As a shooter who loves to pin down game from over several hundred yards with a perfect shot, I will never undermine the importance of good quality spotting scope. It can just make or break the game. Your optics are your best friends out in the wilderness, whether that be for hunting or just for spotting birds and beasts, so take a look at out comparisons below to find the best spotting scope for 1000 yards.
But not everyone, is experienced enough and buying your first optical equipment can seem confusing. After all, everyone has a first time and if you are among them, you are at the right place. We will help you out to choose your first spotting scope and ensure you definitely enjoy your weekend hike or hunt. A spotting scope with a range of 1000 yards is a great starting point and the following article is a detailed compilation of the best of those.
We have covered every important thing you need to know including its best features, pros and cons and definitely price to help you choose the best one according to your needs and budget.
Best Spotting Scopes for 1000 yards Product Reviews
For most spotting scopes enabling the viewer to have a clear and easy sight at long ranges is the primary objective. The Emarth 20-60×60 not just does that with aplomb but also adds a rubber-cased aluminum tripod in the mix. This ensures you don’t lose out on either of stability, protection and easy usability. In terms of construction, there is not much to complain about. Both the tripod and scope comes with shock proof, durable rubber casing, while the scope allows a 17 mm eye relief for those with glasses. In spite of all the protection and the huge lens, the scope scores extremely high in the weight management department. 22.6 oz is pretty easy to carry anywhere! Adding the tripod to it, might make it slightly more cumbersome.
It sports a huge 60 mm fully-multicoated lens with high quality BAK4 prism that enables better light transfer, a birghter field of view and higher refractive index rate. Sporting a 20-60x zoom and an ergonomically placed dual focus knob, it frankly offers a lot more than 1000 yards range and helps to achieve and lock focus easily. It might even help you to see the moon a bit up close, although blurry. According to manufacturer claims, it has a 19-39 m field of view at 1000 metres, which is commendable.
The only negative would be a lack of detail at high magnifications over ranges of 400 yards. Before that, it offers crystal clear and sharp images but beyond that, the detailing leaves a lot to desire. Using the tripod does help a little bit, although.
If you are looking for a similar set of features and performance of the Emarth, at a tad bit lesser price, you have this one from Huicocy. The scopes, although look different have similar quality hardware and build quality. A fool-proof design with a waterproof rubber casing, extendable 45 degree-angled 16mm eyepiece, a sunshade to prevent sun glare will not give you much chance to despise its design. To add to that, you also get a very sturdy table tripod.
Fitted with a 60mm anti-fogging objective lens, this is ideal for clear and bright views at range in all conditions; clear, rain and foggy. The scope offers 3-level zoom settings at 20x, 40x and 60x which make this a very versatile tool. You can do anything with this, from spotting prey to moon and star gazing.
The last but not the least is its low weight of just 600 grams, which makes it very usable, even for beginners. Considering the quality at the price, you will not be dissatisfied with this.
With this, you are entering into a more serious and better quality of spotting scopes. The Celestron Ultima 80 is a great overall spotting scope and is better than the last two options. Being a 60-year old company, Celestron is a prominent brand of optics. The Ultima 80 is a portable telescope and is significantly bigger than the other two, discussed till now. Having a firm aluminum design, it is not just waterproof but very suitable even under harsh conditions, preventing any kind of breakage or build-related issue. The eyepiece is an 18mm unit with O-ring sealing, fixed zoom and an integrated T-mount for digiscoping with your DSLR.
Although there are a few issues, the 80 mm refractor objective lens is really big and offers bright and crystal clear images in daylight and dim light conditions with excellent light transfer and refractive index rate. Helping that cause are the multiple lens coatings on all lens surfaces and BAK-4 prism, which work together to give images with high clarity. The lens also has dry nitrogen filled inside them, which works as anti-foggers.
Just as good as its day and dim light performance is, the visibility at night suffers. There is a lack of brightness and some chromatic aberration. The focusing knob is ergonomically placed and the focus shift is very swift and smooth with no choppy transitions. Despite that, it is not a good performer at long range on high zoom, mostly beyond 30x. The images have reduced clarity and blurry. The aluminum construction, although sturdy but not lightweight at 5 lbs. You have to use them with a tripod.
Vortex is a huge name in the optics industry and they are spoken in the same levels as companies like Zeiss and Leupold. Thus, a product from that brand is definitely worthy of inclusion here. The Vortex Optics Diamondback HD 16-48×65 Spotting Scope is an excellent companion for mid-to-long range shooters and hunters. There are few scopes at this price, which will give such clear views of wildlife.
Equipped with a 65mm objective lens and helped by fully multicoated, anti-reflective HD extra-low dispersion glass, this scope’s ability to churn out the sharpest images with true colors in difficult light conditions is just impeccable. Better light transmission, high contrast, better clarity; name it all and you have it. In the focus department, it ditches the knob-based system for the helical collar that eliminates snagging and provides a very smooth and rapid focus lock.
Magnification numbers at 16-48x might not seem overwhelming, but believe me, they are better than a lot, making this the best spotting scope for 300 yard shooting. Other prominent features include argon-filled body sealed with O-rings to prevent fogging and ARCA-style shoe to be mounted on ARCA tripod heads without plates. Build quality is unquestionably good too, with a slip-resistant rubber armor and retractable sunshade for cutting off sun flare. ArmorTek scratch and abrasion resistant lens coatings to prevent oil, dust, dirt or debris deposit on the lens, a rotating eyepiece with adjustable eyecups for added adjustment to see with or without glasses are some nice additional touches.
This is the gold standard of spotting scopes from Vortex, in terms of price as well as technology and hardware. In optics, you get what you pay for and this Vortex just stands for the same, the best spotting scope for long range shooting and the best compact spotting scope for hunting. Let’s talk about the small negatives first, as there are a plethora of advantages to this scope. The scope is weakest at its lowest magnification at 27x. Images in daylight are clear and sharp but the range of zoom is a bit less and you might miss the 20x minimum magnification of other scopes. So, high-contrasted wide-angle images at low magnification is not a strength.
This is a true blue long distance spotting scope and boasts of HD extra low dispersion (ED) lens, fully-multicoated with XR Plus coatings, a BAK4 Porro prism and another to angle the light. The outer surfaces get Amortek scratch-resistant coatings and dielectric coatings on the angular prism. An exemplary job of smooth and quick focusing is handled by a helical collar. With 10 click stops, each at 45 degrees and you cover a range from as close as 5 meters to infinity.
Build quality is excellent just like other Vortex scopes. A shockproof, rugged rubber armor , argon-purged body sealed with O-rings does a good job. A full metal body is great for hardcore use and the lens elements are adequately protected, lying 6 cm below the end of the optical tube. The eyepiece comes with a twisting 4-level extendable eye cup and has great eye relief up to 17mm.
The only negative is the eyepiece is only for Razor HD scopes. Vortex offers two additional scopes with this model, the Razor HD LER and Razor MRAD Reticle. Both can achieve a 22x magnification and 31mm eye relief. The latter sports a grid, additionally. Both eyepieces are priced steeply, hovering around $400, costlier than all the other scopes here. You get a eyepiece cover, eyepiece mount cap and objective lens cap, a cleaning cloth and custom case as accessories.
Sure, this is pricey, but you get what you pay for.
If you are looking for a good spotting scope for 1000 yards, which is very well built, offers decently clear images at high magnifications in dim light conditions and is the best spotting scope under $200, this Gosky is the one for you. Gosky does offer some good optics at decent prices and this is definitely in the list.
The most unique factor in this scope is the digiscope adapter for smartphones. This will get you some great shots with your smartphone camera at long ranges. It supports all major smartphone models; all IPhone models from 4s to 12 Pro Max, Samsung Note Series, S Series, A series and M Series, along with other models from other brands.
It comes with an 80mm FMC objective lens with 20-60x zoom and a BAK4 Porro prism, which provide great light gathering and transfer, enabling to put out images with very good clarity and color fidelity. Despite being a budget scope, its large objective lens helps to put decently sharp images, even in low light conditions of dawn and dusk. Build quality is surprisingly good for its price; a manganese-aluminum alloy body with rugged rubber casing will survive the odd bump or even a fall, while the nitrogen-filled body ensures 100% water-proof ability and anti-fogging.
Focusing is decent too; the dynamic focus system helps in zooming into targets in a decently smooth and quick manner. Obviously, you do see a lack of detail and sharpness at high magnifications but that is acceptable in this price range. The eyepiece is 20mm wide, has a 15-18mm eye relief and comes with an eyepiece shield. Although acceptable, the field of view at 1000 yards is rather less; 48ft at 60x and 82.9 ft at 20x.
Given the great quality at a low price and how rough some elk hunts can get, you do not want to be too worried about breaking a very high end scope on a stalk. This makes this the best spotting scope for elk hunting.
There is nothing better in the market, at this price. Plus, you can use your IPhone at long ranges.
Conclusion
Most bird watchers and precision rifle shooters want the same thing from a spotting scope, they want a spotting scope for 1000 yards, as a scope that can produce a clear image, contrast and clarity at that range, also offers that or better at 500 or 300 yards and below. We hope you found our comparison review of the best spotting scope for 1000 yards useful.