Kimmo H
FNG
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2023
- Messages
- 55
I'm putting together a lightweight 223 Tikka bolt rifle, that will be hauled around just about everywhere. Main use is hunting, ranges are usually from 25-400 meters, primarily for hunting grouse, roedeer, hare, beaver and some magpies, crows etc. A lot of use in very poor light late at night.
I'm having a hard time deciding on optics for the build. Everything that I've read to be robust weights a metric ton, and the scopes that seem perfect specificationwise are terribly weak and suspect to hard use.
I have owned and still own scopes from some of the top brands in Europe, including Zeiss, Swarovski, Leupold, Leica and Steiner, along with Vortex. I seem to be incredibly unlucky with riflescopes in general, as from the above I've had some issues with nearly every one of them. Varying from hair in the scope to loss of zero, poor parallax, poor illumination and so on.
The thing is that I am not hard on my equipment. Everything sits on good rings, gets cleaned and looked after, never bumped around on purpose and still I find myself questioning myself all the time if they stay intact through the year, and as I stated above, I've had issues with several of the "good scopes". Steiner has been idiot proof so far, I must admit that!
SWFA is not available in EU, Nightforce availability is poor and prices are high relative to other mfg, but I've not ruled NF out by any means. There is the 4-16x42 atacr for example that seems good, but it is on the heavy side and I haven't found much on how they work in low light.
Prefer MIL adjustments, if the scope has turrets they need to have a lock on them, illumination is a necessity, FFP is a plus but not a necessity, zoom range up to min. 10, prefer ~12-16, and I'd like to keep the weight down to around 600g (~1,3- 1,5lbish)
Any recommendations on what you'd be looking at? I know its a tall order, but asking the knowledgeable crowd can't hurt My search for a scope with that criteria has come up empty. Closest match has been a Leupold VX-5 3-15x44, one of wich I already have on a 17hmr. Love the scope in use, but it's been in for repair once already for not holding zero properly... Maybe I'll have to gamble and try my luck with another one?
I'm having a hard time deciding on optics for the build. Everything that I've read to be robust weights a metric ton, and the scopes that seem perfect specificationwise are terribly weak and suspect to hard use.
I have owned and still own scopes from some of the top brands in Europe, including Zeiss, Swarovski, Leupold, Leica and Steiner, along with Vortex. I seem to be incredibly unlucky with riflescopes in general, as from the above I've had some issues with nearly every one of them. Varying from hair in the scope to loss of zero, poor parallax, poor illumination and so on.
The thing is that I am not hard on my equipment. Everything sits on good rings, gets cleaned and looked after, never bumped around on purpose and still I find myself questioning myself all the time if they stay intact through the year, and as I stated above, I've had issues with several of the "good scopes". Steiner has been idiot proof so far, I must admit that!
SWFA is not available in EU, Nightforce availability is poor and prices are high relative to other mfg, but I've not ruled NF out by any means. There is the 4-16x42 atacr for example that seems good, but it is on the heavy side and I haven't found much on how they work in low light.
Prefer MIL adjustments, if the scope has turrets they need to have a lock on them, illumination is a necessity, FFP is a plus but not a necessity, zoom range up to min. 10, prefer ~12-16, and I'd like to keep the weight down to around 600g (~1,3- 1,5lbish)
Any recommendations on what you'd be looking at? I know its a tall order, but asking the knowledgeable crowd can't hurt My search for a scope with that criteria has come up empty. Closest match has been a Leupold VX-5 3-15x44, one of wich I already have on a 17hmr. Love the scope in use, but it's been in for repair once already for not holding zero properly... Maybe I'll have to gamble and try my luck with another one?