Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Swarovski BTX

Is anyone running these?

I am curious to hear pros and cons.

Thanks in advance

Don’t own one but have used one for a couple hours

Was good. Liked that you could keep both eyes open, felt more natural, unlike keeping an eye shut when using a spotting scope. Don’t recall but thinking it was a 85mm.

Expensive.

Not sure the benefits outweighed the cost. Obviously though, the owner did.

I am intrigued by the 115mm with the BTX. That would gather a lot of light.

Heavy to pack very far though. And you would need a larger, stable, tripod. Which is even more weight.

I used one for several days on a Desert Bighorn hunt, the one I was using had the 95mm Obj.......
To me this is the ultimate set-up for long range glassing for long periods of time.......with one exception
It is fhuqking angled, If they made a straight I would be the first in line to buy one

I own a btx with 65mm lense.
Pro's - crystal clear even in low light, with the 65 fits easily into a day pack, no eye strain after hours of glassing, very good in low light my swarovski 15 hd only add about 5 minutes extra glassing, works great for digiscoping with a cell phone and scope cam adapter, you can trophy grade a couse buck out to a mile or so, you can get a single eyepiece if you need more magnification which I have and carry in my pack also. Light weight compared to most dual eyepiece spotting scopes. It's the perfect system except
Cons- Cost I have close to 7000.00 in my set up, takes up a lot of room in your pack, I use a light weight carbon fiber tripod but need to sit if there is much wind, it is angled which took some getting used to, Lastly and my biggest complaint is eyebox it's very critical you have to be in the perfect position which isn't always easy. They have a forehead rest on them so once you find your spot you can stay there pretty easy, this also causes a problem with my glasses as I don't get a full sight picture with them on. A friend of mine said it is no problem for him even with his glasses on so it just may be a me issue.
Conclusion- You will probably love it for western big game hunting. Probably no need for it anywhere else

Everyone i know has gone away from them. They suck. All the serious glassers i know have switched to coupled spotting scope, usually the TSN 550 Kowas

Get the 115mm objective. It’s badass

Makes glassing comfortable with no eye strain of a single eyepiece. The 115mm objective makes it a straight 35X binocular.

Buy a good carbon fiber tripod like the one shown. It’s from Two Vets and doubles as a shooting platform

Fhuqking Hilarious

Thought of getting one to go with my 95 mm, but the fixed magnification makes me question it.

All,

Thanks for the input! I love the glass on my STS, but the eye strain from squinting through one eye is the main factor. I understand the power limitation, and if I can double my 15X I think it may solve the majority of my needs. I found a shop about 1 hour away that has a demo that I need to check out.

Rcamuglia, nice set up!

Thanks again everyone

You’ll love it