Nikon Spotting Scope?

[BLACKJACK]

My wife was nice enough to buy me a Nikon Spotting scope for my birthday, its a Nikon ProStaff 16-48x65 Outfit - Team RealTree Camo Straight Body.

What has been your experience with Nikon scopes?

Is the 65mm objective big enough or should I upgrade to the 85mm?

I've always had my heart set on upgrading to a Swarovski or a Zeiss, will I be happy with this scope?

My current cheap spotting scope spends most of its time sitting on a tripod by my living room windown where I use it to scope out ducks on the pond or deer. I want to be able to pull in ducks and deer 1/4 mile away. This scope is a definate upgrade but I'm debating whether I should spend the extra $800 to move up to the Swarovski or Zeiss - what do you think?

[iffwalleyes]

Where are you using it? Do you hunt out west ever? Is so then it might be worth it. That said this fall we were glassing elk from 3 miles away with the spotter that you mentioned and it worked just fine. They always say spend as much as you can afford. I personally like Leopold better than Nikon in that range of scopes. I have never looked through a Swarovski or Zeiss because I just don't feel it is justifiable for me.

[BLACKJACK]

Quick update on this, a friend of mine stopped by last weekend, hes got a Swarovski scope. We set them up side by side and looked at different things both close and far away. His might have a littttttle bit more clarity at long range, but not much, not $1000 worth, which is what an upgrade to a Swarovski would cost, so I'm keeping the Nikon.

Looking forward to when the spring birds and ducks start returning to really be able to zoom in on them!!

[bassNspear]

my salesmanager at work has one and will die for it. This is all that he talks about when hunting. Its something that i believe he cant live without ne more. I havent see what one he has, but it was 1500.