However, on the shooting range that tripod is grounded on a nice, flat surface and, hopefully, is shaded from the sun and protected from the wind. In the field you will set up your spotting scope wherever you must in order to see game. For hunting, fixed-power spotting scopes of 20X no more than 25X are pretty good tools. Sure, sometimes you will wish you had more power. But if you started out with a 30X scope there will be a lot of times when you can t quite resolve the image through the wind-induced wobbles and magnified heat mirage.
Variables make extremely good choices.
The dependable and inexpensive Bushnell Trophy has long been a basic hunter s tool, and it s still a fine choice. Of course, in spotting scopes as in all other optics, you get what you pay for but whether you need more or not depends on the kind of hunting you do. But you have to be careful, because the best and brightest spotting scopes, although wonderful tools, are generally too bulky to carry in your daypack. So the hunting spotting scope is always a compromise. Leupold s 25x50 are wonderful tools, great compromises between portability and resolution.