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Best Compact Spotting Scope for Hunting & Birding

In Spotting Scopes by Consumer FilesLeave a CommentLast Updated: March 1st, 2023

Best Compact Spotting Scope for Hunting & Birding

WINNER

Swarovski Spotting Scope

Yukon 100x 21031 

Bushnell Sentry

Bushnell Legend


You've got a big hunt planned and are assembling all your gear. With a great deal of your time to be spent hiking through the wilderness, getting out to that perfect spot, you want to make sure you can get there as easily as possible.

While you still want to make sure you have everything you need to bag your next trophy, you don't want to be burdened with excessive weight but you also don't want to sacrifice quality for size and weight when it comes to your gear, either.

With your next big wilderness hunt in mind, find on this list the best compact spotting scope for hunting that won't weigh you down yet offer the high performance, quality, and ruggedness that you demand.

Top Pick: Swarovski Spotting Scope 2024

This is a top of the line compact spotting scope that will be the only spotting scope you will ever need. With a sturdy aluminum housing and rubber armor for shock and noise protection, this best compact spotting scope for hunting boasts a proprietary lens coating that not only provides life-like color but also greatly extends the life of your lenses by making cleaning them of things like insect repellent and tree sap a breeze.

With a 65mm objective lens and fluoride-containing HD lenses, this scope will continuously produce high contrast, total color fidelity, and precision outlines even in low light. With an amazing image quality that's hard to beat, that this scope can focus as close as 9.84 feet is another impressive feature. It is also dustproof and fully waterproof -being submersible to 13 feet. 

This scope is 12.79" long and weighs 36 ounces. It is important to note, however, that this scope does not come with an eyepiece. With the combined price of the scope and eyepiece, this is a pricy scope, however, the quality is right up there with the price, too.

One amazing thing that adds into making of of this the best compact spotting scope for hunting and birding is its ability to attach a camera to its eyepiece for amazing unique photography (watch video):


Yukon 100x 21031 Compact Spotting Scope

This is a highly unique scope that sets a new standard when it comes to spotting scopes, whether full-sized or compact. Firstly, this scope comes with 6-100x magnification that provides little distortion in higher magnifications due to what is not only a highly unique dual lens system but is exclusive to this scope and Yukon.

This best compact hunting spotting scope has both a 35mm and 100mm objective lens that are easily switched between with the twist of a knob. The 35mm lens is used for magnification between 6 and 25x, the 100mm lens for higher magnification. The result is a scope with a nearly ludicrous magnification range that actually has zero distortion and no loss of image quality -regardless of what magnification power is used, even at dawn and dusk.

It also has an eyepiece that rotates a full 90 degrees, allowing you to easily look through it, even when laying prone out in the prairie, which is a good use for this scope with its incredible magnification range.

This scope is about 16 and 3/4 inches long and weighs 3.3 pounds, making it a little larger, but still a highly compact scope especially with the high level of performance it carries. This spotting scope also comes with a soft case that can be used while looking through the scope, an extendable sunshade, and a three-year warranty.


Bushnell Sentry Compact Spotting Scope

This mighty little scope is great for those long hikes out in the bush. With a 12-36x magnification it comes with plenty of power to spot your quarry through the forest or dense scrub brush, with an FOV (field of vision) at 12x of 140 feet at 1000 yards, and at 36x it's 65 feet at 1000 yards. Its 50mm multi-coated optics let in a lot of light and produce a crisp, clear image.

Regardless of what nature throws at you, this best hunting compact spotting scope can handle it with shock absorbing armor and being 100% waterproof and fog proof. This is a moderately priced scope that offers a lot of value and comes with a compact tripod, an extra heavy-duty hard case, a soft carrying case, and even a scope glove with Velcro straps so you can securely hold this compact spotting scope by hand.

At 8.7" long and weighing only 21.5 ounces, this scope is the smallest spotting scope on this list and is easily held by hand, not to mention being a barely noticeable addition, weightwise, to your pack.


Bushnell Legend Ultra HD Compact Spotting Scope

This scope was designed with the hunter in mind, making it one of the best hunting spotting scopes on the market today. It has a magnification of 12-36x with an FOV of 179 feet at 1000 yard (at 12x) and of 90 feet at 1000 yards (at 36x). Its 50mm objective lens lets in a lot of light, providing you with crisp, clear images.

But this spotting scope's most impressive feature is Bushnell's patented rain guard HD coating on the ED (extra low dispersion) glass that produces vivid clarity and contrast as well as clear image regardless of low light conditions, snow, sleet, hail, rain, or even condensation from your own breathing.

This scope has stacked dual focus knobs for easy focus adjustments that lend well to its compact 10.5" design, coming in at a meager 36.3 ounces. It's also fully waterproof and fog proof, and come with a soft carrying case, tripod, and scope glove for easy hand-held performance.


Best Compact Spotting Scope for Hunting And Birding Conclusion

These scopes prove that minimal size doesn't mean minimal performance and that the best compact spotting scope for hunting is more easily attainable than first thought. So, the next time you're looking for new gear for your trip out to the mountains or out across the high plains, consider these high performance yet surprisingly lightweight and compact sized spotting scopes. They won't weigh you down but will still do the job that you'd expect out of a comparable full-size spotting scope.


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Sources and Official Brand Websites:

Yukon  |  Bushnell  |  Swarovski | Optics Planet


Best Compact Spotting Scope for Hunting & Birding was last modified: March 1st, 2023 by Consumer Files