PF80 with XW10 for spotting targets at 600+yards??? (1 Viewer)

I have a chance to pick up a PF80 with either XW7 or XW10 for about $900 out the door. I know this is a birdwatching forum but you guys are the experts when it comes to this topic. The purpose of the scope is spotting .30 caliber holes in targets at 600+ yards. My 22x Nightforce scope can resolve 30caliber holes upto about 400 yards but after that it is a no go.

Shooting is always done during day time so no night shooting is done and obviously it will always be on a tripod pointing to a fixed target. FOV is not so important because again it will pointed to a fixed target and not watching a group of birds for example.

Is there anything else for around the $900-1000 range that can give 50-60x zoom that is better than this combo? Thanks for all inputs.

have you seen this review? specifically compares PF80 to some other top scopes for spotting bullet holes at distance: http://www.6mmbr.com/spotterreview.html

your biggest impediment at that distance is going to be the atmosphere in between the hole and the objective lens, not necessarily the scope optics.

that being said, the PF-80ED with an XW eyepeice is probably the best optics you can buy for under $1000. But you won't necessarily use all that FOV which is one of the big attractions of the XW eyepieces.

for a little more ($1300 on ebay right now), you can get a Nikon Fieldscope 82ED which has a 75x zoom lens, and it stays sharp all the way up. The main criticism is field of view but that is not an issue for you. The advantage of the zoom is that it will allow you to dial in the max magnification for the given distance and atmospheric conditions... that MCII zoom eyepiece is very very sharp and Nikon makes excellent optics.

another option is a used "alpha". I am seeing Leica Televid APO 77mm's with 20-60x zoom going for $1200-1300 on ebay.