Scope Suggestions for PGW Coyote (S&B, Swaro, NF, March)

ssapach

ssapach

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Ordered a PGW Coyote recently and I will be in need of a scope for it when it arrives. I have a bit of wait time before it arrives, so I figure it's a good chance to ask around for a few opinions.

I'm a bit of a sucker for some higher magnification, and I've been spoiled with some Swarovski glass so I want something comparable.

Looking at the following online so far:

Schmidt and Bender 12-50x56 PM II/P with the P4 fein reticle.
Swarovski Z6 5-30x50 with a BRH Reticle
Nightforce Competition 15-55x52 with either a DDR-2 reticle or FCR-1 reticle
March Tactical 8-80x56 with unknown reticle (they have a few too many that I like)

Perhaps they all seem a wee bit extreme for my non-competition use. Mostly paper, gophers, coyotes and some long range steel targets when I get the chance. But I want to buy once and cry once. Also, a quality rifle deserves quality optics and my budget for optics would be about the cost of the rifle.

Any input on any of the above models would be great. I'm curious if anyone here has had any experience with March? I've never even heard of them until I started searching for the higher magnification scopes. I also kind of doubt I'm going to find someone in the Edmonton area who has an example of all of these choices, to actually get a feel for up close and personal.

Alright, let me know what you all think.....
 
Personally I don't see the need for such high magnification scopes for your intended use. Most days in the summer my 5-25 PMII is usually set between 16-20x and we shoot out to 1600m. If you go on Snipershide and look at pics of all the guns post I doubt you could hardly find a gun pictured with any of the scopes you have listed. They have their place but are generally overkill (mag wise) for use in the field. Another drawback is that the higher magnification scopes generally have less internal adjustment which depending on how far you want to shoot may limit the amount of elevation you can dial in before having to hold off the reticle.

You're buying a battle ready PGW Coyote! Don't put an F-class scope on it. JMO.
 
I've had the S&B 12-50 but sold it recently just because I find the 5-25 to be more useful. Rarely did conditions ever allow the mag to be used past 30x.
 
My buddy has a Z6 5-30 BRH mounted on a .204 Ruger. I know, much smaller caliber than your Coyote, however, shooting muskrats on the pond at 400 yards is easy with that scope. You can see individual hairs on the rodents at that distance. If you keep the magnification at 9 or less the target stays in the field of view and you watch them explode.
You can't go wrong with Swaro glass. If you already have one, and it sounds like you do, then you know what I am talking about.
We put Swaro's on all our hunting rifles and have never looked back. Now that Swaro makes the magnetic flip up caps as accessories they are fully weatherproof as well.
Good Luck. P7
 
2 scopes I would consider are the Bushnell BUSHNELL ELITE TACTICAL RIFLESCOPE 3.5-21X50 ERS 34MM ,SF,ZERO-STOP,G2DMR or the LEUPOLD MARK 6 RIFLESCOPE 3-18X44MM (34MM) FRONT FOCAL TMR. You should be able to get these scopes for under $2000, the price might vary due to the low dollar. The Leupold is amongst the lightest in its category. The folks at Bushnell have come along way, I own one and the glass is excellent. I used to own a couple of Premier's, but I sold them, I just didn't see the cost effectiveness of having them, when I could have something more modest in cost and still have the same type of quality. I guess it really depends on the type of shooting you intend to do?
 
Thanks for the input everyone.

Funny to think that it's an unfortunate thing that there are so many scope options out there. It's also fortunate at the same time.

Some reasonable thinking and a bit of internet snooping has gotten the bug of the 8-80x March out of my mind. Just don't need 80x and the lack of distributors might play a part as well.

Schmidt and Bender is a strong contender here, but I may be rethinking my magnification "wants" to something less, as suggested by a few people.

Tangent Theta was brought to my mind as well, and I snooped there site a bit, and it's becoming a very serious contender for a few reasons. I think their TT525P model would work nicely, illuminated reticle would be a nice bonus as well, but I can't find anything that shows me the type(s) of reticles they offer in any of their equipment. Of course the obvious bonus would be a Canadian rifle with a Canadian scope!

Nightforce is still a good serious option, might have to try to get my hands on one and have a peak through it.

Swarovski is coming close to falling off the list. As much as I like the one I already have, I'm honestly not "feeling it" when it comes to putting one on a Coyote. I really don't have a good reason not to, other than that. I might have to go look at a Z6 and see for myself if I like the feel of it, and how the reticle looks. The Z5 I currently have has such a fine reticle that it can be difficult to use in low light conditions, or when there is a really dark backdrop. The scope is as clear as day and is a joy to use, and I love the super fine reticle for the majority of what I use it for, but it just has it's moments when it's not the most favourable. This is where illumination would be nice....
 
Until quite recently I had a S+B 12-50 with P4F on my Coyote. If a SFP with lots of mag is what you want then this is THE scope to use. I reviewed the March and while it is definitely a very good scope I felt that overall the S+B was better. Your needs will likely dictate what you want to buy however and, for example, I have recently switched to a FFP scope to play UND shooting and 'downgraded' if that's the right word to an Elite Tactical 3.5-21x56 which has proven to be a great choice for what I want it to do.

Here is what I thought of the March:

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/foru...At-Last-A-Review-of-March-8-80x56-Rifle-Scope
 
Tomochan said:
Until quite recently I had a S+B 12-50 with P4F on my Coyote. If a SFP with lots of mag is what you want then this is THE scope to use. I reviewed the March and while it is definitely a very good scope I felt that overall the S+B was better. Your needs will likely dictate what you want to buy however and, for example, I have recently switched to a FFP scope to play UND shooting and 'downgraded' if that's the right word to an Elite Tactical 3.5-21x56 which has proven to be a great choice for what I want it to do.

Here is what I thought of the March:

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/foru...At-Last-A-Review-of-March-8-80x56-Rifle-Scope
Click to expand...

I've read that review previously, which is actually what first tipped me off about March scope's 80x magnification. Good review, and thanks for sharing it!

How do you like going from a higher mag scope down to a lower mag scope? I'm being told from a few people now that my quest for high magnification is unnecessary and I might be sorry about it later on......and that basically anything up to 25x mag should be more than enough.

While I like to think that I know what I want more than everyone else knows what I want, it's hard to ignore other's experiences.....especially considering it's more than just one person telling me so far that a lower mag will suit me fine. I'm also not asking about scope options just so that I can ignore everyone, that would be a pointless waste of time.
 
Well I am a high mag person as mostly I shoot at known distance at max mag as I want to see the target as clear as possible ( yes, I know that under some light conditions one has to dial down ) and, ideally, I like to see bullet holes without having to use my spotting scope ( Pentax 80ED). I decided though that I wanted to play with FFP and shoot at some unknown distances and so I looked for the best value scope of that type and determined that the Bushnell represented the best dollar value for what I wanted. Of course, I do miss the bigger magnification but I was looking for a different tool to do the job.

Remember though that this 'experiment' was done with only one of my 20 or so scoped rifles - I have kept max mag SFP on all my others and still have available the S+B 12-50 - if this had been my only rifle I likely would not have gone down to the 3.5-21
 
As already mentioned you may want to rethink your magnification choice ....I wend down that path years ago and even with 22X or 25X on my scopes I find that I am seldom anywhere that high in real world conditions out in the field

First off, even shooting paper, often the super high magnification is often distracting and you will end up dialing down power

Secondly, if it is not from mirage of the ground, the mirage from the barrel ( not so much form your Coyote ) , especially with some long range calibers such as 338 Lapua, is often distracting . I have mirage band for one of my rifles and I never bother with it....better dialing down to 18X or less

You need to decided if you want FFP or second focal plane scope ,

IMO you should look at the S&B P4Fine in FFP . The reticle is heavy enough to see clearly at low mag, but not too heavy at higher magnification for shooting paper

You need to determine whether or not you will be dialing your come ups constantly ( big changes in elevation adjustment ) . If you are , then a scope such as the S&B with double turn / or MTC ( more tactile click ) is the way to go

Impossible to get lost on the number of full turns ...even with a zero stop

For example, IIRC the March scopes only make about 10MOA on one turn, vs a S&B makes more than double that ( makes its full elevation adjustment in two turns...hence DT )

A Nightforce NSX makes 10MOA in one turn, but now they have the optional HS turret which doubles that

As far as adjustments are concerned , if you are not dead set on MOA , you should look at MRAD adjustments , expecially with a S&B scope with MRAD recticle such as the P4F

Also look at some ballistic tables to see the come ups required for 308 to shoot to 1000 yrds . You would be surprised how easy it is to loose track of clicks in the heat of the moment ! This is also why a zero stop is a huge advantage

BTW - I have a Nightforce NSX 5.5-22 on my 308 precision rifle only because I had the scope lying round looking for a home . If I were to start from scratch, I would put something like a 4-16X on it
 
ssapach said:
Tangent Theta was brought to my mind as well, and I snooped there site a bit, and it's becoming a very serious contender for a few reasons. I think their TT525P model would work nicely, illuminated reticle would be a nice bonus as well, but I can't find anything that shows me the type(s) of reticles they offer in any of their equipment. Of course the obvious bonus would be a Canadian rifle with a Canadian scope!
Click to expand...

On the Tangent Theta web page, under specs, it gives the reticle options. It's a very short list: Gen 2XR and MoA. Very new company. Not the most options. Armament Technologies also shows the actual reticle's specs.

I'm waiting to get my PGW Coyote with the Tangent Theta 315M model... one week left...
 
FF57 said:
On the Tangent Theta web page, under specs, it gives the reticle options. It's a very short list: Gen 2XR and MoA. Very new company. Not the most options. Armament Technologies also shows the actual reticle's specs.

I'm waiting to get my PGW Coyote with the Tangent Theta 315M model... one week left...
Click to expand...

I noticed the TT reticles after I posted, googled them to see a picture. I don't mind that 2XR at all.

I'll be curious to know how you like yours when you get it.
 
I am using the March X in 5-50 on my 338 lapua and I love the scope. Sure there are days in the summer that mirage does come into play and 20-30x is the highest power you can use. But I am located about 3 hours north of Edmonton, Alberta and most of my shooting is done in colder months where mirage is virtually non existent. So its usually on 40-50 power when shooting. The majority of my play time is done on paper and steel, and those don't move so worries about loosing track of a moving target. But in hunting situations, common sense prevails. Use the zoom to your advantage when you can. Hopefully my S&B 12-50 with the P4 in SFP comes within a week or two, and thats going on another long-ranger, will be fun to do the comparisons.

Would love to have gone with another March, but decided to try the S&B instead. S&B has 75MOA elevation compared to the 60MOA on the March. But that can be evenout with bases. Currently running 40MOA between rings and bases on the 338 and having to have a 200yard zero because the scope is bottomed out there. Giving 60MOA of play area. Which is plenty for my application. I think that any of the optics you mentioned will be great. Some very experienced shooters already chimed in with great responses. Personally I think it is the "Ford-Dodge-Chevy" debate when you are running at the top end of the market.

Drop me a pm and once I get the S&B in we can try to meet up
 
Currently I'm running a PGW Coyote with a Leupold Mark 4 8.5-25x50 with TMR reticle. This scope and magnification range seem ideally suited to the style of shooting I do with this rifle (mostly target and a little varmint work). Rob Furlong borrowed this set up from me a while ago and of course did much better with it than I ever hope to do. He tried to buy it from me as he found this set up to be one of the most accurate field guns he as ever used. I declined and it stays in my safe waiting for some free time and good weather to get out and see what it will do. At 300 yds it is the most consistent groupings I have ever achieved and I anticipate using it much further out. Phil.
 
It's hard to suggest anything else than a S&B for top pick, currently owning S&B / Nightforce / Sightron / Leupold, for my eye, it's my choice and as it was suggested, to much magnification would be overkill, i love my S&B 3X12X50 PMll, perfect balanced scope ... Just saying
 
For what it's worth, as I don't know how much this would affect anyone's scope choice, the Coyote is going to be chambered in 243. Don't ask me for a super logical reason, I just wanted it like that.....it's also the cause of a longer wait time.

I do appreciate all the feedback so far and any of the offers to look through any scopes.
 
I had the chance to compare my new March 3-24x52 FFP against a S&B 5-25x56 FFP this weekend. Both had a great view (both of equal quality in glass and sharpness of image) but the 34mm tube of the S&B gave it a wider field of view vs the March 30mm tube at the same magnification. I think that the March 5-40x56 FFP would be the ideal scope for my PGW Coyote when funds allow. This will be my next scope. - ht tp://marchscopes.com/tactical-5-40-x-56-ffp.html Nice to have the extra zoom when looking for bullet holes in paper at a distance.
 
caramel said:
It's hard to suggest anything else than a S&B for top pick, currently owning S&B / Nightforce / Sightron / Leupold, for my eye, it's my choice and as it was suggested, to much magnification would be overkill, i love my S&B 3X12X50 PMll, perfect balanced scope ... Just saying
Click to expand...

Of course the S&B is the best choice out of the scopes you own, your other scopes aren't in S&Bs league. Compare the S&B to Hensoldt, TT, Premier, March, Kahles and even the newer US Optics for some apples to apples comparison. BTW your other scopes are half the price of your S&B so it's tough to compare them directly.
 
I keep looking at the Theta Tangent TT3175P model for my coyote ... still learning about reticles & choice of scope for long distance shooting. The one feature I truly like is the tool-less adjustments.

Otokiak
Rankin Inlet, NU
CANADA
 
Pm me OP. Coyote just arrived. Choice of three optics; Leopold, night force nxs and nightforce atacr. Setting up this weekend. Some site sponsors have great deals before the U.S. $$ gets any worse.
 
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