Spotting Scope and tripods

[CanadianSniper]

I'm sure this is going to be a hot topic. But I've been shooting and hunting from long range for over 12 years now. And have never invested in a good spotting scope. And it's really really really time. I've gone down this rabbit hole and am being swallowed up by all the info.

Now I have looked through some glass and know what I like I believe. But looking out of a window in a store is not the same as actually using them on field. Carrying them on pack hunts. Figuring out all the little things that drive you crazy in real life use. I currently run gen 2 vortex PST 5x25 MRAD FFP on all of my rifles. I love those scope. So I immediately want to look at vortex glass. Is there a major quality difference between the viper and razor? I personally see zero difference in the viper PST vs razor rifle scopes.

I know the swaros are amazing. I've used the 80 HD and man it's nice. Those of you who have used the vortex in the field. Can they even compare to the swaros?

The tripod question I feel like is more important to me then the glass. I don't care how good your glass is. When you can manipulate it how you want and smoothly. You may as well throw it off the mountain. I want stable, I don't mind a little extra weight. But the manipulation is the key for me. I've had a lot of wobbly heads. Balls that arf too loose. But then 3 handle pan styles that are too stiff and jerky. What's the fan favorite here for handling rugged hunts.

Please educate me.

 

[Aldon]

I just went through some of the same decisions.

I was torn between the Newer Razor and the Viper 85's.

I could see very little but some small improvement with the Razor.

The deciding factors for me is that I wanted a reticle. As well as value.

I found the Razor demo unit for 1050 at aaoptics. And bought a mrad eyepiece.

as far as tripod, I'm narrowing down options but I'm leaning towards carbon fiber in K & F probably and the most critical will be the head. Probably a manfrotto 410jr gear head.

 

[CanadianSniper]

I just went through some of the same decisions.

I was torn between the Newer Razor and the Viper 85's.

I could see very little but some small improvement with the Razor.

The deciding factors for me is that I wanted a reticle. As well as value.

I found the Razor demo unit for 1050 at aaoptics. And bought a mrad eyepiece.

as far as tripod, I'm narrowing down options but I'm leaning towards carbon fiber in K & F probably and the most critical will be the head. Probably a manfrotto 410jr gear head.

So minusthe reticle you would have went with the viper?

 

[muleystalker]

Look at the KOWA Spotters, I had a Razor and returned it. I bought a
KOWA TSN 663 Prominar and it is a great piece of glass and is light enough to pack hunting. I also use it for spotting in F-Class and Long range Varmint silhouette. I also use a KOWA TSN 82sv with a fixed 25x LER eyepiece for watching mirage on the line shooting F-Class.
For a pack tripod for hunting I use a SIRUI carbon fiber with a Outdoorsman Jim White Pan Head 2.0 and its a stealer combo. At the range I use a Manfroto 190 tripod with a Feisel Fluid pan head.
There is a big difference between the Razors and the Swaro's and KOWA's

 

[Aldon]

No. It did get me to pull the trigger but the clarity of small holes at distance was enough I'd have still gone that route. Not sure it's worth another 600 but at 1050 it is no brained for me....

bTW, I have settled on a tripod. PIG0311 tripod as it is stout enough that if need be it can be used as a rifle tripod. Gets great reviews and is reasonable.

 

[Schnyd112]

I have used the vortex viper, razor 11-33x55 and the bigger one. We also have a swaro 20-60x80. Hands down the swaro is cleaner, brighter, better glass. It has saved countless hours of chasing deer we didn't need a better look at because we could see them from where we were. It is not fun to carry up a mountain and is even less fun if it is hot and mirage is bad.

my go to right now is an 11-33x55 razor HD on a fairly rigid aluminum bipod with a manfroto mhxpro-bhq2 ball head. The ball head is awesome. I have used the twisty sticks, the standard for lower end tripods, the trigger and this ball head and the ball head is by far my favorite. Easy to manipulate, easy to tighten down, good stability and fairly light weight, at least compared to the trigger. Unless you go to the RRS type tripod heads, which I am limited using, I can definitely recommend the razor over the viper, the swaro over the razor, and a ball head over a trigger head.

swaro is in the first picture, razor in the second two. As you may realize, we use the swaro from waaaay further away. The small scope is the one that gets carried to the top now though.

 

[dfanonymous]

Tripods weight capacity rating matters. You can start there.

I use shadowtech pig and manfroto tripods. Sometimes I set it up like a tree to add my spotter, kestrel and laser to it on one platform. I use the manfroto for shooting off of because of how low it goes. Currently I'm using a feisol cb-50 ball head and on the other a Kruger pistol grip head which I don't think they make anymore.

 

[Len Backus]

I moved this thread to Scopes and Optics sub-forum

 

[TexasTB]

Just went through same thing. Sold a few rifles and scopes to fund Swarovski STX, 85mm objective, Slik 634 Carbon tripod and Sirui VA-5 panhead. Definitely a buy once, cry once scenario. Lots of good info here, RokSlide and sandsarchery forums.

 

[CanadianSniper]

Do you guys find the 85mm swaro heavy to pack up the mountain? Do you notice a huge difference in image quality at long range with the smaller unit ?

 

[Grizzhunt]

I ran the first gen razor for a long time, I got a screaming deal on the new swaro 95 and sold it. In my experience vortex isn't even in the same playing field. Even the old swaro stuff isn't compared to the new. We had some hunters come in from Texas, one guy had an older 80 hd and the new btx paired with a 95mm. I looked threw the older 80 and compared it with mine and it literally looked like it was 10 year old technology. Just kinda depends on how much $$ you wanna spend.

 

[sp6x6]

Ive run the old 15 45x60 Leupold for years because size is nice only 12'' long.I have a small leo that I gave to my son that I packed.For rig use I have a kowa 774,use the 30W,eye the most,but have the 20-60.Run an outdoorsman for 20 years.Pistol grip.I have fabed dual mnts,lazer/scope.Window mnt for pistol.Ball heads,pan heads.Have a smaller says leupold,but some lighter alum,that I pack and goes about 2', can use as a rifle rest also,smaller by a bit than my compact outdoorsman.My next scope is going to be a kowa 554 ,15-45x 55,28 oz.And after seeing Greyfox's gear Im going get a rrs anvil 30,ultimatly for my outdoorsman and praire hunting