Thread: Spotting scopes Leica APO Televid 65, 25-50x Swarovski 25-60x 65mm & 85mm Nightforce

Tough choice they are all very good in the field.

Very nice

Which one did you choose ?

Originally Posted by rob270

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Tough choice they are all very good in the field.

I have an older APO-77 20-60 I plan to update it when the people that design these things, build them with a more usable bottom end magnification.
I find 20x way to much in most of the country I hunt. Especially when I try to initially locate animals that are on the move after I have located them in my binos. But 60x is almost always needed to assess them properly.
25x would be harder again.
Is the 60 that much cheaper than the 80 objective Rob or are you looking at size so you can carry?


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R93, the spotting scope I'm look for has to be able to be carried in a pack, what I have found is with the 85mm at the lower magnification 25x is much better than I expected, I spent a good part of the day watching calfs in closeup and at considerable distance, tracking them feeding and walking around on the fringe of some lightly timbered country, the field of view is very good as is the contrast. It is fairly bulky (the 85mm) but I'm considering it because with the X series you can change the back to the 65mm with the one eye piece. I also see they do a 30-70 95mm. In saying that the Leica is very good as well compact, not to heavy and very good in the field.

Theres a testfire of the New NF spotter coming out in the Rod and Rifle , should be next month

The NF is very good just a bit big for the pack.

I like the one I have got apart from the mag range and that it takes up a lot of room in the pack. It is a big heavy sucker.
Like the look of the swaro. Newer ones may be easier to use hopefully.
Is the swaro the lightest out of the ones you tried?
If you spend a bit of time behind one looking at game, an angled scope is the only way to go as well. Can't stand looking uphill through a straight scope.
Let us know what you settle on Rob.
I have been keeping an eye out for a second hand quality scope but may have to buy new.


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the Leica weight is a tad over 1.5 kg
Swarovski 1.6 kg with the 65mm/weight of the 85mm lens 1.150 kg and eye piece 840grams

Having used my Zeiss which has a 20-60x zoom , I can say that I think 20x on hte bottom end is TOO high , and I would look at something that has 15x or lower on the bottom end , like the newer Zeiss Spotter 45 , which is 15-45x zoom , 72mm front lens .

Heres my 20-60x spotter

Dunno. I think I would rather put up with the 20x bottom end as I like that bit of extra top end when assessing an animal.
Wish they could do a 10x-60x or similar.
Having said that I have only used 40x scopes on a range. Mine is either at 20x or 60x depending on time of day. Never in the middle.
Nice scope there Chris

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I've got one of the swaro 20-60x I think that twist apart into two parts, bloody handy for chucking it in a pack. I see some people leave the scope attached to a light tripod and strap it to the outside of their pack but seems like a good way to wreck it eventually.

Originally Posted by Tahr-Bound

I've got one of the swaro 20-60x I think that twist apart into two parts, bloody handy for chucking it in a pack. I see some people leave the scope attached to a light tripod and strap it to the outside of their pack but seems like a good way to wreck it eventually.

Yeah asking for trouble doing that in the high country. Got a pack for a reason I thought.

You can break it in half TB? I am keen to have a look at it.


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You can break anything in half @R93.

At 20x bottom end , it means its slow to get on tgt , and the only way to minimise that would be to mount a small device to act as a finder scope , like you use on big telescopes that are used for star gazing etc , either a red dot / holgrahpic or iron sight to speed up tgt acquisation , and as such , you now have 2 optical devices paired together to do one task .
As such , I think the better real solution is a lower bottom end , and if that means losing some top end , I am OK with that trade off .

Later Chris

Originally Posted by rob270

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the Leica weight is a tad over 1.5 kg
Swarovski 1.6 kg with the 65mm/weight of the 85mm lens 1.150 kg and eye piece 840grams

what do you like the most?? your Winchester or Remington?