Spotting Scopes & Binoculars

After our little trapping trip it became very obvious that we where lacking on the optics department. In the past with money being tight i have always gone with cheap binoculars . Bushnell and Tasco, mainly because if a 3 year old gets hold of them it doesn't matter too much if they break.

The wife (Latrell) said its time to get a decent pair of binoculars and a spotting scope. Having looked around at different makes , types and magnifications i was left somewhat confused by the whole process. With photography its really simple if you want a new lens or camera then its easy to find conjectural reviews down to distortion of the lens, how they hold up, speed of shooting. This is what i'm used to having seached the net this isn't the case with binoculars or spotting scope. Many people say you pay for what you get, many people say well there clear and sharp. It doesn't really help when deciding...

There is a new Carbelas in Allen Texas, the only way i found any help with the whole matter was to do a side by side comparison on the binoculars front, Leupold, Nikon, Redfield ( part of Leupold and Stevens), Basrask and Tracker.

I had set a price point of 100 - 200 dollars for my binoculars and a price point of $150 - $200 for the spotting scope. The result came down to a Nikon 10x50 pair of Binoculars that where on sale. Very sharp, no color distortion around the edges of distant objects and fairly well built.

The scope was a different matter, everything i saw was well disappointing to say the list, lots of distortion, very soft focus so ended up walking away and deciding to try a few other shops.

I was wanting a scope from Hawke Optics, after a phone call with them ( they was out of stock) i wasn't that impressed. They wouldn't have the item i wanted until early October , Hawk and Falcon trapping season is now not something i really wanted to wait for. They wanted to upsell me to the next level up ($250+).  I'm sure their scopes are very nice but i wanted to check them out before purchasing, something they were reluctant to do as i had already set a price bracket i was willing to go to. They are a new brand to the USA from my home country. So i wanted to know for the price bracket what did they compare to ? Simple enough question i thought but one they couldn't answer.

So of to the local Gander mountain i went, Again i did a side by side compassion and ended up getting a Redfield 20x60x60 Spotting scope and so far i am delighted with my purchase.  They retail for $220 dollars and i really felt i got my monies worth. Construction is second to know these are solid. Come with a small tripod and carry case.

Over the next few weeks i'll be trying them out in really earnest so i report back on how they do but for now i couldn't be happier with my purchase and how they have preformed so far.

Oh and we stated flying Shiloh to the Creance this week.