Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Using an Angled Spotter?

I've always used straight eyepieces on spotters, and have gotten very used to them. I understand the pros and cons of angled vs straight also. Can a guy who's used straight models for 20 years get used to and enjoy using an angled spotter? My predominant hunting areas are relatively flat, rolling country. Occasionally rough up and down, and yes, due to 3 knee surgeries I try to use it with a window mount when I can (20% of the time). What are the odds I like the angled?

I have used both and really do not like the angled scopes. That being said, I'm a stubborn S.O.B. and don't like change and I started with a straight scope.

For glassing up above you it's great but how often do we do that? I will try to get high and glass down every chance I get. Last season guiding a sheep hunt here in CO I had no problem with my straight spotter when glassing high.

I spend a lot of time out on the plains and when I use my window mount I sometimes need it quickly, the straight spotter is so damn easy to use. Knowing the country you hunt I would stay with the straight spotter but that's just my opinion

I tried to talk a buddy out of purchasing an angled spotter last season but he swore up and down that he needed an angled scope. At the end of the season he was pissed he didn't go with the straight eyepiece.

Drum

Thanks Drum!

As a person who has always used a straight scope, I feel pretty much the same, untill I tried an angled scope where the tripod mount was on a collar that could rotate around the body of the scope.

This makes an angled spotter *far* more practical, and the design really shines when using a spotter on the range, especially from a bench.

i prefer the angled spotters that rotate in their mounts like Pete E mentions. even on flat ground or out of the truck window.

but, there have been threads here that went both ways, so i guess it probably boils down to what you started out with.

If you have a rotating one, hands down the angled, I've even set one up to where I was laying on my back and a towel over most of my head in the heat.... and able to spot with it that way. The variable uses are there, with straight, you have straight and thats it.

I"ll admit I started match shooting with an angled so it isn't hard for me to use.

It really depends on your usage - and it does take getting used to "finding" objects with an angled spotting scope. But for me, now that I am used to it, I would NEVER go back. Using a shorter tripod, having less neck fatigue, using it at a 45 degree angle at the range, being slightly shorter in my back pack all means a lot to me. There is not a right or wrong to this post, it just what work for you! Filbert

P.S. Anyone out there with an angeled Leica 62/65mm spotting scope they want to sell?

I preferred angled spotter too. As long as the body can rotate 90 degree, there is not much difference between angled or straight. Because most people like angled spotter, the resale value is probably better with angled one too. my $0.02

I'm just the opposite, but this post kinda ties it together for me.

I started shooting matches with a straight spotter, and had no problems.

Then somebody convinced me that I needed an angled spotter. Picked up the tried and true Kowa that so many competitive users use. I had a helluva time with it. I had a hard time finding the target quickly. It just wasn't "natural" to me at all. Once I found the target, I was OK, but only cause the scope was locked onto a tripod and never had to move through the whole string.

For hunting, where I need to move it and find stuff in a variety of locations, I can't imagine using an angled eyepiece.

I also can't get used to a two stage trigger either, so maybe I'm just strange, especially on a High Power range.

In NZ the mountains are quite steep so if you use your spotter for finging alpine game then you will get a neckache if use a straight spotter. Standard practise for thar hunting is to glass from the riverbed and then plan your climb based on where the animals are. For that reason everyone uses the angled ones.

What if you're looking down at fairly steep angles? I can see how looking upward at steep hills and angled would be fairly handy, but not looking steeply downward.

I started out with a straight spottier and I switched over to the angled a few years ago. When I first received the angled spotter I thought that I had made a mistake, but after getting used to the angled design, I love it and would never go back to a straight. The angled design will rotate and is much more comfortable to view through, up, down, what ever the direction.

Coldbore, I was the same way... but I do a lot of mountain hunting and my buddy has a Leica 62 Televid angled scope that I got to use and try out. It made such a difference in my neck fatigue and I was able to use a shorter tripod. 90% of the time we are glassing from low to high... to the 45 angle is perfect, when we do need to glass "down the hill" we rotate the eyepeice to the side... No problem. Now I am looking for a Leica angled spotting scope to replace my straight Spacemaster.

Thats an issue but generally we spot from the valley bottom and then plan a climb. You leave the spotting scope behind for the climb and take binos with you.

For the last 20+ years I'd always "believed" that a straight tube spotter was easier to acquire game with... until I spent time behind an angled scope. No I don't own the scope, but where I work I've used it every day for the last three months glassing everything from Bighorn Sheep to Elk and Moose.

My next spotter will be angled. I'd never go back to a straight tube...

I agree. I think an angled eye piece is more comfortable for long term viewing, and it allows a lower scope position which stays out of the wind better.

Can you provide a recommendations as to which brands/models do so?

For one, my Pentax 80mm does! Wish I could help with more, but others may chime in...

The Vortex Razor HD has and I suspect angled spotters from Swaro, Leica and Zeiss also have this feature...

I used straight spotters for years; 28+. Bought a Zeiss angled, 15-45 that also rotates. I'll never go back to straight. It's so much more adjustable to "your" position.

Alan