Scope Choice for rifle

[elkhunter29]

So after thoroughly reviewing all the posts on this forum and all of the encouraging feedback on choosing a new scope ... I have decided to just go with open sights. Apparently all scopes suck, don't hold zero and customer service blows. Thank you for saving me the headache of getting a new scope. Iron sights it is ......

 

[Billy Goat]

Do tikkas come with irons?

 

[Runwilderness]

Do tikkas come with irons?

Choose your own Tikka rifle from a variety of innovative models

Tikka is able to meet the requirements of modern hunters by combining traditional gunsmith know-how with advanced technology. Choose your own Tikka rifle now!

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Choose your own Tikka rifle from a variety of innovative models

Tikka is able to meet the requirements of modern hunters by combining traditional gunsmith know-how with advanced technology. Choose your own Tikka rifle now!

choose.tikka.fi

 

[tony]

There's a man whos going to "Hunt honest and shoot straight."

 

[OMF]

@tony, a Ron Spomer quote?? <Groan>

 

[575 ELK]

lol….M-16 ain’t got no scope…who needs a scope

 

[gearguywb]

No one *needs* a scope...(unless you want to hit stuff )

I am going old school this year on my 300Norma Improved. I like the idea of a backup sighting system for those 800 yard elk shots.

I am going to find a set of rings where the iron sights are mounted to the top of the scope ring.

I can't go the other direction, with the see through mounts since I don't have sights on the barrel....of course I could just glue a shotgun bead to the front!

Problem solved!

 

[Decker9]

I’m still trying to figure out, when did people start dropping their rifles so much that optics have become an issue?

Never dropped a rifle, never had a scope issue, surprise surprise.

 

[Castmaster]

Listen I understand that some optics are garbage and won’t hold zero under recoil etc but idk who expects to chuck their rifle off a cliff on a sheep hunt and have it hold zero or not be broken. Also if my rifle does take a fall or bump I think it’s a wise choice to always recheck your zero no matter how durable your scope is.

 

[primesuspectguides]

Go with a peep sight. A small one. Excellent light gathering abilities and always holds a zero!

 

[NevadaMike]

Awesome post. I have officially stopped drinking the optical Kool-aid here. I am in the middle of scoring my second NRL-Hunter event this weekend and Leupold is BY FAR the most common scope for amateurs and professionals. That would not be the case if they were having problems. I asked one of the pros about his since the paint was worn off and he said its on its 5th trouble free season. That would amount to thousands and thousands of rounds outside in rain, mud and snow with his livelihood depending on it. I know the Koresh followers are about to say "yeah but he is sponsored" in a whiny voice but I guarantee if he walked over to the Nightforce tent he would leave with a new sponsor, jersey and glass. I don't know if he is sponsored by Leupold or not since nothing he had on said Leupold on it but I know what mainstream rifle company pays him and he did not hold back on its faults and his frustrations. The amateurs would not be using any glass if at the end of the day people were standing around talking about problems with that a particular brand.

 

[06 SB]

Great post! I think the movement towards long range shooting has made scope manufacturers move toward more complicated scopes. Illumination, turrets, zero stops, complex reticles is what new buyers want. Those cost money to develop and manufacture so other parts get cheapened to keep price points lower. Cheaper parts equal more potential failure IMO. My kids think I am nuts using a SFP scope with capped turrets and a duplex or 4A reticle.

Leupold used to be my go-to scopes. I had an older one fail, sent it in for repair then it failed again after only a dozen rounds. It was never dropped or abused either. It looked new. Shortly after I had a new VX Freedom fail during load workups. These scopes failed when my good groups turned into patterns. I always swapped scopes with another rifle to make sure the scope was the failure, not the rifle. In every case Leupold fixed them. I just cannot continue to support them with my $.

 

[Kyguy]

Awesome post. I have officially stopped drinking the optical Kool-aid here. I am in the middle of scoring my second NRL-Hunter event this weekend and Leupold is BY FAR the most common scope for amateurs and professionals. That would not be the case if they were having problems. I asked one of the pros about his since the paint was worn off and he said its on its 5th trouble free season. That would amount to thousands and thousands of rounds outside in rain, mud and snow with his livelihood depending on it. I know the Koresh followers are about to say "yeah but he is sponsored" in a whiny voice but I guarantee if he walked over to the Nightforce tent he would leave with a new sponsor, jersey and glass. I don't know if he is sponsored by Leupold or not since nothing he had on said Leupold on it but I know what mainstream rifle company pays him and he did not hold back on its faults and his frustrations. The amateurs would not be using any glass if at the end of the day people were standing around talking about problems with that a particular brand.

I can say that I've seen the exact opposite, though it's a much smaller number, I'm sure. There's several guys who shoot PRS (not professionally thought) that frequent a public range I hit when I can't get to the private one, and talking to them, they have all dumped Leupold because of tracking issues and zero retention, specifically VX5 and VX6 lines. They've gone to Nightforce and Schmidt & Bender. I've personally had more issues with Leupold than any other brand over the years. I really thought it was just shitty luck on my part until I started doing more reading about it. It sucks, because I'd love to support them, but I can't do it any more.

 

[eric1115]

Listen I understand that some optics are garbage and won’t hold zero under recoil etc but idk who expects to chuck their rifle off a cliff on a sheep hunt and have it hold zero or not be broken. Also if my rifle does take a fall or bump I think it’s a wise choice to always recheck your zero no matter how durable your scope is.

The point and purpose of the drop test is not to assume you're going to drop your rifle from 3 feet off the ground and need to shoot something 30 seconds later.

It's that the far far more common issues of wandering/lost zero from random bumps, vibrations from driving around, etc correlate very highly with passing or failing that evaluation.

Scopes that retain zero through that test retain zero through long term use (even rough use) and scopes that cannot survive that test also do not tend to retain zero and function through extended (especially if it's rough) use. We don't get to pick when/where that happens, and it's definitely not just from impacts/drops.

 

[ljalberta]

I’ve had scopes lose zero and they haven’t been dropped. I think the biggest culprit for me was quad rides and rough roads bouncing and wobbling the rifle around.

 

[Castmaster]

The point and purpose of the drop test is not to assume you're going to drop your rifle from 3 feet off the ground and need to shoot something 30 seconds later.

It's that the far far more common issues of wandering/lost zero from random bumps, vibrations from driving around, etc correlate very highly with passing or failing that evaluation.

Scopes that retain zero through that test retain zero through long term use (even rough use) and scopes that cannot survive that test also do not tend to retain zero and function through extended (especially if it's rough) use. We don't get to pick when/where that happens, and it's definitely not just from impacts/drops.

I agree with you 100% on scope durability and drop testing and that it is a great test for testing a scope’s durability and zero retention but I think it is always a wise choice to recheck your zero after your rifle and scope takes a fall, airplane trip, disassembly and so on. No matter whether the scope passed the drop test or not or it has held zero for the past 20 years it is a man made product and things do fail, at the end of the day it is our responsibility as hunters to make a clean kill and rechecking zero frequently can prevent bad things from happening.

 

[chanson_roland]

Go with a peep sight. A small one. Excellent light gathering abilities and always holds a zero!

I went with New England Custom Gun on my Ruger RSI International and love it. For certain rifles, a good peep sight is faster and more fault tolerant than a low power scope, In my opinion.

New England Custom Gun