Nikon pro staff 5 16x48x60

[beaver hunter]

Lookin to buy my first spotter, anyone have experience with the pro staff 5?

[katts69]

If your in need of a spotter don't buy something that you will need to upgrade. Buy once cry once.

[3blade]

Did a ton of research into spotters this year. Decided to wait and save.

Swarovski if you can swing it, vortex razor if not. Nikon makes good midrange rifle scopes but the reviews on their spotters are not impressive.

[beaver hunter]

Swarovski - Never happen

Razor HD - Maybe if I was single with no kids

[pikergolf]

If and when you want to sell it, you will take a huge loss on it. Nobody pays for lower end stuff. If it was me I would wait and keep an eye on the optics for sale board for a good spotter. Squirrel money away as best you can, you would be surprised how fast 20 bucks here and twenty bucks there adds up. In the end, you can end up with a tool that will make you happy for a life time. I would rather go a few years without, than settle for something that I wished I had done better on.

[beaver hunter]

Originally Posted by pikergolf

If and when you want to sell it, you will take a huge loss on it. Nobody pays for lower end stuff. If it was me I would wait and keep an eye on the optics for sale board for a good spotter. Squirrel money away as best you can, you would be surprised how fast 20 bucks here and twenty bucks there adds up. In the end, you can end up with a tool that will make you happy for a life time. I would rather go a few years without, than settle for something that I wished I had done better on.

Trust me, I hear ya. My 5 year plan is to buy a quad so I don't have to borrow my buddy's to drag animals out, but that was my 5 year plan 5 years ago . I'd also own a brand new truck, but choose to drive my rusting 08 GMC until it miles out. I know too many people that willy nilly buy the best of everything and have no retirement plan.

[Redneck 7]

People may disagree with me but if you have a budget and want a spotting scope. Look at Celestron, designed around star gazing telescopes and binos for other recreation like bird watching. My friend bought one of there spotting scopes and the amount of eye pieces to can get for it changes the magnification dramatically, and they have there own phone mounts too. And at a fraction of the hunting brands. When he bought his I was there too and I was looking at upgrading my binos at the time, the Celestron 8x42 binos were 10 times better then my previous binos, glass clearly and focusing, and they were only a 99.50 including tax. My friend bought a spotting scope more for star gazing because it's way bigger then there actually spotting scopes but when I buy a spotting scope I'll be buying a Celestron spotting scope.

Definitely look them up and you won't be disappointed. A

[elkhunter11]

On a budget the Bushnell Elite 15-45 is a a good scope for the money. The lower the quality of the scope, the less magnification that you can actually use.

[LongBomber]

I have a prostaff 20-60x80, its a bit over ten years old. It is no swaro, but for what I need a spotter to do it does the job. Dont scrimp on a tripod, a tripod with the shimmies can turn a scope nearly useless. A stable platform really helps and is well worth spending an extra 100 or 2 on.

[beaver hunter]

Originally Posted by LongBomber

I have a prostaff 20-60x80, its a bit over ten years old. It is no swaro, but for what I need a spotter to do it does the job. Dont scrimp on a tripod, a tripod with the shimmies can turn a scope nearly useless. A stable platform really helps and is well worth spending an extra 100 or 2 on.

I already have a large extendable tripod so I'm good there!

[waterhaulerhunter]

I picked up a used razor hd 11-33x50 and I can see things further away better than I could with a 20-60x80 cheapo. That little razor is a dandy for the price.