Spotting scope search - strange find !

Thanks willie gun but I'm looking for something to use on the hill and on open arable land in search of roe . That that you've got there looks a bit of a beast !
 
Thanks willie gun but I'm looking for something to use on the hill and on open arable land in search of roe . That that you've got there looks a bit of a beast !

Indeed - fine on the range but I wouldn't take it out on the Hill!

What you want is inevitably going to be a compromise. For the Hill you either want a classic two or three draw scope like a Grays or an Optolyth, whereas for open arable you may prefer a regular spotting scope (Swarovski, Zeiss,etc) mounted on something like a Manfrotto Magic Arm.

Good luck with your search!

​willie_gunn
 
I have a 30X80 Optolyth, it isn't for sale but I bought it recently and so did some research.

Glasgow Binocular Repair Centre will give an Optolyth a full clean, service and line up for about £70 including return postage, so in theory it should come back good as new. This alone makes them a good buy as mine is a little dirty and so does need a clean, as will most draw scopes of this age.

The other thing worth considering is how you will steady it when using it in the field, this is probably the single biggest factor in using a high magnification scope especially if, like me, you've no intention of carrying a tripod. I've found it is best to lie down with your back against a bank or peat hag and rest the scope on your knee. However, the longer the scope the easier this is to do which is why I went for the 30X80 Optolyth which is a 2 draw scope whereas the smaller objective scopes are only a single draw and so are shorter and I've no idea how you might support one of those unless you were to lie down and rest it on a rucksack of heather clump.

The S&B spotting scopes look like exactly the same scope as the Nickel Supra. The Nickel scopes come up on ebay and such places quite often for between £50 and £150. It might be worth checking if the Glasgow Bino Repair people would service one of those, and the cost, as well as that might be a major factor in deciding if it was a good buy. I believe Nickel will still service them. For a while there were 3 or 4 on ebay all the time but at present there seem to be very few spotting scopes, no idea why, but they are out there and I'm sure the numbers will increase in due course.

The Gray's scopes are very long and so ideal for spotting in the field but they also still do big money, even second hand.

Another thing to bear in mind is that big magnification spotting scopes are, for the most part, a full daylight proposition for spotting deer.

In your position I'd guess that the 30X80 Optolyth or the Nickel Supra would probably be your best bet unless you want to spend big cash. For what it is worth I've been enjoying using mine and have got some fun out of it and amazed a friend by taking him out onto some moorland where I thought there might be some sika stags feeding and letting him watch a big 8 point stag at 750 yards with the spotting scope. Pure luck, of course, but he thought I had some sort of magic insight into the movement of the big stag to be able to find him like that :)
 
I've seen the Schmidt spotting scopes go on eBay for less that 200 so outs a touch overpriced I've no idea of their quality but the nikel Marburg ones are pretty good I used to have one that I think I picked up for 80 quis
 
try and find an optolyth 30x80 s/h , i use one and they are excellent if a little bulky for the hill ?
 
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