spotting scopes

[Kurt]

Buying a spotting scope you should do a little foot work and look through as many as you can and turn them to the dark shadows in the trees if there are some on or near the range and see what you can to compare them. A 100mm is not necessarily better then a 60mm. I have gone from 50mm to 100mm and everything in between, low cost to not the top but not far from it. To this day the scope I use the most is the 60mm Redfield I bought in the 70's and I have a 82mm Kowa and a Celestron M-2 Regal 100ED. The Celestron is a fine scope but it took two returns before I got a good one. They seem to have a focus problem at the very top of the power not getting a clear sharp focus and it is a very heavy scope, especially if you drag it from the Buffalo to the bucket at the Quigley, but I don't think you will find a better scope for reading the mirages. You can even see it above the trees when you tune the focus for it. I haven't looked through a scope at 60 power that is brighter. you almost need a filter at 30X it's so bright. If I done it again I would get the 80mm.
I have a little Burris Landmark 12-24x50mm Compact Spotting Scope I use for a laydown and pack scope that is a very sharp scope but at high power it gets a little dim but at 20X it is a great scope for a online laydown scope to check conditions and reading the spotters at 1K.
Do a little leg work before you lay down the cash for a scope.
Kurt