Konus spotting scope review

[aiformula]

Last week I got a new toy. I've been shopping around for a spotting scope for some time, but everything I wanted was $800 and up and therefore out of my budget for the forseeable future. Then I was on Snipershide and these threads kept popping up about a new inexpensive scope and my interest was piqued. I started to look into this Konusspot 80 and all I could find was rave reviews. So I got on a group buy and bought one. $220 shipped insured to my door.

When I opened the package, the first thing I noticed was how light this thing is for it's size. I'm used to the large objective scopes having aluminum casings and heavy tripods/stands. The whole package (stand, scope, photo adapter, and bag) weighed less than many 80mm lens scopes. I know weight makes things more stable, but I'd rather have that weight in the stand w/ good locks than the scope. It is only available w/ an angled eye, which might make it less than ideal in a police or military callout, but for the average range shooter and hunter, it is fine as it allows you to set the scop just off to the side and turn your head to look instead of disrupting your whole shooting position. The tripod is what looks to be abs plastic and should last quite some time. Once you have the initial locks for tilt, elevation and twist done, there are fine adjustment knobs on the tripod which are stiff, but do the job. The base is a little shaky if you bump the table, but not enough so to make me want to spend another $600. I may pick up a different tripod down the road to hold it, but this one will suffice for now. Other than the lenses, nothing on the scope or stand is very reflective at all, w/ matte finishes all over.

The eyepiece is adjustable 20x-60x and is done w/ a roughly 180 deg twist of the eyepiece. The eyepiece adjustment is a little stiff too, but I attribute that to it being new and not having been worn in from being cranked up and down. The focusing knob is forward of the eyepiece instead of on the eyepiece like I've see some. I am ambivalent about the location of a focus knob so it's again, not a problem for me. I'm not a cop or a soldier and I'm not using it in the field where my life might depend on it, and if I were, I'd probably have saved up and dropped the money on a USO or Leica and I'd have gotten a straight through scope to keep the lowest profile possible. The focus adjustment has a very light touch which I found nice, and it made fine adjustments to get the clearest picture very easy. I can see this being nice in a hunting situation if you are trying to spot something in a thicket a ways off. The easy adjustment really makes things come into and then back out of focus smoothly helping to isolate things from the background. My target stand was about 12-15' in front of the dirt berm, and I could even see a difference in the picture quality between the target face and the belting on the berm at 100 yds.

As far as optics quality goes, the picture is extremely clear. So much so, I was able to see the gnats swarming near the target. It also works in low light pretty well. Ichy can vouch that where we shoot, the 100yd lanes are on the back east side of a hillside and w/ a 30' high side berm increasing to 50 at the target end, the targets can get dark pretty quick. I was spotting hits from my 10-22 on a black dot target at and after dusk. I was simply amazed to be able to do that for this kind of cash.

So, for those who might be looking for a very value oriented entry point into the spotting scope arena, check it out.

[fritzmeister]

I have been tentatively looking at spotting scopes for range use, and I will definitely give this some serious thought.

thanks

[aiformula]

Just wanted to add, if anyone is interested in getting one, I looked for this link earlier and couldn't find it, but if you buy here, he donates to youth shooting, and he has a buyback guarantee. http://www.jarheadtop.com/KONUS.htm

[agalindo]

I have a friend who bought a Konus, at the same time I bout a Celestron both of them are 80mm. I can't tell the difference between the two when where shooting 22cal at 100yrds. I would recommend either one.