Overthinking Rifle Scope Options

[The Hedgehog]

I went Tasco.

I've shot through this model several times and have hunted with a number of people who love them. Only concern is the extra close or extra far ranges, but it'll do.

 

[woods89]

I've looked at them and yes, they check most of the boxes. They only have 2 models available with the ForcePlex though, the 3-10x42 and the 5-20x56. I'm not sure how glass compares to the MeoPro but it's probably good enough. I may end up going that route though. I also like most of what I read about the Meostar R2 2-12x50 RD but I haven't found one to look at yet.

My 3-10 SHV was bright enough to shoot a bull in burned out timber 15 min before end of legal shooting light, and that was with the MOAR reticle. It's also held zero in all situations.
I think it's one of the best hunting scopes on the market.

 

[Don Fischer]

The original context was what should I look for at a hundred yards target given a specific load and charge for my 30-06. Range facility (an old gravel pit thirty miles from town) was limited (100 yards) and I was short on time and very short on ammo. I wanted a quick answer: where should the bullet be at 100 yards to be in at 200? It was not a case of me not knowing how to zero a rifle as some of these juveniles have misinterpreted. The serious helpful responses were actually quite varied.

Well that is different. When I first started really getting interested in shooting and reloading I usually shot at 100yds and zeroed there. Few years down the road I read an article in some magazine explaining to sight the rifle in 3" high at 100yds. Didn't say much more than that. Even farther down the road I read about sighting in at max point blank range. That made a world of sense to me and was all pretty easy to figure with the chronograph I had by then. It seems to me that the 3" high mark was basically shooting at an 8" target. My big game rifles are all zeroed like that and every one of them hits 4" low somewhere around 275yds. With that set and an animal at 300yds about 9" hold over score's good hits. Those years I started doing that were well before this so called long range hunting craze we have today. back then 300yds was considered long range. Not to say some guys didn't do it, sure they did but they didn't talk about it on a computer every chance they got, shoot didn't have computer's then. And generally speaking when a guy bragged about it he was also ready to show off! I just don't believe there's that many guys even today that can do it right. Problem being the flatest shooting cartridge going is no guarantee you can dot it. Long range shooting require's skills most hunter's don't have.

I remember some years ago a guy showed up where we were shooting with a Rem 40x in 6mm Rem. Seems he had an old Lyman 20x on it, pretty new then though! Claimed for everyone to hear he could shoot a bullet into a target at 100yds and then put a second bullet through the same hole. Long story short he was asked to show us and couldn't do it, didn't even come close. Rifles have a way of doing that to lots of guys.

These days seem's everyone want to sight in their rifle at around 100 yds or 200yds and then use turret's for long range shooting. When I got my 6.5x06 I put a 4 1/2x14x scope on it just to shoot it long range at target's. But I zeroed it the same way I did all my big game cartridges, MPBR at 8" target then used that to work up drop out to 500yds and used turrets to dial in the change. Then shot against what I got off my chronograph and it was amaging how accurate the chronograph was. But other than varmints like ground squirrels, I never shoot past 300yds and did that only one time to say I did. I have found over the years most my shots at big game are under 200yds

 

[T Bone]

Interesting posts.

I'm somewhere in the middle.

Long range for me is 400 - 800 yards. Over 800? Forget about it.

I have 4 rifles that I regularly practice with. All have turrets.

2 are Leupold 3.5-10x40 with M1 turrets.
1 is Leupold 3-9x40 with M1 turret.
The other is a lowly Burris C4 that I bought on clearance. It tracks extremely well.

This year, a hunter I met on the mountain gut-shot a raghorn bull. The bull was gimping, but extremely mobile. After running a ridge line, I caught up with him and bumped him. I had about 15 seconds to ID the bull, range it, and set up for 778 yard shot. By far the longest shot I've ever taken on an animal.

I proned out over my pack, twisted my turret, chambered a round, and as the bull paused in an opening in the timber, gave 2 feet of wind drift, and touched it off. The bullet couldn't have been more perfect. Both shoulders punched and the bull dropped instantly. Couldn't do it again if I had to. Dale from Indiana was as impressed as I was surprised.

Whatever you go with, practice. A lot. This season made me ill with the long range crap shooting we witnessed.

FWIW, my son's (USMC Designated Marksman) duty rifle was the M110 platform with a Schmidt & Bender PM II 3-12x50. That guy can read wind mirage like no one I've ever seen. He regularly shot hundreds of rounds a week at ranges out to 1200 yds. Practice helps!

 

[Fire_9]

Don and Ontario, you keep missing one very important point, twisting turrets. Your cheap ass tascos and Nikons can’t do that stuff. They may work for a set it and forget it scope if you don’t care about glass quality but some of us want/need more for our intended use.

 

[The Hedgehog]

have the S&B 10x42 showing up today. bought from a potentially shady online optics house as they are hard to find. So, a little nervous about what will be in this box. Some details on that specific riflescope are at the end of this video..

 

[cahunter805]

have the S&B 10x42 showing up today. bought from a potentially shady online optics house as they are hard to find. So, a little nervous about what will be in this box. Some details on that specific riflescope are at the end of this video..

Maybe it will be a Tasco in the box and all will be good!

 

[Fire_9]

have the S&B 10x42 showing up today. bought from a potentially shady online optics house as they are hard to find. So, a little nervous about what will be in this box. Some details on that specific riflescope are at the end of this video..

So what you’re telling us is you wasted $1900 because you could have gotten the same quality Nikon for $99?

 

[Redmt]

The amount of refurbished Vortex says something. I have several Vortex scopes in the Crossfire II line and have been happy so far. The upper to mid range scopes are not that impressive. I just picked up a Leupold VX3HD and am impressed so far.

 

[The Hedgehog]

 

[Irrelevant]

View attachment 206002

That is ridiculous..........ly awesome.

 

[std7mag]

While the OP stated he's got a Vortex Viper, price can vary greatly between Viper models.
And for a vast majority of us, price is an issue to be addressed.

BDC reticles, if they match your ballistics, can be very useful.
My Redfield Revenge 4-12X40, and Vortex Crossfire II 4-12X42, when sighted in at 200 yards matched up almost perfectly with my 7mm-08 out to 600 yards.
They obviously don't align with my 25 calibers at all.

CDS,
If your only shooting one weight bullet, at a certain velocity, at certain atmospheric conditions, work fine.
Because i shoot many different weight bullets for each cartridge, they don't work for me.

I've been drawn more to the MOA reticles. A MOA, or a MIL, will always be an MOA or a MIL.

Except for the adjustable objective (i have no clue why any scope manufacturer would put that on a hunting scope!) I really like my Sightron 4-12X40 MOA-2.

My next hunting scope is going to be a Crimson Trace Hardline 4-12X40 MOA.

 

[pyrotechnic]

@Greenhorn
I don't know if you're still looking for information on the Tangent Theta as I see you just got that 10x42 PM2, but I have one and I like it so far.

My real complaints on it are the turret setting isnt readable when they are "Locked" and the revolution indicator isn't visible or tactile from behind the rifle.



As for my "wishes".

I do wish the reticle had a small floating center dot and if they could have put in a few small "christmas tree" dots without cluttering the view, the reticle would be perfect for me. As it is, it works really well as a duplex at lower power and as a truncated G2 mildot is quite usable for holding for windage and elevation.

If they could have made it closer to 20oz, I'd gladly go down to a high power of 10-12 and a 42mm objective.

 

[GKimPrice]

It's strange. Guy's buy large power variable scopes suggesting they might need them for 4-500 or more yard shots on game. Then the majority of them end up carrying around a lot more scope than they need as the vast majority of game is shot under 200 yds or so I read. I know the vast majority of mine has been and mostly in areas where people think they will really need the extra power. I had a 4 1/2-14x on my 6.5x06 early on but only used it for target shooting out to 500 yds. Had never shot it past 8x though. Hunting I put on a spare 3-9x scope. Still has that 3-9x on it and the only time I have ever used it off 3x is sighting in at 100 yds at 6x. My sighting in target's have 1" diamond aiming point's but I also have some with 2 1/2" aiming I use with rifles with low power scopes.

I think most people really do believe they need higher power and it comes I believe from all the opinions about the need to see better. Something I noticed about the 9x setting on my 3-9x scopes is that turn them up to 9x and I can watch my heart beat in the scope! I found out after I started using variable scopes that the best hunting variable for me is the 2-7x. Basically it's a bit smaller than anything bigger and balances better on my rifles and I never hunt with them over 2x! But for sighting in, I only use 6x as I do like the smaller aiming point for targets. 6x works very well for that and a big plus, I can't see my heart beat at 6x! My 2-7x's are Redfield's so not very expensive and lasting well. I don't climb into spots I worry much about falling with them, I doubt many people do!

I seldom check to see how accurate adjustment's are anymore. Sight it in, zero to max point blank range, keep shooting to under 300 yds and no reason to ever move the turret's again unless re zeroing trying out a new load.

Those BDC type reticles annoy the tar out of me. Had one in my 4 1/2-14x and never ever bothered using it, just something to distract me. On that rifle and my 243 which I mostly plink with, I made drop charts and taped them to the butt shock of the rifle. Easier by far to learn to turn the turrets than to learn that BDC reticle. Those with all the windage and elevatoion marks are no less distrubing to me. Here's the deal, zeroed for MPBR at an 8" target, every rifle I have will give me max at around 275 yds which is farther than I normally shot. I did shoot a deer one time at 330yds according to my range finder with my 6.5x06. did it just to say I had and fired the shot on 3x! So much for the need of power. I have a 1-4x variable on a 308 I only shoot cast bullet's in. never comes off of 4x! have tried it on 1x and it annoys me to sit there looking at about half my barrel. Problem goes away with my 2-7x scopes.

I'd advise give more though to what ranges you actually shoot at game and choose your scope from there. Keep in mind that the higher up in power you go the more trimble of your own you'll see in the scope, that does nothing to improve your shooting!

If I were to go out today and get a new hunting scope it would be a 2-7x with duplex crosswire's and the idea of over 300 yards shots is wasted on me to begin with. Of course if I was setting up a ground squirrel rifle and intended to shoot way out there, higher power would be nice to have. No getting around the point that smaller aiming points get harder to see the farther away they get! yea I'd shoot at a ground squirrel at 500 yds. It will either die or be missed!

The higher power is nice for the range or LR IF you have a foolproof rest, not easy in most hunt scenarios I’ve killed a bunch of elk in the area of 500Y with a Leupold 6x42 with a Wide Duplex (over a dozen) using 338 win mag and 30.06 Deer & smaller a bit different story …9 or 10x preferred
To 600Y 10x will do virtually anyone just fine VX 3 or Vari x 3 in 3.5 x 10 is adequate BUT Leupold has been having their woes with ruggedness for awhile
I lived 6 miles from Leupold for 51 years, still believe in ‘em

 

[OntarioHunter]

I don't find 9x that jumpy but don't want to be sitting on it if a buck walks out fifty yards away. Shooting at my kudu with PH's outfit cranked to 20x, now THAT was jumpy! When I got set up on the bull prone with bipod @ 6x, then PH reached down and dialed it up to 20x. Blink hard and he'd be out of the scope. With my left fist under the butt, I was steady enough. 440 yards uphill and no wind. It seemed like an easy enough shot ... with a gun I'd only fired once before (dropped a wildebeest behind the ear 370 yards in a very gusty sidewind).

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Per the OP, best to avoid 4-16 vipers.

The gen 2 PSTs are supposed to be a little better but not something I’d feel highly confident in. I have a 5-25 gen2 on my 22 for NRL22 type matches and it ain’t nothin special but I won’t be heartbroken if/when it fails in that application either.

I once spent $3k on a March 3-24x52 and was happy to replace it with a $1000 bushnell LRHS that was better as an actual aiming device. Only other scope I’ve spent that much on was a Khales that has stuck around for a while now but I don’t think they they are the most solid option in that realm either.

 

[Jsp1216]

How does the Burris compare to the rest of the scopes in this category? Are they made in the USA ? Lifetime warranty?

 

[Farmerj]

How does the Burris compare to the rest of the scopes in this category? Are they made in the USA ? Lifetime warranty?

My Burris RT 15 says “made in Philippines.” My Diamondback tactical says the same thing and sucks compared to it.

 

[Redmt]

My scopes don't say anything. They are very quiet.

 

[Boarmaster]

I hunt with 10 other hunters and all their guests in one spot and 5-7 other hunters in another location. Every one of them has a slightly different idea of what they want in their rifle optic. They all hunt in the same type of habitat in the same manner and dang if they dont successfully shoot deer hunt after hunt year after year. So this leads me the conclusion that we do tend to overthink and ring our hands about scopes, rifles, chambering, bullets and everything else. Now that said , I don't care what you say , beans don't belong in chili Gosh darn it.