Needing new hunting scope. Is Swarovski the best option?

J

jmriggle

FNG
Joined
Mar 23, 2022
I am new to this forum but am a long time hunter. I have always gone with budget scopes on my hunting rifles and am looking to move into a higher end scope. I recently bought a Christensen Arms Mesa 6.5 PRC and want to find a high quality scope to go on it. I have been looking through this forum and read many reviews and am just lost. For those that have Swarovski scopes, are they really worth the price or would a Leupold or Vortex be just as good?
 
If you want a scope that holds zero and is durable, you need to look in the stickies in the long range forum and look at Forms (not the full user name) testing and results of scopes in relation to holding zero and retaining zero when dropped. There is a lot of incredible information informative there, but it might take you a while to digest, depending on your knowledge and experience. But, well worth your time.
 
It might be useful to provide some additional information. How far do you intend to practice at the range? Shot distance on game? Are you planning to get into dialing for distance?

If you shoot 10 rounds a year, with an average shot distance of 50 yards, probably going to be a different type of response than if you are on the other end of spectrum in regards to number of rounds, shooting longer distance, and dialing or holding over.
 
Bubblehide said:
If you want a scope that holds zero and is durable, you need to look in the stickies in the long range forum and look at Forms (not the full user name) testing and results of scopes in relation to holding zero and retaining zero when dropped. There is a lot of incredible information informative there, but it might take you a while to digest, depending on your knowledge and experience. But, well worth your time.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info
 
Maverick1 said:
It might be useful to provide some additional information. How far do you intend to practice at the range? Shot distance on game? Are you planning to get into dialing for distance?

If you shoot 10 rounds a year, with an average shot distance of 50 yards, probably going to be a different type of response than if you are on the other end of spectrum in regards to number of rounds, shooting longer distance, and dialing or holding over.
Click to expand...
I hunt central/west Texas and shots range from 50- 550 yards. Would eventually like to use it for an elk hunt. Probably going to shoot 50-100 rounds a year through it.
 
@jmriggle, If you read through the information in the link I posted (it is a lot to read) and actually digest it, you will understand that zero retention is necessary for accuracy at any distance for zero feet, yards, meters... to infinity. That reliability is priceless. Considering the distances you state, IMNSHO, you do not need a scope that dials, as long as you have a scope that reliably retains zero. However, from my experience, the scopes that retain zero, even in drops, happen to dial reliably.

Best wishes!
 
Thanks everyone for the replies. I think I have settled on a swarovski z5 3.5-18x44 with plex reticle.
 
I ran a Swarovski Z5 for about a year. You get very little adjustments being the scope is a 1” tube. My atlas tactical action had a 20MOA built in. So my Z5 was just a handful of clicks above bottom. Being on a 30 nosler I started having a zero issue. After some headaches I figured out it was the scope. Scope weight is the least of my concern now. Realizability is number 1
 
Aggies2014 said:
I ran a Swarovski Z5 for about a year. You get very little adjustments being the scope is a 1” tube. My atlas tactical action had a 20MOA built in. So my Z5 was just a handful of clicks above bottom. Being on a 30 nosler I started having a zero issue. After some headaches I figured out it was the scope. Scope weight is the least of my concern now. Realizability is number 1
Click to expand...

Being a couple of clicks from bottom on a scope like that might've been the problem. How'd it shoot on the other rifle you put it on, or after you sent it to Swaro?
 
jmriggle said:
I am new to this forum but am a long time hunter. I have always gone with budget scopes on my hunting rifles and am looking to move into a higher end scope. I recently bought a Christensen Arms Mesa 6.5 PRC and want to find a high quality scope to go on it. I have been looking through this forum and read many reviews and am just lost. For those that have Swarovski scopes, are they really worth the price or would a Leupold or Vortex be just as good?
Click to expand...
The only time I would say go with something other than Swaro (if you want a high quality and performance and don’t care about money) would be with rifle scopes. There are a lot of rifle scopes out there that I think are far superior to what swaro brings to the table for rifle scopes.
 
Never sent it back to swaro. Went ahead and put on a bushnell xrs 2. It being bottomed out definitely was the biggest problem. However, the Z series of scopes just should be a turret style scope. Single erector and 1” tube sets it up for failure. Straight hunting scope with holdovers I think it’s a fantastic piece of glass
 
Aggies2014 said:
Never sent it back to swaro. Went ahead and put on a bushnell xrs 2. It being bottomed out definitely was the biggest problem. However, the Z series of scopes just should be a turret style scope. Single erector and 1” tube sets it up for failure. Straight hunting scope with holdovers I think it’s a fantastic piece of glass
Click to expand...

The XRS II? With 30 mils of elevation? (100-ish MOA?) https://www.bushnell.com/riflescope...xrs-ii-4.5-30x50-riflescope-black/P01560.html

I'm guessing it was a 5-25x52 since it was bottomed out on a 20 MOA rail? That scope has 40% of the range of the scope you replaced it with. If you still have it it'd probably be a great piece of glass for a rifle that doesn't have a built-in 20 MOA rail.

Every scope is a single erector, do you mean a single rotation turret?
 
It was a swaro z5 5-25. Not purposely built to be heavy turret use scope. That’s quoted from swaro when I called. Also it’s not 1/4moa per click it’s a true 1/4” per click. Also Leupold moved to a dual erector doing setup to help eliminate the problem they were having on the vx-5 and vx-6 series scope.
 
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