Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics budget spotter for targets only?

What's a good inexpensive spotting scope that will only be used to see bullet holes in paper at up to 500 yards? The cheaper the better but I don't want a blurry piece of crap either. It just doesn't need the features that would make it comfortable for looking for game hours on end.

I found a Bausch and Lomb Elite, lightly used for less than $200. It is an excellent range scope. Seeing bullet holes at 500 yards ? Not sure.

Going a little out of the box, a cell phone connected game camera would probably be a lot cheaper than a spotter that can resolve bullet holes at 500 yds

I'm not sure where a guy would look for a used spotting scope, but I for one am blown away at the big dollars that they are charging for spotting scopes today. Lots of years ago I bought a new 15-60x Redfield spotting scope for like $250.00 and it is as good today as it ever was. Maybe a gun show as I'm seeing way better firearms at those shows than I saw just a few years back. Old guys are probably selling off some good stuff before the relatives bring it to the pawn shop.

Maybe bullet holes at 500 is way optimistic but I would like to see them on paper at 300.

I'm not sure about 500 yds unless you're shooting a 5 inch gun but I bought a minox md 50 from Doug and it's been a great little scope.

Check out this little Kowa scope:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1349416-REG/kowa_tsn_501_20_40x50_compact_spotting.html

A couple of points: You are not going to be able to see bullet holes reliably at anywhere near 500 yards, unless your bullets are mighty large or conditions are perfect, and probably not even then.

As a point of reference, I shoot .22 rimfire matches out to 200 yards, and I have difficulty seeing bullet holes in paper with my Zeiss spotter cranked up to 60x. When I shoot long range I use Shoot-N-C targets. One trick that helps discern bullet holes in paper is to put a red filter on your scope.

Also, pay attention to eye relief. None of the variable power spotters regardless of price have really good eye relief. A notable exception is the old red Redfield spotter. I had one, and though the optics weren't up to those of the newer scopes, the eye relief was better than any I have seen since. One exception is my Minox with a 21-42x eye piece designed with longer eye relief. Still, there is no way you are going to get really good eye relief with a variable scope, at least not at the higher powers.

Paul