will see more game, and if you're glassing a lot, like Scott said, it will literally save you from getting headaches.

What you can afford varies with how long you save. Be patient and save up. You can also look for used or demos at several places like B&H or SWA or if you are a little more adventurous and use PayPal or make sure you get a money back guarantee, eBay or adhuntr. Adhuntr.com is a listing of Craigslist ads from all over the country.
 

CForest

New Member
Nov 8, 2015
45
0
Richland MT
Like others have said, save your money. The spotter is one thing that a cheap budget definitely wont get you much. I am disappointed every time I look through my $600 spotter...