Big Eyes/ Twin Spotters

[Hatchet Jack]

On 1/12/2020 at 7:14 PM, MMACFIVE said:

According to Swarovski the 25-50 eyepiece has a larger FOVat 25x than the BTX/85 combo (although 30x). 
 

the people I know who prefer the twin spotting scopes tell me it’s because of the brightness and the ability to zoom. 
 

Jason in Tucson has apparently solved the collimation issues with his mount. I’ve seen his bracket and it looks top notch. The IPD issue is why I haven’t looked through a set... 

I have no IPD issues with my kowas.  I have a friend who is basically a cyclops and he's used them.  As for collimation issues, mine rarely get bumped off alignment and if they do it takes me about 45 seconds to get them back to where they need to be.  My next bracket design should completely eliminate this issue anyway as i improve the tolerances on my objective saddles.

 

I prefer the 2 spotting scope setup simply because I already had one spotter so getting another and making a bracket was pretty low cost compared to getting a btx.  I was able to glass side by side with a set of highlanders a couple weeks ago on a hunt and, while the 32x82 highlanders are of course a little better with color and very slightly brighter, the twin 66s hung in there surprisingly well.  In fact my buddy who owns the highlanders is considering going with the twin spotters since they're actually packable.  I do wish kowa made a wide angle zoom eyepiece for the 66.  If i want to get a closer look or take phoneskope video at a distance i usually pop in a variable 20-60x eyepiece that i pack with me but the FOV on that eyepiece is way too small to effectively glass with full time.

[CatfishKev]

10 hours ago, Hatchet Jack said:

I have no IPD issues with my kowas.  I have a friend who is basically a cyclops and he's used them.  As for collimation issues, mine rarely get bumped off alignment and if they do it takes me about 45 seconds to get them back to where they need to be.  My next bracket design should completely eliminate this issue anyway as i improve the tolerances on my objective saddles.

 

I prefer the 2 spotting scope setup simply because I already had one spotter so getting another and making a bracket was pretty low cost compared to getting a btx.  I was able to glass side by side with a set of highlanders a couple weeks ago on a hunt and, while the 32x82 highlanders are of course a little better with color and very slightly brighter, the twin 66s hung in there surprisingly well.  In fact my buddy who owns the highlanders is considering going with the twin spotters since they're actually packable.  I do wish kowa made a wide angle zoom eyepiece for the 66.  If i want to get a closer look or take phoneskope video at a distance i usually pop in a variable 20-60x eyepiece that i pack with me but the FOV on that eyepiece is way too small to effectively glass with full time.

How many are you gonna build.  I mentioned the people I talked to awhile back that said they would build some if I got some people together. I was thinking about hitting different forums to get a big group together to get a good discount. 

[trphyhntr]

Ya’ll might as well be looking at your deer in a magazine looking that far.

[Hatchet Jack]

10 minutes ago, trphyhntr said:

Ya’ll might as well be looking at your deer in a magazine looking that far.

The 106” buck in my brothers freezer begs to differ 

[Hatchet Jack]

19 minutes ago, CatfishKev said:

How many are you gonna build.  I mentioned the people I talked to awhile back that said they would build some if I got some people together. I was thinking about hitting different forums to get a big group together to get a good discount. 

I was gonna build one for me and a couple more extras just to use up the material I bought 

[CatfishKev]

Are you interested in building a handful of them if the need should arise?

[Hatchet Jack]

yeah I could probably do that.  I'm not a machinist by any stretch of the imagination but it flat out works and it's a lot better than paying $500 for one.  I'm going to be a few weeks but i'll let you know how the new bracket turns out compared to my current redneck garage-fabbed version i've been using.  I have a buddy with some better equipment so the new bracket should look a lot cleaner and i can trim a few ounces off too.  Mine should be around 6.75 lbs for the whole setup with the spotters.

[BOWUNTR]

I'm interested in a bracket for the 65's. Ed F

[CatfishKev]

This one had some info too

[Travis4570]

On 1/15/2020 at 9:46 AM, Hatchet Jack said:

yeah I could probably do that.  I'm not a machinist by any stretch of the imagination but it flat out works and it's a lot better than paying $500 for one.  I'm going to be a few weeks but i'll let you know how the new bracket turns out compared to my current redneck garage-fabbed version i've been using.  I have a buddy with some better equipment so the new bracket should look a lot cleaner and i can trim a few ounces off too.  Mine should be around 6.75 lbs for the whole setup with the spotters.

I believe you replied to one of my posts, either here or Rokslide but I’m interested in a bracket as well and would love to see some pics of your finished product! -Travis 

[CatfishKev]

Anyone interested in a bracket please see this post

 

[CatfishKev]

On 12/21/2019 at 8:33 PM, 1denogean said:

I have a set had them for probably 5 to 7 years now i wouldn't feel the same hunting without them. Just as clear as swaros but double the power and I have swaros too

Where did you get the bracket?