Old Leupold spotter...

[I bleed fish]

Anybody have any thoughts on the old 25x 50mm leupold golden ring spotting scopes? How would they compare optically to, say, an Alpen 20x50mm? How much do they weigh? I think the Alpen weighs something like 10 or 12 oz. Just thinking of a good light weight scope for the pack, and I'm realizing that I really don't need a zoom, but 20-30x would be a great little scope to have. Thanks.

[Bill Monroe]

I would always choose Leupold over Alpen if you have the option.

[kelso]

I bought the old style 25x50 leupold compact in 1990. The thing is small, light, and with the rubberized material it is bullet proof. The new style is not nearly as easy to pack away, and if you can find one then I say buy it, you will not be disappointed.

[I bleed fish]

Thanks to you both, I'll be lookin'...

[forkhunter]

Originally Posted by I bleed fish

Anybody have any thoughts on the old 25x 50mm leupold golden ring spotting scopes? How would they compare optically to, say, an Alpen 20x50mm? How much do they weigh? I think the Alpen weighs something like 10 or 12 oz. Just thinking of a good light weight scope for the pack, and I'm realizing that I really don't need a zoom, but 20-30x would be a great little scope to have. Thanks.

I have owned both the old Leupold that you are talking about and the new 15-30x. Everybody has their own opinion, but I found the old style to be hard to use. Bad eye relief for me and the focus knob being right at the eyepiece was very difficult to use and maintain the point you are looking at. In my opinion, the new 15-30 is much more user friendly. For packability, I liked the design of the older version, but could not get used to it and sold it on ebay after a season of using it in the field. I would suggest getting a look at them before you buy---if possible.....Unfortunately, it might be hard to find the old style to look at.

[I bleed fish]

Hmm... Good point. How was the glass, optically? Clear and bright?

[billc_sbio]

I have one of the old style, in fact it's the real OLD Style...the one that has the reversible lens shade and comes in the double zippered Cordura case.

A good friend of mine has one just slightly newer with the rubber armor.

We took both of them and used them on a recent hunt to eastern Ore.

I also have one of the older Bushnell Spacemaster 15x-45x X 60 Spotters and I'm not certain that it wasn't a mistake not taking that along as well (for spotting out of the truck).

But we made do with the old Leupolds.

They certainly worked o.k. and we spotted big Mulies bedded out to 300+ yards with them.

I don't know that there might not be something better, what 20+ years later? There probably is, but unless I see something GLARINGLY Better, I'll probably just hold onto what I've got and continue to use it.

If you can pick one up cheap you probably wouldn't be too badly disappointed with it. It's definitely handy.

I wouldn't mind upgrading ALL my optics with newer, I know there's some really good stuff out there now.

Hmm...got ~$6K you can spot me?

[I bleed fish]

I'm just thinking of those times when I see deer over 1000 yds away and want to tell if it's a buck or not. 8x binos don't quite do it for a small forkie, and carrying my 20x60x60 Nikon spotter was fun but heavy after a few days. I like the idea of a fixed power for the FOV and the lightweight. Maybe they'd be brighter than a comparable zoom?

[billc_sbio]

My friend who has the Rubber Armor small spotter also had along his brand new Leupy 10x42 HD Binocs.

Wow, those were clear, crisp, & bright. Obviously they were the best optics we had along on this trip.

Oh, did I mention HEAVY also?

I got to use them, lots, as my friend's arms would get tired and he'd hand them off to me to scan for awhile.

I think, actually for finding animals, they were better than anything else we had.

It's just I wished that we'd had a Window Mount for those as well. My arms got tired hoisting them also.

And if I were buying a pair, I think I'd go with the 8X models. I really think that 10X is just too much magnification to do "well" with unsupported, especially trying to count antler points at a long distance.

Anytime we'd see one waaay out there, we resort to going back to the little spotters. They wouldn't be nearly so clear and bright, but they did have the added magnification we needed (I'd say out to ~500 yd.s)

I think they (the small spotters) would be real difficult to do much more than just "see" a Deer at 1,000 yd.s.

What I really longed for on this trip (because we were able to do so much spotting from the vehicle) was a pair of those big Monster Kowa Spotting Binoculars WITH a Window Mount.

There's just no getting around it, if you want to see waaay out there, those would just be the best way to go! (Hehe, Wanted: Binocular Bearer...to carry Monster Binocs and Tripod! )