I picked up the nikon xl spotting scope kit. It comes with a tri-pod and case. In my opinion, the glass is excellent and the size of the scope is great for packing. After all if a scope is too big, heavy, or bulky, then you won't use it as much. True, the swarovski, and leica are the "top shelf", and are one step above what I have,but the nikon works more than good enough for my applications. Don't be scared off by the optics snobs, there are a few quality rigs for half the cost that will make your experience better. Leupold makes two good scopes (the 12x40x60, and the new 15x30x50) Nikon makes the xl (which is better than the scope they package with the "realtree" package, and there are some bausch & lombs, kowa and pentax's that are very useable. I consider these the "middle shelf". The lower end stuff is usable in some situations, but I'd save up and jump to the middle shelf at least. the major difference will be the distortion at the edge of your sight picture, washed out color transmission, ease of zoom (and the lack of consistent quality throughout the zoom), and mostly the lack of light gathering ability when focusing on the shadows and in the magic hours of near darkness in teh morning and in the evening.
A friend bought a "Bass pro special kit" the week before we took off for colorado. It was 100.00 bucks or so. When it snowed on our trip, the images weren't half bad. The white background transmitted a lot of reflective light and I was pleasantly surprised. It was enough for us to zoom in on animals for a closer look, but not good enough to decern sharp details. It also suffered in very low light conditions.
check out this link for outdoor life's annual field test. some of the biggest names in our sport test products head to head and give great feedback and scores for each. Its a great starting point.
http://www.outdoorlife.com/outdoor/gear/search?fieldtested=1&category=spotting_scopes
or
http://www.outdoorlife.com/outdoor/gear/article/0,19912,264270,00.html
Spend as much as you can afford, but don't short yourself for your hunt. Buy sometyhing and use it for a year, then sell it to someone else in your position. Better yet, look on ebay for something used to try. You can always get some or all of your money back by re-selling it. A lot of east coast wholesale outfits sell on ebay and have far better prices than some of the big names we are all familiar with.
Hope this helps, Good luck.
Take er easy
five_point_buck *
