52,
To be honest I never worked with them, just saw them in the Q Store. They were sourced for UNOSOM Peacekeeping, no doubt in a static role or from vehicles. The M80 is a fixed 20x magnification for day work. The exit pupil, 4mm, doesn't lend itself for night use. All that bulk comes from taking a pair of normal binos from 7x to 20x while keeping a decent field-of-view and exit pupil.
What we also had which always impressed was the Steiner 7x50. Great for night work for two reasons, (1) the wider exit pupil 7mm, and (2) the Porro prism design. As you know there's no central focus and it's individual focus on each barrel instead. Focus during daylight and at nightime this turns them into a proxy night vision device. With Porro, whatever you are trying to figure out is always in focus.
The preferred spotting scope at the time was the Swift Zoom 15-60x60. That, and the Bausch and Lomb Discoverer (same 15-60x60). Neither are made anymore but they were much more compact and portable than the giant Steiner 20x80 binoculars. Zoom them up to 60x however and the image was dark and they were prone to tiring your eyes out if it was windy and the thing wobbled. So we often used them dialled down. With a wider field-of-view there'd be less need to keep them still which is where the Steiner M80's would shine.
I don't use a spotting scope in civilian shooting. The high magnification range of modern rifle's scopes are enough, or a pair of 10x40 Leica Geovid's. The colours in the Leica pop and the laser is helpful. I see spotting scopes being used less on the firing lines. With the advent of electronic targets and the TV screens at the firing point there are no markers in the butts (Kongsberg is popular here), and for shorter ranges like 500M Fly everyone seems to use their rifle scope. You might see only one in 10 shooters using a spotting scope in Fly.
To be honest I never worked with them, just saw them in the Q Store. They were sourced for UNOSOM Peacekeeping, no doubt in a static role or from vehicles. The M80 is a fixed 20x magnification for day work. The exit pupil, 4mm, doesn't lend itself for night use. All that bulk comes from taking a pair of normal binos from 7x to 20x while keeping a decent field-of-view and exit pupil.
What we also had which always impressed was the Steiner 7x50. Great for night work for two reasons, (1) the wider exit pupil 7mm, and (2) the Porro prism design. As you know there's no central focus and it's individual focus on each barrel instead. Focus during daylight and at nightime this turns them into a proxy night vision device. With Porro, whatever you are trying to figure out is always in focus.
The preferred spotting scope at the time was the Swift Zoom 15-60x60. That, and the Bausch and Lomb Discoverer (same 15-60x60). Neither are made anymore but they were much more compact and portable than the giant Steiner 20x80 binoculars. Zoom them up to 60x however and the image was dark and they were prone to tiring your eyes out if it was windy and the thing wobbled. So we often used them dialled down. With a wider field-of-view there'd be less need to keep them still which is where the Steiner M80's would shine.
I don't use a spotting scope in civilian shooting. The high magnification range of modern rifle's scopes are enough, or a pair of 10x40 Leica Geovid's. The colours in the Leica pop and the laser is helpful. I see spotting scopes being used less on the firing lines. With the advent of electronic targets and the TV screens at the firing point there are no markers in the butts (Kongsberg is popular here), and for shorter ranges like 500M Fly everyone seems to use their rifle scope. You might see only one in 10 shooters using a spotting scope in Fly.