Ultimate Lightweight Western Hunting Riflescope Advise

I’m looking for the best lightweight riflescope for Western hunting, and I’d appreciate some input from those with experience. My key requirements are:
  • Holds zero consistently
  • Excellent tracking
  • Drop tested and durable
  • Lightweight (under 24 oz max, ~20 oz ideal)
  • MIL reticle
  • 15x max zoom (less is okay, 10x minimum)
  • 42mm objective lens
So far, my top contenders are:
  1. Nightforce NXS 2.5–10x42
  2. Trijicon Credo 2.5–15x42
  3. SWFA SS 3–15x42 30mm MQ Gen 2
Questions for the group:
  • Which of these scopes best balances durability, weight, and performance for Western hunting?
  • Am I overlooking any strong alternatives in this category?
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
I have owned all of these and many more.

How far are you shooting? I would really consider the S&B 3-12 Klassic P3L.

It fits your bill perfectly if you’re staying under 600 yards. Its only downside is that the elevation turret is rev-limited to 4.8 mils.
 
I have owned all of these and many more.

How far are you shooting? I would really consider the S&B 3-12 Klassic P3L.

It fits your bill perfectly if you’re staying under 600 yards. Its only downside is that the elevation turret is rev-limited to 4.8 mils.
Hunting wise, would certainly keep it under 600. Frankly I am fairly new to all this so in the near term probably 400. Intend to practice out to 1000.
 
Hard to go wrong with any of your choices. I love Trijicon scopes (but my favorite is the Accupoint).

I would buy whichever one is cheapest and use the difference in price to the next one to buy more ammo for practice. My “long range” rifle has an SWFA 10x gen1 on it. I really like that scope and the 6x variant as well.
+1 for the Trijicon Accupoint, its my favorite scope, I now have three of them for my three favorite hunting rifles.
 
What timeline? Reason being is eventually this fall (last update) shoot2hunt is supposed to get their scope samples to test which are supposed to check off your boxes. If this isn’t for this fall/winter maybe sit back and wait. Besides thanksgiving-Christmas may have sales on some of your list.
 
What timeline? Reason being is eventually this fall (last update) shoot2hunt is supposed to get their scope samples to test which are supposed to check off your boxes. If this isn’t for this fall/winter maybe sit back and wait. Besides thanksgiving-Christmas may have sales on some of your list.
Id be willing to wait for this...
 
Hard to go wrong with any of your choices. I love Trijicon scopes (but my favorite is the Accupoint).
Like the 3-9 Accupoint for its weight, durability, and illumination. Don’t like that it offers a Mil-dot reticle with turret adjustments in MOA. I’m sure it’s fine for a set and forget scope, but the OP wants to dial.
 
Like the 3-9 Accupoint for its weight, durability, and illumination. Don’t like that it offers a Mil-dot reticle with turret adjustments in MOA. I’m sure it’s fine for a set and forget scope, but the OP wants to dial.

I agree with that completely. That is the only thing I don’t like about that scope. If it had MIL turret adjustments, I would have more than one of them. As it is, I keep it on my CZ 527 carbine in 6.5 Grendel.
 
Reading this thread.....

Apropos of nothing, if a company would start offering custom turrets for Trijicon (or other brands) non-dialing scopes, and started offering reticle changes for Trijicon/NF/etc, I think they'd make a killing if they priced them right.

I could be wrong, and may well be, seeing how nobody has done so yet.

I think I could sit down with MSPaint and draw up a reticle that would fix 99% of my reticle complaints.

It would look *roughly* like this with some minor tweaks:

https://www.burrisoptics.com/reticles/ballistic-plex-e1-ffp-2-10x-and-3-15x

I wish their scopes fared better in drop tests. I'd like to have one just to play with the reticle.
 
@Chris in TN Interesting though; Do you know what would be involved in changing an optic reticle? I imagine this would be a fairly complicated surgery but I know very little about how these things are built
 
@Chris in TN Interesting though; Do you know what would be involved in changing an optic reticle? I imagine this would be a fairly complicated surgery but I know very little about how these things are built
Leupold's CS used to do it all the time and Premiere Reticles did it for a long time. They went out of business, which might be a bad sign that the demand wasn't really there.

There was a company more recently called Target Shooter Optics, or something to that effect, but their website is gone now. Again, a bad sign.

I also wish there was a company that would disassemble a scope, recoat the lens with modern coatings, and reassemble with a better reticle, maybe lube the turrets and replace the seals.....

Do I really want to go back to 1980's scope tech? Ehh, no.

But if I had a 3-9x lo-pro or 4x-12x redfield accu-trac there's a part of me that would enjoy hunting with it a few times per year. Or maybe a weaver micro-trac with modern lens coatings.
 
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