Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Some Things that Worked... Some that Did Not

I have stolen the little spotter from Art, and have been negligent in doing much comparison work with it. It easily blows the entry level Vortex stuff out of the water (regardless of magnification), as expected. I ran it against my Leupold 12-40X60, and it certainly matches that, but I haven't been able to put it to a real test.

I don't have a big 2 spotter to run it against, but am hoping to make a run to the Chugach and see how it does in the real world in the next couple days.

The sheep guys I talk with in AK say they are always looking for MORE magnification in order to determine one of the three legal sheep parameters.
Now we realize more power comes with weight and size.
Does the smallest Razor have enough power to make the grade?

In my experience I value resolution and clearity above more magnification, hard to get magnification, great resolution and clarity in a small package.

Agreed, no serious sheep hunters that I know would take power over resolution. 20X is often all one can use anyway.

CWH2 was serious about stealing the spotter as he is headed out to hunt sheep and refused to return the spotter for me to use on a caribou hunt!

After a bit of thinking about it and because of a certain December AZ Coues whitetail tag a 20-60x85 Razor is headed this way. I will do some comparisons between the three different Vortex scopes and anything high-end I can find also.

What tripod were you using? Also, any thoughts on the smaller tripod by Vortex? Nearby store has both the spotter and tripod there and might go pick them both up tonight or tomorrow.

I just got back from the sheep trip, and played with the little spotter quite a bit. I did find myself wanting more power several times, mainly when trying to judge rams for legality, and also comparing rams.

It is certainly a compact little thing, and with a hunting partner 5 years younger and in better shape, I really appreciated that. We switched spotters back and forth a few times, and although his Nomad (replaced by the diamondback I think) was not as clear, I could make out horn tips that I could just not see with the little spotter maxed out.

It is certainly an interesting scope, and impressive for what it is. I think I'll just pay the weight penalty for a 60-65mm.

I also got a couple looks through a pair of 10x42 Razor HD binos, and they are seriously nice. I was really impressed with those, and my sheep partner spotted a lot more sheep than he did in the past, upgrading from Nikon 12X's.