Ollin Review

I had some time to play with my Ollin magnetic spotting scope phone adapter system during 3rd rifle in Colorado and I was very impressed.
I had a PhoneSkope with the same spotter but a different phone and this is the only thing I really had to compare the Ollin system with.

I’ll start with my old PhoneSkope. It wasn’t bad but seemed like it needed adjusting every single time I put it on the spotting scope. I also have a rubberized phone case (OtterBox) and the PhoneSkope ‘phone case’ would tear the corners up on the rubber trying to get it installed. Once it was all on the spotter and adjusted it worked fine.

Now for the Ollin. It has a magnetic eye pice you mount to your spotter and leave it on. There’s also a magnetic cover that come with it that goes over their eye piece for when your traveling, which was nice. The phone case that comes with the Ollin requires you to pull any phone case off your phon, which at first I wasn’t a big fan of. Again on this new phone I have an OtterBox. It’s not hard to take off but not the easiest. Olin’s phone case fit really well on my iPhone and all of the edges are nice and rounded, so very minimal snag points for going in and out of pockets. It also has strategically placed magnets that snap to the ring on your spotter’s eye piece. It snaps to the same place every single time and makes going from your spotter to your phone on your spotter a breeze. I’m a fan! The only thing I wasn’t a fan of was the price. It is spendy but is much less cumbersome than the PhoneSkope IMO.

First pic is through the spotter that wasn’t 100% fully focused and the second was just held by hand up to my Sig Kilo 6k binos. It was hard holding the binos still after ranging the same place these two cows were. They were on the next ridge just barely over the 2* in the second pic.

The spotter is a Leupold SX-4 pro guide 15x-45.

Would I buy it again? Probably. If I stayed in Texas and only stuck to my whitetail hunting, I probably would not. I don’t use my spotter enough for just that. Going out west somewhere I felt it was worth the money for quick, to the scope connection.

Great review. I love the system, but not a fan of price. Im upgrading phones and not looking forward to buying new case.

I did see Phoneskope was upgrading with the times, but looks more like a mag view concept then ollin

How did you do third rifle?

I really like my ollin adapter as well, super easy and super indexable every time. I bought mine after upgrading phones so I am good for a few years at a minimum, but would really love to get some of the bino adapters they have now for my pair so I can use the set up at closer range like texas hunting is set up for. I can get great pics out of mine and would love to video some hunts (just to see where arrows and bolts hit the deer) and I can not do that with a spotter (way too close) but my 10X binos would be perfect for the job.

If I had the money I would buy a bino adapter with a phone case for my wife's phone in case she wants to digiscope for our baldies that frequent during the winter. But as mentioned, it is spendy and currently out of the fundage for the time being.

The phone case is cheap if you already have the eye piece for your spotter. I want to say their phone part is only like $35 if that's all you need.

Saw a lot 3rd season, 5 different legal bulls. 2 of the guys in our group took off after a legal raghorn on day one but other hunters busted him out before they could get much closer.

I made a stalk on day 2 and lost him in the oak brush when i got within shooting distances. Needed a little more firepower for that one lol. Last I saw him he was around 1200 yards out before I dove off down in a ravine to get closer.

Second to last day made a good stalk on a decent 5x5. As we were popping up over the last ridge to get a shot off, some hunters above the bull bumped him then shot in our direction to stop us from going any further. The bull blew out obviously. Long story short, we came back empty handed but had 1 solid 'almost' shot bull until we got shot at (kind of).

I think I would of said hi and introduced myself

Regardless sounds like a good trip that beats the office

We hiked up to their buggy and they walked off the other direction. Later that afternoon we were sitting up on a high knob glassing from our buggy and they drove by covering their faces

It was definitely a good trip. Learned a lot about that area and have a good game plan for the next trip on where to be at day break.

Sounds like an eventful trip at least. You did better than i did this year on getting out of state to hunt. I was pretty much preoccupied from sept thru december. Hopefully thats a once and done for me.

I need to get out and do some more elk hunting. That is some fun time right there!

I also recently got to play some with my Ollin on my Kowa Prominar. It’s better than anything I have tried previously but I do need to get a different head/ tripod combo that the wind doesn’t blow around when fully extended.

Arent those kowa scopes something? Every time i look thru mine i am
Amazed. Great glass without the swaro pricetag and if you get them used, even better price.

Nice pics DStroud. What ranges (est) were those pics taken?

Desert Sheep were 600-800 and Mule deer about 250

nice

Not to get off topic, but which Kowa where you using? would you recommend it? Im saving for the 15-45 55mm

If you can spring for the newer 66 series with the flourite lens in the Kowa, those are awesome from a weight to visualization standpoint. If you can get anything used with the Flourite lenses, thats an even cheaper way to get into a kowa. I got a 883 at an amazing deal, used, but in perfect condition. I have not been able to fully stretch its legs at all yet, but someday.

The 55 series is a good lightwweight series, it has the flourite lenses. Those flourite lenses are game changers

compare the felid of view to 60-65mm alternatives. all the 50-56mm have very narrow FOV’s

It was the 883