Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics What is the spotting scope equivalent buy to the Yosemite bino's

The Yosemite bino's I bought for my wife are great for the cost. Is there as good a buy in the spotting scope world?
Yes, I know that bad glass can not be cheap enough to be worth buying, but the Yosemite is not bad glass at all.

Dino in Reno

Not familiar with Yosemite but if your looking for a decent spotter for the $$$$ IMO the Bushnell Discover 15-60x60 is an excellent choice.

Hey Dino:

I am certainly not as experienced or expert on optics as a lot of the guys here, but I'll just give you my two cents based on my limited, recent experience.

I have been in the process of upgrading my optics, but on a pretty limited budget. I wanted a new spotter that was decent but not costing an arm and a leg. I read the recent 2008 spotting scope review from Living Bird magazine (I think that is where it was, a report from the Cornell birding lab, or something), and they had great things to say about the Vortex Stokes Sandpiper spotter(15-45x65). So, I went ahead and took the plunge, got it for about $300 from Optics Planet. Anyway, it performs great, just like the review said. I can see .223 holes at 200 yards easily. It is not too large or heavy, but gives plenty of magnification for my uses. I am thrilled with it, especially considering the very reasonable cost.

Just my opinion. Oh, and I, too, recently bought a pair of Yosemite binos, and am just as happy with those--I love getting great products at wallet-friendly prices!

Thanks Crusader, that's the kind of info I'm looking for. There's cheap, and then there's inexpensive. I like inexpensive :-)

Dino in Reno

Dino,

I think the Sandpiper is a good choice. I have heard several positive reviews for it recently. $300 in the spotting scope world is fairly inexpensive and would, IMO, be entirely comparable to the Yosemites in a price versus performance comparison.

I cannot compare it to the Sandpiper but I recently picked up a Celestron Ultima 65 for a piddly $125. I expected something just to sit in my living room to look out at the back fields. It does that and actually performs a bit better than I expected for the price especially at its lower and mid magnification ranges. It is not at the quality level of my Pentax 65 ED but it is also about 1/6th the price. I would recommend it for someone looking to spend next to nothing on a spotter and yet still expecting a decent level of performance.

I'd say the Nikon Sky and Earth series. They have been out of commission for a couple of years now, but price/quality of the fixed 20X60 was a real deal.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, a spotting scope is the last upgrade for my hunting kit this year.

Dino in Reno
(who is crossing his fingers for the hunt draws this year)