Vietnam era snipers shot to 1000yds plus with only 10x. I have personally shot to 2000 yds with a 16x. There is no need for huge magnification and it actually causes problems with mirage and reticle shake.
Looking for advice: Best long range tactical rifle scope
- Thread starter ftr308
- Start date
My friends were shooting Fclass guns through big mirage the other day at 900 while I was shooting a 3-9x at 300 offhand .
Even my 9x was showing the mirage , but at 900, the Delta Strykers were down to 15x to see the V ring .
My son's Nightforce is $1,000more, but even at 40x he was able to discern the V ring. Which is right around 4.5"
(1/2 MOA ) at 900.
The other guys were quite surprised when they looked through it .
These are SFP Fclass scopes however, not FFP tactical scopes .
Cat
Even my 9x was showing the mirage , but at 900, the Delta Strykers were down to 15x to see the V ring .
My son's Nightforce is $1,000more, but even at 40x he was able to discern the V ring. Which is right around 4.5"
(1/2 MOA ) at 900.
The other guys were quite surprised when they looked through it .
These are SFP Fclass scopes however, not FFP tactical scopes .
Cat
- Location
- Nova Scotia
Like my Anschutz. Yes it's got a 32x scope on it, but I keep it around 18x for 100m. Because the reticle shake is unreal.
Earlier this summer I was at RFMA and shot out to a mile and I think my scope was around 16-20x. I bumped it up to near max when zeroing at 100m or doing load dev. I want as much precision as possible, so I want to aim at a particular molecule of ink. lol!
You just don’t need much mag to smack steel out to whatever distance. Just hold your reticle where you need on the white plate. That’s why lots of guys shoot out to 1000m with 10-16x. You aren’t shooting for groups. Just shooting for the ‘ting’.
As mentioned before probably the main issue is hunting. You want low mag at the low end, so a March 8-80x that F-class guys use is no good for you.
You just don’t need much mag to smack steel out to whatever distance. Just hold your reticle where you need on the white plate. That’s why lots of guys shoot out to 1000m with 10-16x. You aren’t shooting for groups. Just shooting for the ‘ting’.
As mentioned before probably the main issue is hunting. You want low mag at the low end, so a March 8-80x that F-class guys use is no good for you.
I have a x50 scope on my W308 and shooting the 300M paper rings from a bench with a solid - mechanical front and rear rest.
Now imagine this ....
I am zoomed in the ring, and I just lean my left hand on the ""wooden" bench top.
And the bench top flexes that my POA almost gets out of a ring. And I can see it, soft leaning or leasure just rest my lower arm. For this reason I started touching with two or three fingers only - the rifle forend stock instead of leaning my hand on table top.
You won't see that reticle movement with a x32 and the x24 or x16 you would be wondering whataF just happened with your POI or all the groups are clusterF?
Not sure what to say about shooting those steel frying pans.... what is important to you? To hear that you hit it at all or see a nice tight group on the paint....
Not entirely correct, lots of guys shoot out to 1,000 and further with big powdered scopes off bipods and bags.
The majority of these scopes are over 40X, and were being shot out to 1,000.
Cat
The best scope is mostly what you can afford. From my experience, having owned a few nice tactical/competition scopes in my life, I think for the money the Vortex 636 gen 3 is the best there is especially with their amazing vip warranty. ive owned one and loved it. Now I own a ZCO 840 and a TT 735 and in my opinion within 200-300 yards there is not much glass quality difference between the 3 but pass that distance the difference is crazy. i see details, edges and nice contrast with the tt and zco you cant see with the vortex, or Khales or S&B or Leupold or any others.
Now is the extra cost $2000 (zco) and $3100 (tt) worth it from the Gen 3 ? Nah, I dont think so. I just own them cause thats what I want and love it but it is not worth the extra cost thats for sure.
Now is the extra cost $2000 (zco) and $3100 (tt) worth it from the Gen 3 ? Nah, I dont think so. I just own them cause thats what I want and love it but it is not worth the extra cost thats for sure.
What if your eyes are old and really suck?
I've been looking at scopes in the 30x to 40x for this reason.
A mirage will play with any magnification range, cheaper the glass coating and the impression is getting worse.
My preference is in high power, at least x40 but have also x50 and x80.
When the elements start playing I can still turn down from x50 to 40 or 30 or whatever 10 if nothing else works. But there is a >50% of cases that my scores can benefit from higher power.
@ 300 I can see the 308 holes in the paper rings in a rainy day, or the groups @ 500 during ordinary summer weather. Not external spotter needed and that is already a huge bonus in my eyes.
My preference is in high power, at least x40 but have also x50 and x80.
When the elements start playing I can still turn down from x50 to 40 or 30 or whatever 10 if nothing else works. But there is a >50% of cases that my scores can benefit from higher power.
@ 300 I can see the 308 holes in the paper rings in a rainy day, or the groups @ 500 during ordinary summer weather. Not external spotter needed and that is already a huge bonus in my eyes.
Sweet rig, got similar set up and love the PST Gen 2 as well
Check the Area419 review on the top optics. It’s very well done and tests many things all quite scientifically other than picking the best glass which is performed by a mixture of people without anyone knowing what optic they’re looking thru! It’s around 25 minutes but well worth watching.
High magnification optics produce numerous problems.What if your eyes are old and really suck?
The first is mirage. The second is image shake. Very high mag optics give me a headache because the image shake so badly it is very difficult to keep on the target.
I've done a lot of ELR field shooting and IMO 24x is the top end of useful magnification. Off the bench, at shorter distances on a range is very different from field shooting.
16x is more than enough for 1000 yds. I used a fixed 16x at 2000 yds.
Thanks for the tip. You may have helped narrow down my scope choices.
