Vortex or Leupold Spotter

muleylover · Oct 29, 2012

Hey I know this has probably been beat to death on this forum but I am looking for some advice on a spotter. I know everyone will say Swarovski and I agree but I am not willing to spend the that kind of money for what I will probably use it for.

I am looking at the vortex viper HD, angled eyepiece, 20-60x80 or

Leopold Kenai 25-60x80 with the multiple eye pieces.

Any thoughts? Both are about same price and weight and I know both are good quality. Just looking for some input. This will be used primarily for deer and elk hunting, pre and during.
Thanks

desert_dog · Oct 29, 2012

I don't think you can go wrong with either they are both great scopes.

I have had the Kenai for a year and a half now and I love it. I debated between the Viper and Kenai and the deal breaker was the 30x wide angle eye piece on the Kenai. The 30x eyepiece is crystal clear and really makes the Kenai shine. I use the 30x eyepiece extensivelly to glass and digiscope, and with it I feel I can really look into the shadows under trees and its awesome in low light.

In Outdoor life's optic test in 2010 the Kenai tied with the Zeiss in the low-light test and it also won Optics Planet's 2011 Brillance award for spotting scopes <$1000.

muleylover · Oct 30, 2012

Hmm, I did some checking of reviews on both scopes on cabelas after I posted this. There are only a couple reviews for the vortex and they are not good. There are a bunch of reviews for the Kenai and they are all pretty positive. Probably be at Cabelas friday and hopefully look through both scopes.

gahunter · Oct 30, 2012

I have been pondering the Kenai as well.

"Easy now, keep the croshairs right behind his shoulder & squeeze the trigger"

mtmuleys · Nov 2, 2012

Vortex's Razor HD spotter is a very good spotter. But the Viper HD is a big disappointment. The image quality is mediocre at te best. The color fringing at the edge was not controlled very well. Leupold Kenai is a great spotter in this regard for its price.

BIGJOHNT · Nov 3, 2012

I love leupold scopes and have used them my entire life. But I have never really liked there spotting scopes. I cant really say why ? There shape ect.
I have and use a Razor and love it. Compared it last weekend to my brother in laws carl zeiss and it is much clearer around the edges of the glass and all around. His is a non Hd model.