Strong, tough, scope and mounts

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taterthedog

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I'm wondering what a stong scope, rings and mount would be for a varmint gun. The rifle is a Winchester Stealth II in .223 WSSM. I need to carry it in a gun boot on a skidoo through some rough terrain. I want it to stand up to some knocking around and still hold it's zero. Right now I'm thinking a Near picatinny rail and TPS rings. For a scope I'm thinking VXIII or similar. Will this set up take a licking and keep on ticking?
Weather will be on the cold to extremly cold side so that may be a factor too.

Tell me your thoughts.
:sniper:
 
I have had a great deal of luck with the Burris Fullfield II scopes and recently bought another. I bought my first one after talking to a guy shooting a 300 Ultra Mag and who says the recoil of that specific rifle destroyed a Bushnell 3200, so he replaced it with the same scope in a Burris and never looked back. Now for all you Bushnell fans, those 3200 scopes are great and this is based on one persons experience.

As for rings, anything made by Talley seems to be top notch in quality. Their quick detach has proven well with keeping zero although my experience has been with their very affordable one piece scope ring/base product.

Just my two cents, good luck brother
 
Thanks for your thoughts. I like Burris scopes too. I need it to hold up to more than recoil though. I wonder how they handle banging around in a gun boot?

Anyone else have any input?
 
I like Burris Custom Signature Zee rings on a picatiny rail. All steel, not overly bulky. I could be wrong, but I put my trust in steel.
 
you could get either a picatinny rail mount and QR rings, or a QR system like Leupold's which may return to zero better. problem solved. just remove the scope and store it separately, that way the rifle can be banged around as much as you want with no risk to the scope.

there are scopes that can survive more punishment than others, but no scope/glass can survive being banged around a lot.
alternately look around for an older small, fixed power steel tube scope, ive seen some of those that have taken a lot of punishment and still worked fine.

make sure you get rubber flip-up caps - they protect not only the lenses but the ocular and objective bells from impacts as well.
 
There is no easy answer to your question. You are going to subject a rifle/scope combo to some extreme punishment with your plans so there's no way to say what particular brand will stand up. One way to narrow down the chances of failure would be to stick with a top quality fixed power scope over the use of a variable. Ya, I know that the manufacturers are producing excellent vari's but the fact remains that you want reliability over all else, so stick with a good fixed power (Schmidt & Bender, Swarovski, Ziess all come to mind) to reduce one more chance of failure. The use of a Talley style one piece ring/base assembly for mounting the scope again reduces failure between ring & base. One might also have the reciever threads increased to larger/stronger screws and install all the screws with loc-tite to reduce a chance of slippage. These little tricks will definately work towards your goal...good luck.

Whoops :redface: Missed my all time favorite, never let me down, rugged...Leupold!!!
 
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Leupold VX III 6 power, and Talley mounts, with Butler Creek scope covers, should get you to where you want to go.

Leupolds are nice and sturdy for the most part, and the Talles work well.:)
 
If you have a good gun boot, I wouldn't worry about it, no matter what terrain. That's what they're made for.
 
Your thinking is right, A Leupold can't be beat for toughness, and their warranty should you damage it, can't be beat either.
 
From Steve's pages:

About optics ... I have tried them all ... Weaver, Simmons, B&L, Redfield, Tasco, Swift, Nikon, and others. But I have found that the only 'scope that I couldn't break, the only 'scope that wouldn't fog-up, the only 'scope that held it's center when changing power, was Leupold! So all my optics, since 1968, have been Leupold. I don't even think about putting any other glass on one of my rifles! Sure, it's dumb to put a $500 scope on a $135 rifle! But I do it.
 
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