I wrote this up for Liberty Optics to use on thier site so please excuse all the optcs talk but at the same time, It is all the truth:
In September I contacted Scott at Liberty Optics concerning spotting scopes. After some convincing as I was convinced on the Zeiss, I placed an order for the Kowa Prominar TSN-884. The price was unbeatable, and trust me I tried to see if I could find a better price. There was NOWHERE that would beat his price or even match it. Kowa was currently out of stock and the date was nearing for us to leave on our Elk hunt. My wife Amy, and my father Randy both had any-elk tags for one of the better draw areas here in WY. I own a Nikon 20-45 x 60mm Field Scope 3 ED spotter that we had used in the area in years past. It is a excellent scope but we needed more power and better low light viewing as the big boys don’t show up till its about dark and then disappear once the sun hits in the mornings.
Scott assured me that Kowa was getting in a shipment and felt that there would be no problem getting my scope in time. He went as far as even offering that for some reason it wasn’t here he would send me a scope of near equal quality to use. I wasn’t going to be without a spotting scope for this hunt. If that is not superb customer service, I don’t know what is!
One week before we were to leave I decided to buy my wife some binoculars as well. It was to be her first Elk hunt and I wanted her set up. Scott again, after some convincing as was looking more at the big names, convinced me to buy her some Vortex Viper 10x42’s with some Bino-buddies. Without fail, he got them to me with 3 days to spare. Again, customer service at its finest. He was right, They are truly the most superb binoculars I have ever seen in that price range.
Sure enough 2 days before I was to leave town to begin 5 days of preseason scouting, the Kowa arrived! I was about to be put to the test.
During the 5 days of scouting, I used the Kowa and Amy’s Vipers. We saw more Elk than we ever have in the years prior. I know it sounds like a sales pitch, but it was definitely due to having far better optics on hand than we had in the past. This included one of the biggest bulls I have ever seen in person. This bruiser came up out of a bottom after I cow called on him. We had heard him bugling for 2 days prior but he would not come out of the trees for nothing. He was not seen again after that day. I was able to get some pictures and video of him by holding my camera up to the Kowa. It was very hard to do as I am a chronic shaker and the bull kept moving so I had to adjust the spotter every time he got out of view. I included a few pics to show but please, these do not represent the Kowa’s ability at all. I will be ordering a digi-scoping setup for this scope soon as I hope to go back and get some better pics and video of this spectacular bull in his winter range. Maybe I will even get lucky enough to get his sheds!
Opening Day arrived and we were in the Elk. We had my brother on a high point watching with the Kowa for the big boys and we tried to get in positions to get on them. My bro has always had a hard time using spotters but he had zero issues with the Kowa! These Elk are sneaky buggers! They would circle us every time. Finally on the second day of the hunt we knew where a few herds and some straggler groups had moved into. My Dad and Brother took Amy and were going to set her up to look over a area we knew they used to move through. As they were standing there trying to figure out where exactly to place her, a bunch of cows moved out across the very opening they were in. Amy got set up for the shot. Finally the herd bull came out. She downed him.
He is a beautiful 5x6 that has some fantastic mass. He has more mass than both my Dads 6 point bulls and my bro’s 6 point bull they have got in the past. In the pictures, compare the bulls bases to Amy’s leg! I am extremely proud of her. We had seen this bull during scouting trying to make more little elk LOL. I wish I would have got video of him then.
We hunted for another week trying to get my Dad into a big boy and nothing seamed to work in our favor. Finally on the last day we had to hunt, Dad shot a smaller 5x5 for meat in the freezer for them and my brother to enjoy.
We attribute the success of this hunt to using the spot and stalk type of technique of hunting. This kind of hunting is impossible without using high quality optics. The Kowa Prominar TSN-884 is without a doubt one of the finest spotting scopes in the world! It performed flawlessly in our hunt. With its fine focus as well as fast focus it is easy to use and fast to get a clear picture. Compared to other scopes I have used I often found myself using the fast focus and thinking I had it well focused only to then use the fine focus and be amazed at how much better yet the clarity would get. Truly AMAZING!!!!
As for the Vortex Viper 10x42. They are a very very very good binocular. Amy spotted many elk with them before any of the boys could. I had the same experience with them in the times I used them. I asked Amy what she thought of them afterwards and she said,” I don’t know what to say. They worked really well.” I guess that’s what matters right? I highly suggest the Bino-Buddies. They make using your bino’s and carrying them so much more simple and accessable. These are a great product and I plan to add a pair of the 10x50 Vipers to my optics arsenal as well as my Dad and Brother plan to get some as well because they were equally impressed. You can bet, we will be ordering them from Scott at Liberty Optics. He now has some life long customers in us!
THANKS SCOTT!!!
Sincerely,
Todd, Amy, Randy, and Erik Jones
In September I contacted Scott at Liberty Optics concerning spotting scopes. After some convincing as I was convinced on the Zeiss, I placed an order for the Kowa Prominar TSN-884. The price was unbeatable, and trust me I tried to see if I could find a better price. There was NOWHERE that would beat his price or even match it. Kowa was currently out of stock and the date was nearing for us to leave on our Elk hunt. My wife Amy, and my father Randy both had any-elk tags for one of the better draw areas here in WY. I own a Nikon 20-45 x 60mm Field Scope 3 ED spotter that we had used in the area in years past. It is a excellent scope but we needed more power and better low light viewing as the big boys don’t show up till its about dark and then disappear once the sun hits in the mornings.
Scott assured me that Kowa was getting in a shipment and felt that there would be no problem getting my scope in time. He went as far as even offering that for some reason it wasn’t here he would send me a scope of near equal quality to use. I wasn’t going to be without a spotting scope for this hunt. If that is not superb customer service, I don’t know what is!
One week before we were to leave I decided to buy my wife some binoculars as well. It was to be her first Elk hunt and I wanted her set up. Scott again, after some convincing as was looking more at the big names, convinced me to buy her some Vortex Viper 10x42’s with some Bino-buddies. Without fail, he got them to me with 3 days to spare. Again, customer service at its finest. He was right, They are truly the most superb binoculars I have ever seen in that price range.
Sure enough 2 days before I was to leave town to begin 5 days of preseason scouting, the Kowa arrived! I was about to be put to the test.
During the 5 days of scouting, I used the Kowa and Amy’s Vipers. We saw more Elk than we ever have in the years prior. I know it sounds like a sales pitch, but it was definitely due to having far better optics on hand than we had in the past. This included one of the biggest bulls I have ever seen in person. This bruiser came up out of a bottom after I cow called on him. We had heard him bugling for 2 days prior but he would not come out of the trees for nothing. He was not seen again after that day. I was able to get some pictures and video of him by holding my camera up to the Kowa. It was very hard to do as I am a chronic shaker and the bull kept moving so I had to adjust the spotter every time he got out of view. I included a few pics to show but please, these do not represent the Kowa’s ability at all. I will be ordering a digi-scoping setup for this scope soon as I hope to go back and get some better pics and video of this spectacular bull in his winter range. Maybe I will even get lucky enough to get his sheds!
Opening Day arrived and we were in the Elk. We had my brother on a high point watching with the Kowa for the big boys and we tried to get in positions to get on them. My bro has always had a hard time using spotters but he had zero issues with the Kowa! These Elk are sneaky buggers! They would circle us every time. Finally on the second day of the hunt we knew where a few herds and some straggler groups had moved into. My Dad and Brother took Amy and were going to set her up to look over a area we knew they used to move through. As they were standing there trying to figure out where exactly to place her, a bunch of cows moved out across the very opening they were in. Amy got set up for the shot. Finally the herd bull came out. She downed him.
He is a beautiful 5x6 that has some fantastic mass. He has more mass than both my Dads 6 point bulls and my bro’s 6 point bull they have got in the past. In the pictures, compare the bulls bases to Amy’s leg! I am extremely proud of her. We had seen this bull during scouting trying to make more little elk LOL. I wish I would have got video of him then.
We hunted for another week trying to get my Dad into a big boy and nothing seamed to work in our favor. Finally on the last day we had to hunt, Dad shot a smaller 5x5 for meat in the freezer for them and my brother to enjoy.
We attribute the success of this hunt to using the spot and stalk type of technique of hunting. This kind of hunting is impossible without using high quality optics. The Kowa Prominar TSN-884 is without a doubt one of the finest spotting scopes in the world! It performed flawlessly in our hunt. With its fine focus as well as fast focus it is easy to use and fast to get a clear picture. Compared to other scopes I have used I often found myself using the fast focus and thinking I had it well focused only to then use the fine focus and be amazed at how much better yet the clarity would get. Truly AMAZING!!!!
As for the Vortex Viper 10x42. They are a very very very good binocular. Amy spotted many elk with them before any of the boys could. I had the same experience with them in the times I used them. I asked Amy what she thought of them afterwards and she said,” I don’t know what to say. They worked really well.” I guess that’s what matters right? I highly suggest the Bino-Buddies. They make using your bino’s and carrying them so much more simple and accessable. These are a great product and I plan to add a pair of the 10x50 Vipers to my optics arsenal as well as my Dad and Brother plan to get some as well because they were equally impressed. You can bet, we will be ordering them from Scott at Liberty Optics. He now has some life long customers in us!
THANKS SCOTT!!!
Sincerely,
Todd, Amy, Randy, and Erik Jones