Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Lightweight Compact Backpacking Spotter

Hey all,

I was looking into these:

http://www.opticsplanet.net/leupold-10-20x40mm-golden-ring-spotting-scope.html

This is my max price range. I wonder though how well these type of lightweight spotters perform. I'll be using it in sub-alpine terrain serching for trophy muledeer and black bear.

Dose anyone have these. I'm open to suggestions. these are very compact and weight 15.8 oz

Thanks for your input.

CD

CD-for me and for my moolah I would find an old Leo straight 20X with the hard body.

I've run one for years and just about love the lil thing, very very tough to beat.

I would imagine you could find one for $200 or so.

Mark D

I actually have a straight 20x nikon that I like alot but it weights 33 oz. I'm trying to cut the weight down on my pack. Last year I went in at 70 pds. I have made serious improvemnents on gear and cut weight also. My pack for a 7-10 day hunt this year is gonna weight in at 55-60 pds. If I gotta eat bark for food it's gonna be 60 lbs or less period! grin

If I recall right the little Leo weighs in at 19 oz, but I could be wrong.

Personally I would not want a 40 mil spotter.

Dober

You can find them cheaper than Midway with a search, and it will be about $50 over your price range. I use mine with a monopod--can't get any lighter than this setup and still be viable.
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=762583

Casey

There is a point where the realistic and wise urge to cut pack weight becomes self-defeating and optics is IT.

If, you hunt here in BC, where you have more species of big game than anywhere in North America and both very complex and restrictive regulations concerning harvest, you MUST have good optics. Precise identification can be tricky due to the variety of potential targets and the heavily forested, rugged terrain.

I use a Zeiss B/GAF Nato-style 8x30 bino, a Leica 10x40 Trino-bino, a 25X Leupy Compact armoured spotter and a Leica 62-16-48 Armoured spotter, with a very highend graphite tripod. I have used a wide assortment of optics since 1964 and to make my living as well as hunt, quality is essential and some weight compromises are as well.

You can cut pack weight substantially by a number of means and perhaps even "relay pack" or "cache" supplies for these trips, 7-10 days IS a LONG unsupported backpack and you may need to re-structure your logistics a bit.

With a roughly 45 lb. pack, I can go for 4-5 days and that is about my limit on a solo hunt as age, injuries and concern over my wife's health make me satisfied with this level of exertion/achievement.

I would start from the basics, sleeping kit, shelter, cooking, pack itself and clothing, THEN, rifle, ammo, knive(s), game bags, etc. and even my gun, BEFORE I would compromise on optics.

For me, the super optics I use make it possible to determine whether a Moose IS actually legal under BC's stupidly complex system as the one I crept up on last year was not and this spares me the fine and humiliation of shooting an animal that is not quite legal....it happens!

I would REALLY consider whether you NEED a tent and check your choices of spare clothing. I take ONE extra gonch and ONE extra pair of socks on a backpack hunt, plus maybe a light jacket and ID Sylponcho for early season.

I use a ID Mega Sola, Sylwing, North Twin PL bag and Thermarest IV plus Ridgerest cut to fit under it only where my torso lies. This weighs under 9 lbs. and will keep me comfortable in any wind, snow, rain down to -10*F; it is super easy to set up and bombproof.

With my gun, hunting gear, ammo and whatever, I am at 25 lbs. so, I can pack good optics, enough grub and H20 for 5 days and hit 45 lbs., no problem. With 10 days grub, you can easily do 55 lbs.and even pack one more gonch and socks to stay fresher.

In a really high quality pack, correctly fitted and my choices here are well known, this is not an unpleasant load and the food is simply jettisoned if/when meat is "made". So, try to get the best optics you can as they really do help your success, IME.

I split the difference, 20x is not enough for me, there's been times trying to judge sheep horns that I said I'd never go back without a 60x'er, but most times you can't really use 60x very efficiently.

I use the Leupie 15x45, and with an eyepatch often do most of my serious glassing like that. Using Zeiss 10x20 compacts for quick looks to determine white rock vs. sheep sorta thing. Since I use it to glass, having the variable power is extremely important to me. It's a compromise on weight, but I agree with kute up to a point, you can have diminishing returns on reducing weight.

Most of life is a compromise, you just have to find the ones that make sense for your life and how you hunt.

I'm gonna have to agree with ya on that 40 mil thing. Thanks for bringing that up.

CD

all i want for christmas is a Nikon 13-30x50 ED Fieldscope at ~ 16 oz.

http://www.swfa.com/pc-6957-830-new-nikon-13-30x50-ed-fieldscope.aspx

Ditto to the 40 mil being the negative for me. I looked at one of these hard in an optics store and passed. Felt handicapped some on a sheep hunt with a 50mm and have had some 60mm spotters useless after sunset. I have a Burris 20x50 lookalike to the Leo that a friend gave me, and have only packed it along once. Don't care for it much though it is super compact.

I've used several, from high end spotters owned by friends to cheapos. For my limited use I like the price/value of my current spotter: 18-36x60mm Alpen. I've rarely been able to use magnification above 40 power in hunting situations. The Alpen is waterproof, medium heavy and bulky as these things go, and I was flat out amazed at how much detail it gave me after sundown on rams about half to 3/4 mile away. I could see the horn tips, tell if they were full curl or not. I didn't expect that much light nor clarity.

Two guiding parameters: Pay as much as you can afford (or are willing to spend for your purpose), and go as big on the objective lens as you dare carry.

+1

-$350

That is real nice!!!!

AP, I like these!! Not a bad price either!

http://www.opticsplanet.net/bushnell-15-45x60mm-elite-spotting-scope-781548p.html

CD

I have one of the little Leupold 10-20x40mm spotters and really like it. I got a great deal on it (200 dollars). it is more like half a high power bonocular than a spotter, due to its small size.

I will admit I am using it for blacktail, bears and elk. I am not a sheep hunter, so don't need to count growth rings.

I have a 18-36x50mm bushnell scope, and the leupold is far superior for light gathering and detail. I was nervous about the light gathering with the 40mm but have found it is much better than my 50mm, likely due to the construction and quality of the glass.

I have used it in the evening and at night for star and moon gazing and it works fine. I also like the 20-30x50mm Leupold but wanted a smaller scope for my backpacking or daypack hunts. I think this scope fits the bill for me.

My buddy has one of the older 20x50mm Leupold scopes, it is a great scope and I would also recommend it. I would select clarity over magnification most the time. Good luck with your decision.

It may have been Muledeer who did an article for a NRA mag that went into the nuts and bolts/mathematics of the optics. IIRC, that particular LEU spoter came out pretty good. In addition, Boddington did a piece on it as well which confirmed this in the field.

I'm getting one myself for certain situations and don't see anything at all wrong w/ it, but, I'd suspect that if you needed to glass all day and needed to count hairs on a gnat, it would not be my choice.

GVA

I have been using a Nikon Spotter XL for backpack Mulie hunts, use it for antelope alot as well. I choose that particular scope since it was the best I could afford and seemed to be a good trade off on power and size. A couple of seasons ago I used a friends 65mm Ziess Diascope on a mulie hunt. A bit more weight and bulk than the Nikon but preformance was night and day. Will likely upgrade in the next few years.

I don't really see much of a reason to have a scope that is not capable of 30 or 40 X. Binos will do most of what a 20x spotter could. Often I will be looking at an animal that might be 2 miles away.

On a backpack hunt the tripod is going to be big deal. Especially at the higher power. A POS tripod will hold back a good scope. Still looking for a good lightweight tripod.