Scope advice

Rifle scopes, iron sights and optics. Spotting scopes and target acquisition devices.

Re: Scope advice

Post by bladeracer » 16 Nov 2018, 7:59 am

TassieTiger wrote:I was shooting 1 inch orange adhesive dots at 120m and the cross hairs on my AR 223 scope was obscuring at least 40% of the dot...I wonder if reticle wire varies.


Have you got the reticle properly focused?
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Re: Scope advice

Post by bladeracer » 16 Nov 2018, 8:12 am

Apollo wrote:People say about what money they spend on a Firearm then how much to spend on a Scope.... If you are serious, spend as much as you can afford on a rifle scope. It was as much as your rifle cost, in my view spend much more. The scope will be with you for many more years than probably the rifle.


That's a good philosophy if you only have one rifle, but I don't want a dozen or more $2000 scopes resting in my gun safes.
I don't believe in spending more for something that is considered "better" than I need or want, and all my rifles and scopes are for life, I don't expect any of them to let me down.
If a $350 scope does everything I ask of it, and does it well, I'm not going to consider a $1000 or $2000 scope to be any "better".
If I were trying to shoot one-hole groups at 1000m I might well consider a more expensive scope would do a better job, and as I would likely be building one or two rifles just for that purpose, I'd be happier putting such scopes on them.

What I really don't understand is when you see a $2000 rifle, wearing a $2000 scope, for sale having fired "less than two boxes" or some such thing. That to me is like buying a boat, and taking it out once a year.
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Re: Scope advice

Post by bladeracer » 16 Nov 2018, 8:27 am

TassieTiger wrote:Yes, I agree it’s lack of experience and I’m still working at set up, it’s justbive noticed that the exit pupil problem ? I refer to is no where near as bad as in some other scopes...I think I have some 9 scopes here ranging from leos to Chinese crap to Tasco, to bushnel, redfield, Nikon, etc etc and the exit pupil issue on the bushy AR scope is the smallest and most frustrating for me.
It’s still not a bad scope - especially for the $$$ but it has limitations for my experience cmpared to some others.

I’d like to try a few other scopes - might put things into perspective for me lol


One thing that does make it difficult to judge one brand as better than another, is that all brands have lower- and higher-quality offerings.
If you try a Bushnell Banner series scope it might turn you off trying the same brand's higher-quality scopes, same with Tasco, Nikko-Stirling and such. When I was a kid with very limited funds, I figured all Tasco's and Nikko's were about as good as those I was using. Later I discovered both companies also make very good quality scopes, for a lot more money. One way to try different scopes is to ask around at ranges to see if people will let you have a look through whatever they have mounted. That'll show you the quality of the glass in daylight, and whether you like the type of reticle. You can probably also assume that if they have it mounted on a rifle they're shooting well with, that it probably holds a zero and that the turrets track accurately. But many, many shooters will zero a rifle and never touch the turrets again. If you are wanting to shoot longer ranges you will certainly be doing a lot of turret adjustment. And if you are going to be hunting you need to know if the glass is good in poorer light, whether it fogs easily, and whether the scope will stand up to being dropped and banged around.

I put something of an unfair restriction on my scopes. I wanted one scope that I could run on all of my rifles, including the .22's. There are a lot of scopes that would make a lesser job of it than mine do.
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Re: Scope advice

Post by bladeracer » 16 Nov 2018, 8:42 am

TassieTiger wrote:Forgive me if I come off the wrong way here...
As a relatively new shooter with soooo so much to learn, I’ve been guided by an older hand in much of what I acquire. He is a strong advocate for Leupold scopes - for quality.

With 4 kids of my own, multiple hobbies and sports that span across many years - shooting was the last sport I thought I would move into.
So being on a limited budget and still working out how deep I intend to jump - I’m looking at multiple disciplines of this fine sport - as I’m sure many are/do. From clays, to varmint, to 3p with field .22’s to target shooting - there’s specialised variances in many areas and cost becomes a factor for most, at least at some level. I’m shooting clays with an ata 686, I’m tempting 3p with a cheap cz and redfield scope...very budget end equipment.

From reading some posts on here (and I’ll take a guess I’m far from alone) - there is now no way in hell im going to move on and try formal target shooting - because it comes across to me that it’s a sport full of elitists and if I don’t have a $10k plus bit of kit, I’ll be looked down upon as a simpleton with much to learn. Screw the fun that might be had on the “learning” pathway or from the actual sport of shooting long distances with simple equipment ? If Craig Lowndes takes his supercar to a local meet - he will win, but if he takes an old ****** and comes 2nd last, will he have had as much fun trying to compete with better equipment?
I’m sure everyone would love to have the best equipment in their chosen disciplines and sports - but for many, including myself - a $5k scope for paper is unjustifiable...there is nothing more satisfying than knocking down more clays than the guy standing next to you, when you know he has spent in some cases 20 times what you have on a gun.

Wow-thread officially derailed lol.


In motorcycle racing I was never tempted to spend money to go faster, I just wanted to go as fast as I possibly could on what I had, and I rode all of my race bikes on the road while I wasn't racing them. For a long while I used to ride to the track, pull off the road gear, race all day, and then ride back home. I feel the same with shooting, or anything else.

For me, the only value in these sports is to improve your real-world skills. I see no value at all in winning a competition with a rifle that only has one purpose, to win that one competition. I love the concept of F-Class, but the thing that keeps me (and I'm sure many others) out of it is not being able to use the same rifles I use for everything else. I really like what Gwion(?) is doing with F-Class Hunter/Varmint, but I don't think we're seeing that up here yet.
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Re: Scope advice

Post by Sergeant Hartman » 16 Nov 2018, 8:56 am

I think one PRS catches on we will see a lot more normally type rifles. Saying that I think many fclass guys will likely enjoy and be bloody good at doing both once they get out of their comfort zone.
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Re: Scope advice

Post by bladeracer » 16 Nov 2018, 9:05 am

Ziad wrote:I think one PRS catches on we will see a lot more normally type rifles. Saying that I think many fclass guys will likely enjoy and be bloody good at doing both once they get out of their comfort zone.


I have been following the PRS and it looks like a blast.
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