Rifle : Scope cost ratio for beginner

[1stmarine]

Good choice! The Vortex Viper PST will give you for that price range what others do for $1500-1800. Zero stop, Vortex will customize also your knobs and can also choose between MOA and MRAD reticles. Definitively a great choice for long range w/o braking the bank.
One of the snipers here in the local SWAT team uses this one. He is happy too.

 

[browningguy]

I use a Weaver Grand Slam 6.5-20 on my long range .243 and have been very happy with it. I think you can get them for $400 now, and I doubt you will be tired of it in a year.

 

[kb58]

I bought a scope for my 700 LTR, and the trick was to wait (and wait, and wait) until a "like-new" Swarovski showed up for a price I could barely tolerate. However, I plan to keep it the rest of my life, moving it from rifle to rifle. My point is, if you're patient, you can get nearly any scope you want for an affordable price, it may just take a while. And yes, it still cost as much as the rifle...

Oh... one more thing about scopes in general. The low-end units will have a ratio of magnification of about 3, for example, a 2-6X scope. However, high-end scopes can have a much higher ratio. For example, Zwarovski has a 3-18X scope, pretty nuts! The point is, you really do tend to get your monies worth with a scope.

 

[1stmarine]

Hi magnification ratio alone is not related to dollars.
I know Swarovski and Ior have great ratios but so it does the bushnel elite 6500.
Actually this has the higher magnification ration with 2.5-16 and 4.5-30 x 50 for half of the cost. Now, these are not dirt cheap of course, but do not match other scopes with regular ratios in terms of optics, chromatic characteristics and adjustments.
One of the most important aspects sometimes overlooked besides the optics quality is the reticles, how easy and fast is to make the adjustment accurately (under stress sometimes) and how accurate the actual adjustment is.
In other words, does is the adjustment accurate according to the math (ie: dope correction) and how does it map in the field?
Very important in deed. Once you shoot long range the smallest of variations and one small math or click error means missing the target.

"The dope and the scope need to trust each other"

 

[muncherndn]

A tardy yet thankful reply

Kind Members of The High Road,

I apologize for the tardiness of my reply, but I was just cutting out the foam on my new Pelican 1750 and I finally remembered all the great advice I received from all of you. I am the proud owner of a Savage 10fcp W/ McMillan A5 stock. It is topped with a Vortex Viper PST 4-16x50 FFP MOA on a 20 MOA rail.

I absolutely LOVE it. It is a great system, and I look forward to tailoring a round for it. I only wish I could shoot as great as this system allows. I think I'll have a hell of a good time trying to at least. I hope to one day be able to return the favor and help a new shooter after many more years of experience. Thank you all again for your learned advice and for taking the time to help out a beginner.



Respectfully,


Jesse A Murray

 

[Geno]

Well, better late than never, right? Welcome back to THR. Congrats on the purchase. It's a nice set-up. Hopefully we'll have a chance to see some targets posted soon.

Geno

 

[stubbicatt]

To OP:

Maybe do yourself a favor and jot down the features you want your scope to have, price notwithstanding. Then begin to search those scopes that have those features. Midway USA has some neat sorting tools that allow you to plug in some of the parameters to narrow the offerings that will accomplish your goal. SWFA has a good reputation for helping one to find what he wants/needs.

You will find that there is a wide range of optics that will fit your parameters. Then you can begin to narrow it down a little bit more. Length of scope? Check. Objective Lens diameter? Check. Zero stops? Check. --You see how this works.

Once you have narrowed your choices down in this fashion you will probably have less than a half dozen brand names on your list. Compare warranties. Compare user reviews. Ask questions. If you are near a retailer who carries some of them, ask to look through the scopes to see which ones appeal most to you.

You may end up spending more than you anticipated, but you may also find exactly what you want at a price point you will appreciate.

As far as reloading manuals, I use Lyman and Sierra, and each of the powder manufacturers has posted recipes online for their propellants, which I find helpful when comparing a newer propellant to an old established, tried and true load. --These days if you can find powder and primer you are doing well I think.

I have used Dillon equipment and it is top notch. If you haven't handloaded before, be sure to read the general admonitions in the good loading manuals and follow them closely. Case length, chamfer, headspace, seating depth, all of these dimensions of your cartridges are critical for your safety and will affect accuracy some. So take your time.

For myself, I arrive at seating depth first, then begin with powder weights. Always start at the starting load and work your way up in relatively small increments of charge weight. Learn how to spot pressure signs, and don't push your luck. A load which comes in under max pressure with good density tends to be more accurate anyways, and your brass lasts a lot longer.

Welcome aboad, and I hope you enjoy your new boomstick.

 

[taliv]

munch, if you're in oklahoma, check out the OPPS rifle club. awesome group of guys and they have some awesome land to shoot on. they do monthly club-level matches that are a blast. that's where you need to go to learn to outshoot that rifle.

nice choices, best of luck

 

[HankR]

Glad you are home safe. Thank you for your service, and enjoy your new toys!

 

[sixgunner455]

Yeah, that's a nice rifle. Great setup!

 

[Robert101]

What scope, price, and magnification? Well I believe you need to understand the basis its function first. If you are asking these questions, you may not understand MOA and Milliradians applications? You may want your scope retical and adjustment dials to both be in milliradians for uniformity. Some do and some don’t. Some come in MOA retical and millaridian dial adjustment. I have a chart for each load/cartridge I fire. The chart includes information on scope adjustment or Mildot usage to distance fired. Lastly, consider what kind of retical you would like to use and then you are on your way to evaluating the other criteria of manufacturer, cost and magnification.

 

[groundhog34]

Plant to spend almost as much on a scope as on a rifle. Leupold is my favorite because of value to price and customer service, SECOND TO NONE. There are better scopes on the market such as Swarasky, sic. When purchasing a scope always compare at dusk in bright sunlight even cheap scopes work it is in low light that quality shines.