Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Spotters- straight or angled?

I much prefer straight

You can sit behind an angled spotter for hours without much for neck strain. You also do not have to have a tripod that is as high to work an angled scope. I have premium spotters that are straight and angled and I much prefer angled.

Both work well. Angled ones are easier for groups of different sized people watching animals, or spotting game high above you in mountains or, if turned sideways, from shooting from the bench.

For quickly finding and examining game I prefer straight.

I do too..

It's a preference thing. I definitely like straight spotters better, in general, but find angled scopes to be advantageous in certain scenarios.

458Win;
Good morning to you sir, I hope the weather in your section of Alaska is behaving and you are all well.

This year for the first time in 31 years, I spent some serious time chasing sheep as an old friend and hunting companion was drawn for a next to impossible to get any ram tag on the mountains behind the house.

Since it's such a rarity, a few of us locals who know that area volunteered to help out, but frankly it was selfish for me anyways as it gave me an excuse to look for rams once more.

Anyways sir, all that to say is we found what you've written to be exactly our experience.

All the best to you all on your hunts this fall.

Dwayne

Thanks Duane, I am still at our Homestead on the Alaskan peninsula finishing up butchering our last moose and cleaning up after the season.

Steep downhill = straight
Slight downhill = straight
Level = straight
Slightly uphill = straight
Steep uphill = angled

These are my preferences
To each, his own.

I would add that for a position target shooter the angled is also best as one inlynhas to move their head a little to see the hit.

Maybe I have limited ability to rotate my neck, but shooting prone or off the bench the angled scopes just don't feel right. I've pondered whether a scope that splits the difference, i.e. a shallower angle, would be ideal. No such animal exists.

Straight is my preference. In the open country that I live in, spotting from the vehicle is where at least 50% of my spotter use occurs. Angled spotters suck from a window mount. I carry my spotter with me almost every time I hunt and have never felt at a disadvantage with a straight spotter. I might feel differently if I were looking upward at a sharp angle on a regular basis.

I have found straight to be the easier use when shifting from binos to spotter on the tripod, as an angled spotter makes me have to lower the tripod to adjust for the different ocular height.

What are they? I have no experience with spotters but I’m interested in getting one as well

I use an angled ATS 65mm Swaro but may go straight if I ever upgrade. I do find I have less neck strain when using an angled for long periods, and having them lower to the ground is nice too for stability, even if it is just a few inches.

One thing I haven’t see mentioned is durability. I feel like I need to be more careful with an angled when cinching down my pack to keep from torquing the eyepiece and damaging it. It seems that a straight eyepiece would be easier to keep ‘in line’ with the pressure when you really torque down pack straps. Hopefully that makes sense.

Maybe it is just me being too cautious and in reality is a non issue…

Phil,

I agree with all you've said, and will add that for practical-style shooting and competition, with multiple targets at different locations, I've found straight to be preferable since it allows the user to switch between targets quickly and easily. If a guy attends some PRS-style matches, the spotters he sees will be almost exclusively straight, IME.

Pretty much just what was mentioned above, IME. If looking at a steep uphill angle, a straight spotter requires you to get lower to see through it. Additionally, if shooting from prone or off a bench, a straight spotter requires you to get off the rifle and move more to look through the scope. Some people prefer angled for truck-mounted use, but I'm not one of them unless looking steeply uphill.

I'm not a short guy, at 6', and I have a he11 of a time getting the window low enough to get my eye above the eyepiece on an angled spotter when using a window mount. Even on a spotter with a rotating eyepiece, you can't cover the same amount of country because you can't look to the extreme right or left as easily. Straight is FAR better from a pickup window.

You're probably right about durability, though I can't speak from experience on that since I've not broken the eyepiece off of either straight or angled scopes. But I do find straight scopes to be more packable, given their profile. Though if OAL is an issue when packing, angled can actually be slightly beneficial since angled scopes are usually a bit shorter in length.

For me the only advantages are tripod can be slightly lower, looking up steep slopes, when multiple people are using the same spotting scope or a person “glasses” with a spotting scope. IMO, glassing with a scope is not as productive and a person misses more so is moot to me.