If you’re like me, after you’ve dumped a good chunk of change into a rifle and optics, you’re not looking forward to spending a lot of money on a spotting scope. But if you plan on doing any shooting out past, say, 50 yards, and want to know if you hit what you’re shooting at, then a spotting scope is a necessity.
I first tried getting an entry-level Barska 20 – 60×60 mm spotting scope
The long and the skinny is this – good glass isn’t cheap. I had to better than double my previous budget, but having used the Konus Konuspot 7120, I consider it a great solution at an affordable price, particularly compared to the competition.
Spotting scopes have several different purposes but as for myself, I simply want to be able to see my level of accuracy on the target I’m shooting at, without actually having to run out to the target. Here’s a photo of my Konuspot 7120, and my AR-15 on the 50 yard range:
The Konuspot 7120 comes with a table top tripod which is both light and functional – perfect for my uses. If the user had need to use the Konuspot 7120 at eye level while standing, it accepts a standard tripod mount and could be used with any tripod which also uses one. The Konuspot 7120 also comes with a nylon zipper case for storage and transport that works well.
The Konuspot 7120 is simple to use – the magnification adjustment is located on the eyepiece and has just three settings – 20x,40x, and 60x. The smaller control knob on the side of the scope serves as the fine focus.
While it was twice as expensive as my prior spotting scope, it’s also a much more capable one. With an objective lens diameter of 80mm (as opposed to the common 60mm size), the scope brings in a lot of light, and delivers it to your eye. This translates to a brighter, sharper view of your subject. It’s quite useable at every magnification level – though you’ll see progressively more vignetting which each step up in magnification. I can easily differentiate my bullet holes on my targets at 50 and 100 yards. For me and my vision (your mileage may vary) about 200 yards would the upper limit of trying to see rifle rounds on target – past that I think you’ll need to spend more money. The Konuspot-80 is a perfect fit for me here again as my local range doesn’t go out past 200 yards. .
I wanted to provide a photographic approximation of looking through the Konuspot-80. It came with some sort of photographic adaptor that, which used with a T-ring on a 35mm camera, allows you to photograph what you’re seeing (nice feature for bird watchers). I don’t happen to have a T-ring for mine (nor do I have a need to photograph using my Konuspot 7120) so I simply held up my point-and-shoot camera’s lens up to the eyepiece, and photographed this image of a target at 100 yards:
What you see is actually better than the above image depicts.
The Konus Konuspot 7120 has a retail price of approximately $399.00 but as usual, our friends at Amazon.com can save you almost half that amount:
Konus 7120 20x-60x80mm Spotting Scope with Tripod And Case
If you’re in need of a spotting scope, do give this one serious consideration.
John B. Holbrook, II is a freelance writer, photographer, and author of ThruMyLens.org, as well as LuxuryTyme.com and TheSeamasterReferencePage.com.
*All text and images contained in this web site are the original work of the author, John B. Holbrook, II and are copyright protected. Use of any of the information or images without the permission of the author is prohibited.
Hi, I was considering the Konus 7120 spotting scope for use at the range (I ama newbie) and for birding.
I was wondering if the eyepiece was removable and if I could substitute a fixed focal length one for times when I didn’t need the zoom capability. Amazon sells Celestron fixed focal length eyepieces for astromical scopes with 1.25″ fittings. Many guys seem to think that a magnification of 10, or less, is adequate out to 200 yards.
It is interesting that you feel that the Konus is good only up to 200 yards. I saw where someone else said that heat haze meant it wouldn’t work at 300 yards for .223 holes – but that would mean that no matter what the quality of the optics were, the image would be very poor.
Cheers
Fred
Well it’s four years later after the post and 2 years after the previous response. Yes past 300 yards any spotting scope will be affected by mirage caused by heat. The mirage is used to judge wind speed down range. So it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. At distances past 300 not many scopes (maybe with exception of a 80x+ scope) can see a small 22 or 30 caliber hole even with shoot n c targets. At distances past 300 yards your spotter is calling shots based on the vapor trail of the bullet to determine where they hit. You should look up bullet vapor trail videos to see this in action. This is a pretty good scope and scopes better than this will have ed glass.