Nikko spotting scope
by Technical Advisor Brendan Atkinson
Australian Shooter March 2003
The name Nikko Stirling has been around the shooting arena for many years and many Australian shooters would have had experience with some of their products. A while back, I was sent a Nikko Stirling Gold Crown 20-60x80mm, one of a new line of spotting scopes available.
The scope’s arrival coincided with South Australian benchrest sporter
titles, where competitors are restricted to having a rifle scope power
of 12x maximum. Spotting scopes are definitely necessary at this event
and I can report that 6mm holes were easily spotted at both 100 and 200
yards. A target placed at 300 yards also had some 6mm and .224 holes,
which could be clearly seen even at lower than maximum power. Weather
conditions on the day were overcast, with little or no ground mirage -
ideal shooting and viewing weather as it turned out.
As with many spotting scopes, there was some difficulty focusing clearly at the highest power and turning it down to about 55x was much better. I have seen some scopes priced at more than $1000 where this has also happened. The scientific explanation is that at the higher powers less light will reach your eye and of course a higher magnification will accentuate any mirage or atmospheric contamination. All variable scopes should be clearly focused at the lowest setting and then the power increased slowly until any further adjustments are required.
Nikko’s spotting scope has a tripod mount supplied and this is a must if the higher powers are used, as any vibration of the scope is multiplied enormously at high magnifications. Unfortunately, its light weight has been achieved at the expense of sturdiness, so it is important not to touch the tripod or scope when viewing. For serious work, I would recommend attaching this spotting scope to a good quality metal camera tripod.
In optics, you get what you pay for and this spotting scope does a good job for the asking price of just less than $500.
Spotting scope supplied by Highland Sports Pty Ltd.