Stores in Utah? (1 Viewer)

I will be visiting the US again in May, flying into and out of Salt Lake City and that might be the prefect opportunity to get my hands on some scopes and compare and see for myself. Any suggestions are to where i shd go?

Sportsman's Warehouse on 165 West 7200 South.

Cabela's just 1/2 hour south of Salt Lake in Lehi. 2502 Grand Terrace Parkway, Lehi

Thanks Lucznik,

but as far as I can tell from their website Cabela's dont carry Pentax
Any other options?

William,

Lucznik was spot on with the Sportsmans Warehouse suggestion. I just did a dealer search on scopes for you for Salt Lake City. Here are the three choices within 50 miles of there.

Sportsman's Warehouse
165 West 7200 South
Midvale, UT 84047
801-567-1000
Product lines: Binoculars, Eyepieces, Rifle Scopes, Spotting Scopes


Sportsman's Warehouse
1137 West Riverdale Road
Riverdale, UT 84405
801-334-4000
Product lines: Binoculars, Eyepieces, Rifle Scopes, Spotting Scopes


Sportsman's Warehouse #2
1075 South University Avenue
Provo, UT 84601
801-818-2000
Product lines: Binoculars, Eyepieces, Rifle Scopes, Spotting Scopes

FrankD said:

Sportsman's Warehouse
165 West 7200 South
Midvale, UT 84047
801-567-1000
Product lines: Binoculars, Eyepieces, Rifle Scopes, Spotting Scopes

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This one is your best bet as it is just outside of Salt Lake City proper. Take I-I5 south to 7200 south, exit the freeway and take a left at the bottom of the ramp. Sportsman's warehouse is about 3 city blocks up and on your right. You can't miss it.

FrankD said:

Sportsman's Warehouse
1137 West Riverdale Road
Riverdale, UT 84405
801-334-4000
Product lines: Binoculars, Eyepieces, Rifle Scopes, Spotting Scopes

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This store is North of Salt Lake City. Depending on traffic it is a 30-45 minute drive on I-15 northbound.

FrankD said:

Sportsman's Warehouse #2
1075 South University Avenue
Provo, UT 84601
801-818-2000
Product lines: Binoculars, Eyepieces, Rifle Scopes, Spotting Scopes

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This store is South of Salt Lake City. Again depending on traffic, it is a 45-60 minute drive on I-15 southbound.

Neither of these two further-distant stores are likely to have anything that the Midvale (7200 South) store doesn't. I know for certain that Sportsman's Warehouse carries the Pentax PF65. At least, they did just before Christmas when I was there comparing this scope to the Nikon ED50. I believe they might also carry Pentax's newer budget-class PF63. I don't believe I've ever seen a PF80 or a PF100 there - probably because they would generally be considered too big/heavy for hunters to pack around.

Thank you guys, that sounds promising indeed.

BTW Lucznik,

did you reach any interesting conclusion comparing the Pentax with the Nikon?

willemjacobusse said:

...did you reach any interesting conclusion comparing the Pentax with the Nikon?

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I suppose that depends on how you define "interesting." I found it interesting that neither the Nikon nor the Pentax impressed me nearly as much as I had anticipated/hoped they would.

Don't get me wrong, the Nikon is a fantastic little glass but, it is little - with all the basic problems this inherently imposes, i.e. dim at the upper magnifications, lower resolving power, etc. It has after all, a 50mm objective lens and the laws of physics still apply. It would be wonderful to use during the day when it's bright or if you were travelling or backpacking and needed to keep weight, size to a minimum but, I can't imagine it being acceptable for an "only" or "primary" spotting scope. It is definately a specialty glass. Even so, I really want one (or something like it.)

The Pentax, with its higher 65mm objective lens is obviously brighter and can resolve detail better but, at the expense of greater weight and bulk. It would be clearly the better choice as a primary scope - but it still is a compromise in optical performance from bigger 80mm scopes.

Personally, I don't find the 60-65mm spotting scopes to be very acceptable. They compromise too much from all areas doing lots of things "O.K." but doing nothing great. This is why I now have a good 80mm scope for general use and am looking for the best value in a 50mm scope for travel and backpacking.

lucznik,

Which 80 mm did you go with? For some reason I was thinking the Skyline 80 but since this is the Pentax forum maybe the 80 mm ED?

I do tend to agree with your comments though I am a bit surprised with the ones directed at the 65 ED. I seem to remember you being fairly enthused about it last year when you first tried it. What swayed your opinion?

FrankD
In re-reading my comments I think I may have seemed a bit too harsh on the Pentax. I actually did like it a lot. Optically it was superb. My only "complaint" (which is too harsh of a word) is that, despite being smaller than 80mm scopes, even it was a bit too big and too heavy for use as a backpacking scope. That puts it in the realm of a vehicle-based scope, at which point I figured I might as well just go with an 80mm.


BTW, I ended up going with the 80mm Bushnell Elite and the DSLR adapter for my Canon camera. I was going to go for the Skyline ED but, it is quite a bit heavier than the Bushnell (67 oz. vs. 53 oz) and it doesn't have an adapter for use with my DSLR. I have been quite pleased. The included 20-60x zoom has a fairly narrow FoV (possibly even a bit worse than the much-maligned Nikon - as does the Skyline) but, it hasn't bothered me too much as I primarily use the scope to look closely at things I've already seen with my binocular rather than really doing much general glassing with it. I'm also trying to decide between the 22x and the 30x fixed eyepieces for this scope - both of which have a much better/wider FoV. (Right now I'm leaning toward the 22x.)