I have tried a Konus side by side with my older Kowa 821TSN.  2 things: 1. the konus was quite good in the center, edges were not nearly as sharp; 2. not nearly the eye relief as my fixed 27 power LER eye piece.  I have the fixed 27 power long eye relief.  It is important when you are wearing glasses.  Who dosen't when they're shooting???

I also had a Nikon earth and sky, 20-60 power, 80mm, angled eye piece.  It IS every bit as good as the Kowa side by side.  I ended up selling it and buying the Kowa because of the eye relief.  I was very happy with the scope, but had to take my glasses off to really see well.

Hi All

Thank you for all the good and positive replies they have been really helpful in leading us in the right direction, we have now closed the huge gap down to a very small gap where we will be looking for something in the neighborhood of 20-60X80 or a fixed 30X80.

It seems like the standard is Kowi 821M but several other brands could be fine to.

We are going to Cody on October 4 to watch their election day shooting and we hope to have a chance to look at some of the scopes there so we can make the final decision and have the scopes ordered in time to get them with us back home

Regarding the dollar vs. Euro, yes the exchange rate has never been better in my life time but I see that the dollar is slightly rising now

Regarding the place to buy the scope we will of course support a gun shop like BA or others even if it is slightly more expensive, a lot of stuff we are using today we are buying from BA and other US dealers

Michael

Seems like an old Unertl Team Captain 100mm would be the ultimate.

Quote:


Yes, THE ultimate except that it would now cost as much as about 5 of those Kowas! The last one I saw sold went for many, many thousands.
I can only dream, Joe

waterman wrote on Aug 6^th, 2008 at 2:05am:


With my Kowa 821 I can see .17 caliber holes @300 yards unless the mirage is wild.

I remember that Leupold advertised that, with their 12X varmint scope, the shooter could see 22-cal holes at 200 yds. Over the years I've owned 3 different 12X Leupolds and have never been able to see 22-cal holes at 200 on a guaranteed basis every day. Sometimes, yes; other times, no; most of the time, no. I also have one of their 25x50mm spotting scopes and have the same results with it: most of the time the 22-cal holes @ 200 are barely visible to me if I can see them at all. Here are some similar results of other scopes I've used over the years.

Unertl 12x 1.5" Target: 1 example could see 22-cal holes clearly @ 200 but the other was not any better than the new 12x Leupold.

Unertl 15x 2" Ultra Varmints: 2 examples, both clear @ 200

Unertl 16x & 20x 2" Targets: both clear @ 200.

Lyman 20x STS: clear @ 200

Leupold 6.5-20x: clear most of the time @ 200

Litschert 12x ~1.3" Target: 2 examples, one was as good as the best but the other is not quite so clear but still better than the 12x Leupold


The above info is for comparison within the above data only, since my vision is terrible and has always been so. Probably worse vision than 99% of you folks reading this, so please don't use it as a comparison to any other glass not mentioned above.
FWIW, regards, Joe