Glassing question

[jim]

For those that glass with a spotting scope do you find it easier to glass with a straight scope or angled?

[Big Browns]

Angled!

[TOBY]

straight and wear an eyepatch.

[oz31p]

I don’t know any one who glasses (main mode) with a spotter.  Most pull out the spotter to take a look at something they saw in their binos. 

[cjl2010]

Angled

[IA Born]

20 minutes ago, oz31p said:

I don’t know any one who glasses (main mode) with a spotter.  Most pull out the spotter to take a look at something they saw in their binos. 

I tried glassing with an angled spotter and I got tired of bending my head down the whole time.  I've glassed with a straight spotter and my eyes just got tired.  I've talked to guys who use both and it comes down to preference.  I ended up carrying to do just what oz says.  I would pull out my spotter to get a closer look.  Then I got a pair of 15s and quit carrying my spotter because of the extra weight.  Then my wife used a set of BTXs at the condor release back in September and now she's scheming on how we can get a set up!  Who am I to argue with her??

[Big or Bust]

If you're seriously glassing with a spotter, you're already behind the curve....

Only on rare occasions, 3+ miles away, should you spend any time on a spotter. If you are, change your glassing points or hunting tactics...

[Jimmer Negamanee]

7 hours ago, oz31p said:

I don’t know any one who glasses (main mode) with a spotter.  Most pull out the spotter to take a look at something they saw in their binos. 

Great observation here.  “Glassing” as we traditionally know it (optics on a tripod) is very difficult with a spotting scope. 

Glassing requires time behind the glass, stability, and no eye strain.  Time is required because you’ll be looking at the same field of view over time so you can let the deer move (even just flick an ear sometimes).  Stability is required because a shaking field of view will mask minor movement like the aforementioned ear flick.  And no eye strain is required because squinting, headaches and other types of strain will reduce the first two factors.  Your time behind the glass will be reduced by headaches which make you take your eye out of the spotting scope to look to look away and stability is reduced by squinting and other micro-adjustments which cause shakiness or at least the appearance of movement.  And because spotting scopes are usually heavier than even high-power binos, they’re generally shakier on a tripod than binoculars without any human movement.

So although not great for glassing, spotting scopes serve an important purpose.  To me, their purpose is discerning objects at the very edges of our binoculars’ capabilities.  Is that deer a buck or a doe?  Is that object a bedded deer or a tree stump?  (I’ve spent many minutes waiting for a rock to move because it looked like a deer through my binoculars.  It’s a huge time and effort savings to be able to make the “rock” call before investing all that time watching or hiking to get closer.) For hunters to whom scores matter, spotting scopes are great for counting tines or discerning between a 100 inch buck and a 110 inch buck.

Regarding the angled vs. straight debate, there are pros and cons for each and it can come down to personal preference and glassing style.

If you’re usually looking up to mountains from the flats, for instance, angled can be great.  If you end up looking down a lot, straight can be great.   

After a great deal of struggle with your exact question, when I pulled the trigger on a spotting scope I went with straight.  I like it because I can quickly whip the binos off and put the spotter up without having to move the tripod up or down or change my head position.  Plus, it seemed that a lot of my mentor hunters went with straight.  So that factored in too. 

Whether you end up with straight or angled, you’ll get used to it and then cognitive dissonance will kick in and convince you that you made the right choice.  😊

As with any optics though, my one piece of advice is to the buy the best quality you possibly can.  At high power, you’ll really notice the difference in quality.  As important as this principle is for binoculars, it might be even more important for spotting scopes.

Good luck on your quest and let us know what you end up with.

 

 

[Swivelhead]

^^^^ This pretty much covers it.

[lancetkenyon]

I never "glass" with a spotter.  I use mostly my 10x42s on a tripod for anything under 1-1.5 miles out.  I use my 15x56s on a tripod for 1-3+ miles out.  I only break out the spotter when I find something I need to take a better look at.  I prefer a straight spotter personally.

[IA Born]

7 hours ago, lancetkenyon said:

 I prefer a straight spotter personally.

Will I work?  I'm straight and a fairly good spotter!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.  Self-imposed timeout again...

[creed]

Angled. And I use a spotter equally as much as 15’s for glassing. Until heat waves start to distort the image my 15’s are not capable of detail at the ranges we sometimes glass. 

Having said that 10x42 are what I use most of the time. And if I had to choose it would be an angled spotter over 15’s or a straight spotter

[AZDirtyTaco]

On 11/27/2018 at 7:50 PM, Jimmer Negamanee said:

Great observation here.  “Glassing” as we traditionally know it (optics on a tripod) is very difficult with a spotting scope. 

Glassing requires time behind the glass, stability, and no eye strain.  Time is required because you’ll be looking at the same field of view over time so you can let the deer move (even just flick an ear sometimes).  Stability is required because a shaking field of view will mask minor movement like the aforementioned ear flick.  And no eye strain is required because squinting, headaches and other types of strain will reduce the first two factors.  Your time behind the glass will be reduced by headaches which make you take your eye out of the spotting scope to look to look away and stability is reduced by squinting and other micro-adjustments which cause shakiness or at least the appearance of movement.  And because spotting scopes are usually heavier than even high-power binos, they’re generally shakier on a tripod than binoculars without any human movement.

So although not great for glassing, spotting scopes serve an important purpose.  To me, their purpose is discerning objects at the very edges of our binoculars’ capabilities.  Is that deer a buck or a doe?  Is that object a bedded deer or a tree stump?  (I’ve spent many minutes waiting for a rock to move because it looked like a deer through my binoculars.  It’s a huge time and effort savings to be able to make the “rock” call before investing all that time watching or hiking to get closer.) For hunters to whom scores matter, spotting scopes are great for counting tines or discerning between a 100 inch buck and a 110 inch buck.

Regarding the angled vs. straight debate, there are pros and cons for each and it can come down to personal preference and glassing style.

If you’re usually looking up to mountains from the flats, for instance, angled can be great.  If you end up looking down a lot, straight can be great.   

After a great deal of struggle with your exact question, when I pulled the trigger on a spotting scope I went with straight.  I like it because I can quickly whip the binos off and put the spotter up without having to move the tripod up or down or change my head position.  Plus, it seemed that a lot of my mentor hunters went with straight.  So that factored in too. 

Whether you end up with straight or angled, you’ll get used to it and then cognitive dissonance will kick in and convince you that you made the right choice.  😊

As with any optics though, my one piece of advice is to the buy the best quality you possibly can.  At high power, you’ll really notice the difference in quality.  As important as this principle is for binoculars, it might be even more important for spotting scopes.

Good luck on your quest and let us know what you end up with.

 

 

 

I think a lot of it comes down to individual style.  For me personally, I like my spotter and don't fatigue much at all while on it for several hours at a time.  I use it heavily during the late morning and into the early afternoon hours.  I find it fast and easy to move from the lowest power for FOV to highest magnification for high detail at will while animals are most dormant.  I'll grid the hillside or just one elevation when really slowing down and then hit it with my 10's every 10-20min by hand right quick for anything that has gone on the move.  I run an older model angled Vortex Viper 15-45x65 and find a lot of deer with it that get overlooked by my buddies.  Absolutely an invaluable tool that often times has me debating whether to leave my spotter or the 15's at home when cutting weight on days I am primarily still hunting.  When my left eye (closed eye) starts getting a little twitchy from fatigue, I just switch over to my 15's or 10's.  When scouting or out on a rifle hunt, I will have all 3 optics in my pack 100% of the time and rotate throughout the day.

To answer the OP - angled all day for me.  Whether sitting or standing, I find the angled eye piece easier to get comfortable behind.

[AZbowhntr]

I have an angled spotter that I only pull out when I want a closer look.  The only problem I have found with that is I have to make sure that I have land marks to reacquire what I am looking at.  I wonder if the straight spotter might have made that easier.

[AZAV8ER]

Just upgraded binocs for this years hunt. Got the Meopta 12X binocs almost as nice as Swaros at near 1/3 the price. Was very happy with them, picked out a beaded doe at 300+ just because i saw what looked like "rabbit ears", took a little extra time then she twitched her ears. Just enough better than my older 10X Zeiss to make it worthwhile. Still not sure what I am missing by not buying Swaros, but still have the $1,700.00 that that upgrade would have cost .I am  ok to be called out on the Swaro difference but would always rather use binocs than scope and I don't feel the need to carry both.