A lot of info online says 1-6x is good for up to 600 yards, but I personally like going up to 12x at just 100 yards.
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If money aint the issue what scope you buying?
- Thread starter chrischex
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I'm super interested in ACOGs, and slightlynless so in VCOGs.
Can you talk a little about the relatively high fixed parallax on an air rifle?
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Personally, I would forget the price level of scopes. What you really need to do is determine what purpose you will use the scope for. FT, BR, plinking, pesting, long range shooting, etc. Then, you need to determine what the best reticle is, minimum focus distance, eyebox limits, and accurate ranging capability. Sometimes, an expensive scope with a useless reticle is not good for your needs. I used a $500 Hawke Sidewinder for FT for years and didn't feel I needed anything better, although the Sightron S3 is a good choice too. For BR shooting, my Sightrons with either fine cross hair with dot, or MOA-2 reticles work well and cost 1/3 of what a March, Nightforce, S&B, cost. I've peeked through most of them and didn't like them, but whatever makes you happy, go for it. My point is that there are many good useful, good quality scopes available today. I've owned a lot of them, believe me.
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Okay, jps, I increasingly understand what you are saying. Application is key. I pest and target shoot in non-competition venues at short distances. I have a Hawke Vantage, a Helix, and a Sidewinder. The Sidewinder is not mounted to anything but the glass looks very nice when sighting in hand. What do you think? Thanks. S7
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Of the three, I would pick the Sidewinder especially if it has the 10 OR 20X half-dot reticle. I had a Vantage and consider it an entry level scope and would never buy another. The Helix seems to be popular, but I don't like the tight eyebox. If you are considering a new scope, the Athlon Midas-Tac 6-24X50 has very nice glass and reticle. I also have three Arken SH4 GenII scopes and I like them very much and you get more than you pay for. However, they are 34MM scope tubes and too heavy for what you are doing. The new version with 30MM tubes are only 23.7 oz and if they are as good as the others, it will be terrific.
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My Sidewinder is indeed a 6.5-20x44 with a half mil reticle. I should swap out the Vantage with the Sidewinder on my Marauder. (The Helix is on a Crown MK II.)
Yes, the Helix eye-box is restrictive.
I have checked out the various Athlon line. The Midas TAC 4-16x44 only weights 23.8 ounces. I am assuming you consider the M TAC a step up from the Sidewinder in glass? I would like to peer through a Midas TAC due to so many people liking them.
And yes, Arken has a new lightweight line. The weight has until recently made them unattractive to me.
One more question: Is it true that higher magnification scopes, all things being equal, reduce image quality a bit?
Thank you. S7
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RICO HD 1280 2X 75mm Thermal Weapon Sight
https://irayusa.com/rs75
might as well get the best, if money is no object, right?
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I'd likely follow in athlon_oved's footsteps and get a high-end thermal scope. I have an excellent thermal scope but it costs about half the price of the Rico HD 128 2x 75mm, it's the little brother to that scope, the RH50. The RH50 does more or less everything I want, but it's all digital zoom. So a high-end thermal with about a 5-times optical zoom range would be pretty sweet.
Failing that, something like the March Genesis for long-range goofing around would be fantastic.
Failing that, something like the March Genesis for long-range goofing around would be fantastic.
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"If money aint the issue what scope you buying?"
I am blown away at the depth and breadth of the scopes that have been shared here. Incredible optics suggested by the manufactures of; March, ZCO, Sightron, Kahles, Tangent Theta, Athlon, S&b, Leupold, Nightforce, Element, Vortex, Arken, Meopta, Trijicon, Swarovski, Rico and more...Question;
How can I simplify my research of these $50,000 worth of wonderful optics? My eyes are different than your all's.
Please explain
Patrick
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And there's your caveat. Everyone's eyes are different. Without having the ability to look through each one yourself, you'll just have to get a general consensus based on reviews from others. It's kind of like going in somewhat blindly which sucks."If money aint the issue what scope you buying?"
I am blown away at the depth and breadth of the scopes that have been shared here. Incredible optics suggested by the manufactures of; March, ZCO, Sightron, Kahles, Tangent Theta, Athlon, S&b, Leupold, Nightforce, Element, Vortex, Arken, Meopta, Trijicon, Swarovski, Rico and more...
Question;
How can I simplify my research of these $50,000 worth of wonderful optics? My eyes are different than your all's.
Please explain
Patrick
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Maybe its the gray hairs on my head and beard that make me say this, but I would buy the best fixed power scope available - Schmidt und Bender or Meopta 8x56 perhaps, or a Karl Kaps 6x42. Pecar Berlin are dead, but they produced a lovely 8x56 Sauenglas scope before they closed down. France's Scrome produces very nice scopes but they also classify - as only our French friends can - their reticle designs as "weapons" and require a separate firearms license in France to buy their scopes. Simplicity with extreme robustness and a great degree of clarity for the relatively short ranges that I prefer to hunt and shoot at would be my preference. Now, when are March going to offer a fixed power hunting scope with a 34 or 35mm tube? That would be the bee's knees for someone like me. Great hunting, everyone!
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Thanks for your feedback on the 5-42x56 March High Master wide angle scope as I like that and the 4.5x28x52 High Master, both seem very impressive, pondering both. Sounds like they are both good, the 4.5-28 is more compact and a little lighter but the other has more magnification and bit longer; not an easy choice...
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considering what it is. the Arken 6x24's or 5x25's are 36 oz and this thermal is only 8 more oz. that's really not that bad.
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Price is no object scope for my use, as far as I know, they don't make one. Hunting for meat first priority, target shooting/pesting not so much though I do like a simple etched mil reticle with illumination that can go low enough, most can’t. I can shoot tiny groups at 200 yards with big thick German number 4 reticles on my hunting scopes for PB's, but for air rifles a lit mil reticle is really nice. All of the tactical scopes with large enough objectives are way too heavy for air gun use for me, or any other use for me really. Give me a FFP mil/mil scope with accurate turrets, 50mm objective to save some weight but not be totally useless in low light, lit etched reticle that can be adjusted low enough to use on a less than 1/4 moon night without messing with your ability to see anything, not cluttered but straight mil etchings, 5x zoom ratio at max, 4 preferable(zoom ratio doesn't come free in important to me performance measures, including weight), max of 3 power on low end, no side focus/adj parallax and save the weight, glass and coatings at least as good as my late 90's - 2000's zeiss(real zeiss, not american market/price point crap) Swarovski PH's, S&B Zenith, and weigh 23 oz or less. Probably impossible to make with illumination. No illumination means getting back to nothing is better than a german no. 4 reticle when hunting in low light is priority. The closest I have is my S&B Zenith 3-12x50 flash dot; it weighs just under 25 oz. That was the last good scope I ever bought, couldn’t resist when stealing it at 1,100 still sealed in box.
Tactical scopes are the in thing and have been now for a long time. They are built like tanks and weigh as much as one. I have one(well over 2k 15+ years ago, tactical scope that is) on my most accurate rifle, and well more than a decade later still question that choice of replacing the S&B I initially had on it. Back when I had a place to shoot longish range on private land, I enjoyed putting out random 4” steel plates from 300 to 650ish yards, lasering them, dialing the scope and making first hit all the time prone with bag until wind caught me 500+ yards, no wind and first round hit always even out to 650. I never got good at doping the wind that well. Even then I thought the weight wasn’t worth it. That rifle is heavy enough as it is bare, add over 2lbs for the scope and it is a beast. It's a true 1/4 moa or less rifle, not sometimes, all of the time in capable hands. In my hands on a bench it is .4 or less moa rifle, all of the time. The test targets that came with it were shot by Greg Tannel, who made it. 200 yard targets, biggest group was under 1/2 inch, smallest 1/4 and he used his hand loaded nosler partitions hunting ammo for his personal rifle in it, not a load tailored to the rifle I got. His personal note said to develop a specific load to the rifle and it will do much better, I found that funny. I own plenty of "cheap" scopes they have their place for me, but I have no cheap scopes on any of my serious hunting PB's. I have a few open sight and a pre-64 winchester 88 with a scope from the era on it I use hunting when I don't care about what I miss out on in the time I give up hunting with them. All my air rifles have cheap scopes on them, I even call my 1st gen vortex viper pst 2.5-10x32 a cheap scope, I've looked through the 2nd gen and it is better optically, just enough I wouldn't rank it with cheap scopes, not enough to buy one though at that price.
BTW, when I talk about low light, I mean way lower than most anyone else considers low light. I've put plenty of meat in the freezer over the years in the last 5 minutes of hunting time here, and some legally much later than that. We can legally hunt game starting 1 hour before sunrise until 1 hour after sunset in my state, and pigs/coyotes 24/7 on private land. I still laugh remembering one day hunting on a farm with a friend in NC which has typical 1/2 hour either side of sunset/sunrise hunting times. In the evening we sat together in a blind on a big field because it was lightly raining, threatening to downpour and the sky was black. I had got a deer that morning and he had yet to get one that year. With 5 minutes left of shooting time, and still raining, I spotted a good sized buck in the far left corner of the field at the wood line 275 yards away with my Swarovski bino's. He was up against a bunch of cedars and a bunch of vines. Told my friend where it was, he pulled up his browning 300 win mag and looked. He couldn't see the deer or even the cedars just a big black hole. He thought it had gone back in the woods, his scope was a Leupold 50mm vari-x III. I said nope, still there. Handed him my 7 mag which he had shot before, and reminded him where to aim for the difference in his poi vs mine. He looked through the scope and said "how could I not see that". Before we got out of the blind, it started raining so hard you couldn't see much over 100 yards at all. That deer is mounted, only mounted deer he has, and that was 15 years ago. He dropped the deer with no more than two minutes left in legal shooting time and he never gave me grief for "wasting" money on scopes again. My 7 mag was wearing a Zeiss vm/v 3-12x56, german number 4 reticle.
Tactical scopes are the in thing and have been now for a long time. They are built like tanks and weigh as much as one. I have one(well over 2k 15+ years ago, tactical scope that is) on my most accurate rifle, and well more than a decade later still question that choice of replacing the S&B I initially had on it. Back when I had a place to shoot longish range on private land, I enjoyed putting out random 4” steel plates from 300 to 650ish yards, lasering them, dialing the scope and making first hit all the time prone with bag until wind caught me 500+ yards, no wind and first round hit always even out to 650. I never got good at doping the wind that well. Even then I thought the weight wasn’t worth it. That rifle is heavy enough as it is bare, add over 2lbs for the scope and it is a beast. It's a true 1/4 moa or less rifle, not sometimes, all of the time in capable hands. In my hands on a bench it is .4 or less moa rifle, all of the time. The test targets that came with it were shot by Greg Tannel, who made it. 200 yard targets, biggest group was under 1/2 inch, smallest 1/4 and he used his hand loaded nosler partitions hunting ammo for his personal rifle in it, not a load tailored to the rifle I got. His personal note said to develop a specific load to the rifle and it will do much better, I found that funny. I own plenty of "cheap" scopes they have their place for me, but I have no cheap scopes on any of my serious hunting PB's. I have a few open sight and a pre-64 winchester 88 with a scope from the era on it I use hunting when I don't care about what I miss out on in the time I give up hunting with them. All my air rifles have cheap scopes on them, I even call my 1st gen vortex viper pst 2.5-10x32 a cheap scope, I've looked through the 2nd gen and it is better optically, just enough I wouldn't rank it with cheap scopes, not enough to buy one though at that price.
BTW, when I talk about low light, I mean way lower than most anyone else considers low light. I've put plenty of meat in the freezer over the years in the last 5 minutes of hunting time here, and some legally much later than that. We can legally hunt game starting 1 hour before sunrise until 1 hour after sunset in my state, and pigs/coyotes 24/7 on private land. I still laugh remembering one day hunting on a farm with a friend in NC which has typical 1/2 hour either side of sunset/sunrise hunting times. In the evening we sat together in a blind on a big field because it was lightly raining, threatening to downpour and the sky was black. I had got a deer that morning and he had yet to get one that year. With 5 minutes left of shooting time, and still raining, I spotted a good sized buck in the far left corner of the field at the wood line 275 yards away with my Swarovski bino's. He was up against a bunch of cedars and a bunch of vines. Told my friend where it was, he pulled up his browning 300 win mag and looked. He couldn't see the deer or even the cedars just a big black hole. He thought it had gone back in the woods, his scope was a Leupold 50mm vari-x III. I said nope, still there. Handed him my 7 mag which he had shot before, and reminded him where to aim for the difference in his poi vs mine. He looked through the scope and said "how could I not see that". Before we got out of the blind, it started raining so hard you couldn't see much over 100 yards at all. That deer is mounted, only mounted deer he has, and that was 15 years ago. He dropped the deer with no more than two minutes left in legal shooting time and he never gave me grief for "wasting" money on scopes again. My 7 mag was wearing a Zeiss vm/v 3-12x56, german number 4 reticle.
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