Started shooting military matches in 2009, learning to shoot on a scoped club gun in field class (which happened to be a T3 in .223, all testament to that Finn workmanship that I made A grade in about 18 months). All set to save up and ultimately buy the gorgeous Sako I had my eye on...when another club member offered me a Longbranch No.4, for a knock-down bargain basement price. The rest as it is said, is history...with an indecent number of milsurps to my name now, and not a scope amongst them. Ffwd to more recently, one AC joint op later and arm nerve pain intermittently but since April its not been too good - turns out I have cervical disc degeneration and impingement happening. Not a lot they can do, but my physio has suggested that shooting full bore battle rifles regularly aren't going to make it any better in the long run - and I want to be able to keep shooting handguns as well. Suggestion was that a minimal recoil option might be best for regular shooting (I couldn't give up my beloved milsurps completely, just not for ongoing weekly comps). So I've come full circle back to the Tikka, which is apparently the T3x now.
But...there's the wholly unknown denominator of scopes to contend with

Never owned one, never had to set one up or do much adjusting. I'd like to keep as low on the stock as possible having been used to open sights for so long, while still being able to take it out to 500m+ on the rare occasions we get past 300m. I've come across a Nikon Monarch (M223?) at a fairly good price...4-16x42 which I don't know if it would be a) overkill or b) too large an objective. Since my only experience was the cheap little 3-9x40 Bushnell fom all those years ago. Seems to have a whole lot of bells & indecipherable whistles too lol...side focus (50-inf.), Tac/Targ Turrets, BDC Reticle etc. Might possibly be able to source a Conquest as well, in the configuration that I was used to.
This is going to have to be my workhorse, so the scope will have to be fairly reasonable without getting into what would be for me, more expensive territory.
Thoughts on the Monarch and clearance etc, anyone? Opinions and or suggestions would be very welcome.