Jim, Tell your friend to go to
www.natchazss.com and use the link to their latest flier. Thay have a quite good spotting scope for sale at $349.00. It is the Nikon Spotter XL in 16-47x60mm. I bought one from them as a spotter kit that came with a decent tripod and padded soft carry case over ten years ago and it was $411.00 W/S&H then. This is a IMHO great deel as spotters go if you plan on using it while glassing local deer, backpack hunting and range work because it has a great ballance of power, and light weight in size.
If I recall correctly this scope features fully muti-coating on ALL LENS SURFACES, Bak-4 roof prisms that have PC-3 phase correction, and all internal surfaces are blackened to help eliminate any internal reflected light. It is also totally water proof not just water resistant, and is fully rubber armoured. It also comes with a removable cover for the rear lens and a attatched cover for the front objective lens.
There may be a better deel to be had on a spotting scope better suited to non-backpack hunting applications, but for all around spotting scope use for under $400 and in this case about $40 under, I doubt you will find a better made higher quality spotting scope with all the features I described for way under $400.
Over the last ten years, I have used mine on five back pack hunts and dozens of other non-BP hunts as well as for range work, and I am 1000% satisfied. Its only real limitation as I see it is magnification. Bushnell (who owns Nikon) makes its big brothers and I wish thay had when I bought mine. Thay make what is called the Bushnell Elite 20-60X70mm spotting scope wich is basicly the Nikon but at ahigher magnification and larger front objective. It can be had W/S&H for $474.00 at eagle optics. It is the spotter I wish I had now.
Hope this proves helpfull.
Art
