I used to pride myself on grabbing M81 and M82 with just the TELRAD but that was New Mexico. We had clear skies today from about 2pm until about 6pm.
I cannot star hop worth a shit. I know the field of view of about 20 or so objects, and can find maybe a good dozen by rote, but I got the GOTO for a reason. The guy I was with, however, got the badge where he was able to document that he can find all 110 Messier objects by star hopping and is working on the Hershel 400 list. He's phenomenal. And to get the Sombrero, in the city, in a sub-optimal night? I was all "NO WAY" then 3-4 people got to see it.
Neat. I can find M3, M5, M80, most of the stuff in Sagitarius, M11 without even thinking about it now. I did manage to star hop to M101 and M51 at a star party in West Virginia, but not sure I can do that again. When you start getting into the Herschel 400 stuff, where there may be a single Mag. 10 star within a 1/4 degree of sky, I start punching in buttons on the GOTO. The guy I was with last night, however, is up to something like 200 out of the 400 documented and is going to get that pin.