Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Leupold Compact 10-20x 40mm Spotting scope

Just looked at one of these diminutive spotters today and compared with the bigger but cheaper Burris 15-25(?)compact. To my eyes the Leup won by virture of smaller, lighter, while matching the Burris if not defeating it's optics.

Anyone have one of these they'd like to opine on?

Gdv

I have one and really like it. It has better optics than my busnell 18-35x50mm and better light gathering. The 40 mm lense will inhibit it some at daylight and dusk, but I haven't had any problems with it yet. I have used it for night time star gazing with great success. The coated and quality of the glass are amazing compared to the cheaper scopes.

It is very clear and has a decent field of view. I am using it for blacktails, bears and antelope mostly.

I use it mainly for backpack hunting or tossing in the fanny pack. It is very light and small. Hardly takes up any room in the pack.

My friends like the big power optics for getting detail. I find this fine to judge most animals. I don''t think it would be enough for sheep hunting (counting growth rings), but the 20 power works great under most conditions. My bushnell I can rarely get over 25 power due to heat distortion anyways.

The fixed 20X and 25X leupolds are also great. A good friend has been using his fized 20x for years. he has more powerful scopes, but always goes back to the 20x.

Check out Ebay, I got mine brand new for 150 dollars below retail. The 15-30x50mm Leupold is also a very nice scope. I almost got one of those, but could not pass up the price on the smaller scope.

I have looked through the Burris and Alpin scopes, and think the leupold is better clarity and light gathering. I know some have pretty good burris, but it seems hit and miss. You can't fail with Leupold customer service either. Matt

In some hunting I have left the binocular back in camp and only used the 10-20x. For instance, hiking after barren-rgound caribou. I can glass adequately at 10x, then zoom in to 20x (with the scope over cross-sticks) to evaluate heads. But if glasing for hours, and in any sort of dim light, you are better off with a good binocular and bigger scope.

JB

I had one of those little Leupolds for a few years. As a backpacking scope it was very, very nice. The optics were surprisingly good considering its very small size.

I did end up selling mine but, only because I purchased a "doubler" for my binocular and felt that having both was somewhat redundant.

JB

I've simplified my optics to a older porro Swarov 7x42, a Leica Trinovid 10x40 and my main spotter is a Zeis 65T, 15-45x; the missing piece though is a compact spotter, pocket sized, for my pack to evaluate a little more precisely - not that I'm seriously a "bone man" - than my binoc's just as you mentioned on sticks or even a compact camera tripod, and my Zeis is not packable at least not on my planned elk hunt this winter.

Gdv

I really like my 15-30x50 golden ring compact scope.