Best scope for bush/compact/frontier/scout gun?

D3V1L6

D3V1L6

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So I am seriously considering buying a Ruger frontier. I've read a lot about it here on CGN. I still havent decided on a cartridge (either .358Win or .338Fed, doing some research). My biggest concern right now is finding the perfect scope.

For a rifle like this I figure low power fixed or even variable would be best, what I'm concerned with is how quickly I can aquire a proper sight picture. I'm used to the good old elcan c79 and am basically looking for something almost comparable in the civilian riflescope world.

Your input is greatly appreciated.
 
.308 or .338 Federal. the .338 Federal, although not exactly widely available in Canada, seems to be a very well received cartridge. worst case scenario, even if the cartridge ends up being discontinued (highly doubtful since its Federals first cartridge and it really does make sense), you can just use common .308 brass and run it through a full length resizing die and you have your brass. .338 bullets are widely available.
hopefully you have another .308 rifle available, so youll have a constant source of cheap brass.

i have the Leupold Scout scope on mine, im very happy with these scopes - wouldnt change a thing. Burris is another option, you could save a bit of $$. personally, in Canada, i would go with the Leupold since they service them right here, service is quick and painless, and you dont have to risk sending your scope across the border for service.
a lot of people say 'its no big deal', but IMO it is. its ALWAYS a big risk sending anything - especially gun parts - across the border. you risk loss, seizure, or duties (even if its clearly marked RMA or something on it).

ive mounted regular scopes on Frontiers, but IMO a scout scope fits them best in the forward mount. theyre really an awesome little rifle in this configuration, you will not be disappointed.

definitely get the target grey finish. it will be almost as dark as a blued gun but will have all of the positive properties of stainless.
 
I was thinking about just the Frontier with SS barrel. Seems to be more readily available in Canada. Also the Target Grey Frontier is ... was, nevermind, target Grey it is.... according to the Ruger website the Frontier has been discontinued. Anyways the Grey was about 100$ more. Hopefully there are still a few frontiers lying around.

Im a little confused about the first part of your reply... are you saying the 358 or 338 isnt widely available?
the .338 Federal, although not exactly widely available in Canada, seems to be a very well received cartridge.
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.338 bullets are widely available.
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I don't currently have a 308 and as of right now I don't handload, the 1 bedroom appartment my wife and I share is already feeling pretty tight.

Looked at the Leupold scout you mentioned. It is indeed very interesting, I will also take a look for an equivalent over at Nikon. Been partial to Nikon since I bought a Titanium Monarch for my Remmy 700. Same quality as Nikon for a little less.
 
Sorry but the frontier concept sucks dry melons. You get less field of view and terrible low light viewing. This "ALL" for supposedly faster sight acquisition. Ya right.
 
I disagree, if done properly you don't have to worry about tunnel vision. You aquire your target, bring up the rifle on that target looking through your sight, both eyes open (= wide field of vision) and voila, sight aquisition is pretty much automatic... providing you have the right kind of optics.
 
love my Frontier -had it about 3 years now- it's in .300WSM and gives me the same ballistics as a 30:06 with a normal length barrel. it's my main moose/deer/bear rrifle, and gives me 100 yard 3 shot groups aroud the 1/2 inch mark

I have tried both a 3x9 mounted on the rear - for accuracy work, longer ranges, and better light transmission, and a Leupold scout scope with a thick reticle added for speed. I have recently found Warne quick detach Ruger rings for the rear scope so will be installing these on the scope and mounting a red dot (eotech)using quick mounts *(ARMS or Larue) on the forward rib. This I feel will give me the best of both worlds as I can hunt the bush (up to 150-200 yards) with the red dot and if a long shot comes up, there should normally be enough time to swap optics.

In terms of handling, there is no better rifle in my opinion except perhaps a trapper style lever- and these are unfortunately limited to 200 yards or less because of the ballistics of the rounds used.
 
Thanks for the info. I'm thinking I might go down to Wholesale sports to see if they have a frontier in stock... if not, I'm off to P & D to order one.

Now again on scopes. I can't seem to find something in a Nikon, this is a shotgun scope that might actually fit the bill:Nikon 1.5-4.5x20... any ideas, cause I think I might be right out of her on this one? I'm still keeping the leupold scout in mind.
 
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D3V1L6 said:
I was thinking about just the Frontier with SS barrel. Seems to be more readily available in Canada. Also the Target Grey Frontier is ... was, nevermind, target Grey it is.... according to the Ruger website the Frontier has been discontinued. Anyways the Grey was about 100$ more. Hopefully there are still a few frontiers lying around.
Im a little confused about the first part of your reply... are you saying the 358 or 338 isnt widely available?
I don't currently have a 308 and as of right now I don't handload, the 1 bedroom appartment my wife and I share is already feeling pretty tight.
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i was saying that the .358 Win isnt exactly a common cartridge, and the .338 Federal is quite new - neither has commonly available ammo in Canada.
i just realised that you can form brass for both out of common .308 cartridges, however there is a larger bullet selection in .338.

if you dont reload now, and dont plan to in the near future, may i suggest getting a .308. premium hunting ammo is expensive for any gun, but with .308 you have the option of picking up FMJ target/plinking ammo, match ammo, cheaper import ammo like Igman ($10-12 a box), etc. also if you forget your ammo or run out of ammo on a hunting trip, its just the matter of a simple stop at Canadian tire or Wal-Mart. hey, everyone says 'but ill never forget/run out of ammo' but it happens.

last time i checked their prices, the stainless frontier was less than $100 more than the blued. the blued looks really nice, but IMO Ruger's 'target grey' finish is a night and day difference from regular bright stainless. i wish all stainless rifles came like this from the factory.


Woodsman said:
Sorry but the frontier concept sucks dry melons. You get less field of view and terrible low light viewing. This "ALL" for supposedly faster sight acquisition. Ya right.
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if you use them properly and keep both eyes open, using a low-power scope as intended on these rifles, their field of view is unmatched.
pretty much everyone that has ever fired mine says 'why would you want something like that?' and makes faces at it. then they go through a box of ammo with it, and a week later theyre buying one for themselves.


D3V1L6 said:
according to the Ruger website the Frontier has been discontinued.
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where did you read this? the entire frontier line?
 
D3V1L6 said:
I can't seem to find something in a Nikon, this is a shotgun scope that might actually fit the bill:Nikon 1.5-4.5x20... any ideas, cause I think I might be right out of her on this one? I'm still keeping the leupold scout in mind.
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shotgun scopes offer a couple extra inches of eye relief.
for a Scout mount, you need a LOT more than that - last time i measured it was around 11" of eye relief needed. shotgun scopes generally have around 5-6".

look at either the Leupold FX-2 2.5x28mm Scout or the Burris 2.75x20mm Scout scopes.

you can look into pistol scopes as well.. honestly i was looking into a cheaper solution for my second scout rifle but after days of checking out just about every pistol scope i came to the conclusion that the purpose-built Scout scopes by Leupold and Burris are the best solution.
 
D3V1L6 said:
All but the target grey frontier
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in that case, no biggie.

IMO until now, you had two choices: go with traditional blued for good looks, or sacrifice looks and get some bright nasty stainless rifle but have to worry less about maintenance and not at all about finish wear.with the target grey available i wouldnt even consider a blued anymore. now if only more factories offered a 'darkened' stainless finish like that, theyd start winning over more of the traditionalists.

thats how dark they are if you havent seen them up close:
STscout_102606D.jpg


they all come with that picatinny rail that you can mount up front on the rib if you want to mount a red dot sight... forgot to mention that that is also an option.
if you do, however, be very careful: some of the cheaper red dot sights like the bushnell ACOG clones, while they have a large OUTER tube diameter, the actual inner tube diameter is very small and these definitely will limit your FOV drastically as there is a thick ring around your viewing area. i bought a bushnell ACOG clone for my frontier and while i am happy with it it is unsuitable for forward mounting on a scout rifle (even a Mosin scout... so off it went to my 10/22). if you decide to go with a red dot pay close attention to tube size as this will be the biggest performance factor.
 
My 358, wears a 1.5-5x23mm Leupold VXIII. Perfect bush scope, quick aquisition and sturdy as hell. Nice caliber too. I know you said you dont reload, but once you start, you can load the 358 up with 158 gr 357 bullets for cheap plinking. I use the winchester JHP pistol bullets and i pay about $13/100 for them. Pretty affordable IMO.
 
youd have to mount that in the rear scope mounts though.
the thing i like about the Frontiers is that you have the option of mounting a scope scout style or normal style - you can even have both. so even if you hate the scout style mount, you can just mount the scope normally and even unscrew the scout rib and turn it into a Ruger Compact in 2 minutes.

the best advice i can give you for added versatility is to keep an eye on the EE for an extra set of Ruger rings. they come up from time to time pretty cheap, although i doubt you will find target grey ones. for mine i have the regular scout mounted Leupold scope, and also a Bushnell 3200 elite 10x mil-dot in another set of Ruger rings zeroed for a rear mount. i consider Ruger rings 'quick release', since all you need is a coin and you can remove them in seconds, and they return to within an inch of zero if you slowly alternate between tightening the front and rear mounts a bit at a time.
this way you can switch between a 2.5x scout scope and a traditional scope with larger magnification quite easily, if you require it. this is especially nice if you dont already have several guns set up for different things like brush work, target shooting, coyotes, etc.i also throw the extra scope in the gun case in case one of the scopes fails or develops a problem, you can just swap scopes and continue the hunt.
 
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Think I might go to P&D today and see about ordering a Tgt grey (prob in a 308 as manbear suggested) and price it all out with just leupold scout for now. Hopefully my wallet will approve!.
 
midsouthshooterssupply.com has the leupold FX-II scout scope at $259 US.
ive never ordered from them but when looking for a scope a while back several people PM'd me that they regularly order scopes from them and have no problems with shipping or border issues.

might be cheaper than the $400+ youll pay for the Leupold here. if you do find a good Canadian price on the Leupold let me know please, i actually need another one.
 
the Burris comes with a heavy duplex reticle.
Leupold comes with a standard duplex.
they both have their advantages. i like the regular duplex on the Leupold, i have no problems making it out. make sure you look through it at the store at scout mount distances vs various backgrounds to see how well you can make it out.
if you decide you need a heavy duplex then just buy the Burris scout scope instead - changing reticles on Leupolds gets expensive.
 
sooooo..... yeah...just got back from P&D. :runaway:
Couldn't help myself. I am the proud owner of a brand spanking new Ruger KM77FRTGMKII AKA Targert Grey Fontier. Settled on the .308.

Also ordered a Gun metal gray Leupold fx-II 2.5x28 Scout. It definately wasn't US259.00$, more like Cdn383.00$. Considering my last experience with ordering something gun related from the US (pistol holster) and Canada customs, I figured what the hey... Might as well buy from the awesome ppl at P&D.

They said rifle will be in tomorrow and scope probably friday. Hopefully I'll have it in my hands, all ready to go friday evening or saturday!!!

I'll be keeping an eye open for more ruger scope rings, if I get desperate, I'll probably just order the Target Grey ones from Ruger.
 
congrats! and good choice on the .308, its hard to beat for an all-around caliber.

if you have no intention of swapping scopes, save your money on the extra rings. i just suggested to keep an eye on the EE because they come up from time to time for ~$40 so snagging an extra pair might not be a bad idea.

mind if i ask how much you paid for the gun?
 
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