Rifle scope choices??

[dmoua]

NF NX8. All my rifles have one besides my 300 WSM. The only reason it doesn’t have one was the NX8 was not out when I had it built. You can find them in the $1700-$1900 range for Demo scopes. The three demo I bought looked brand new when I received them.

[Karl Blanchard]

The NX8 has a hold for 16 or 32 power.  But more importantly, why hold over when you could dial in a hunting situation?   Wind for me is always a hold as I never dial my wind, but again the NX8 has holds for 16 or 32 power. 

The FFP scopes I have looked have such fine reticule on the lower power that I just can’t buy into it for hunting situations.   I wish I liked them more, but at 4 powere it is almost unusable with my eyes.

Dial for elevation for sure if the situation allows for it. Being able to hold over at any power if a quick shot is needed is nice though. Probably could have shot a buck in Montana last season if I hadn't taken a few second to dial after getting my adjustment from the BDX. He dumped over the ridge right as I got steady. Needed a couple more seconds to pull the trigger. Reticle usability at lower powers is a good point.

Honest question for you...was it the added time to dial that was truly the issue or was it likely your unfamiliarity with building a shooting position and getting on target that cost you time? If that buck got away because you had to dial that means he was moving. If he was close enough to warrant a shot at a moving animal then he wasn't far enough to warrant dialing and if you knew your drops intimately you could have held accordingly and fired. No hash marks needed. Please don't take this as me picking on you as I very much am not. These are honest discussions we need to have with ourselves about our true capabilities with a weapon and what our real weapon skills need to be to take certain shots.

I've used both ffp and sfp. I'm still a sfp guy. I understand the merits of a ffp but I also think being proficient and knowing your weapon system mitigates all those arguments.  For example, if the animal is far enough away that you need to precisely hold wind, you have time to back power down to half or up to full.  If it's closer and that level of precision isn't needed simply hold into the wind and go.

All scope function adjustments should be made while in the gun. Dialing, parallax,  zoom. Learn your system. A trip to any range USA will prove that these are the vast majority of shooters issues. Spot deer, range deer, get on the gun, dial, aim, shoot.

I was about to crawl over a berm with the rifle and looked back at my spotter who was signaling to look left. A coyote had bumped them while I was moving around/down and out of sight of both. Buck was up a doe's butt and didn't seem to really know what was going on other than following her. They stopped before a small valley and were still for maybe 10-15 seconds, hard to say. Kind of that moment where mulies feel far enough away from the threat and stop to look back but then keep moving off.

Pack was already off so repositioned to where the rifle wouldn't shoot into the berm and set the fore-end on top of the pack with the pack standing. Ranged it at 240 or so and the scope was on 6x. Shouldered the gun and dialed 2 1/4 MOA or so, shooting position felt good. Found him in the scope quickly, safety off and they dropped into the valley. Could've pulled the trigger as he was just starting to trot after the doe but didn't for obvious reasons.

I'm not blaming the SFP scope for not being able to get a shot off. I'm sure I could shave some time off other steps in the process with more practice. Shooting position and finding the deer in the scope did not feel excessively time consuming. I always would have ranged it and the BDX spits out a drop pretty quick, but that felt like it took forever compared to the other steps. Dialing was just one aspect of the experience that comes to mind as a step that could have been eliminated if I had a FFP scope and practiced with hold over within reasonable distances for a fast encounter like that. Right now, the hash marks on my SFP scope are useless for all intents and purposes because I never shoot at 16x unless I'm target shooting at 800+.

That particular experience is why I'm going to be shooting a lot more field position work and with high heart rate this summer. Hill sprint, build position, shoot, repeat. Now that I don't live in Seattle it won't be nearly as miserable to go shooting.

appreciate the honest response and the acknowledgment of the areas you need to improve on.

This is pretty much what I figured it would be. In that scenario,  knowing roughly what your drops are would allowed you to just hold high lung and break your shot off. Dead buck.  Another practice is to dial your gun up to a 200 yard zero while walking around. Eliminates the issue of having to do anything for those fast close shots. Or get a ffp scope    But regardless of focal plane choice you still need to know your system inside and out. Just makes things more automatic.  You ever get up towards yakima hit me up and we'll go burn some powder

[Lowedog]

With weight being one of your concerns I would throw either the VX6-HD 3-18 x 44 or the VX5-HD 3-15 x 44 or equivalents from other brands as choices.  I really like the Wind-Plex and TMOA reticles from leupold.  That Zeiss is a pretty heavy scope at 36 oz if I'm seeing that right.

15 or 18 power is plenty for doing some long range practice with a hunting rifle and I personally don't think you lose enough light transmission with a 44mm objective for it to be of concern. 

 

[fowl smacker]

I know you didn't have this as one of the choices but my Zeiss V6 3-18x50  with a Kenton turret has been amazing.  Light, positive zero stop, perfect dialing out to 1,300 yards and all over so far.

[swanderek]

I love my vx6 scope

[pickardjw]

appreciate the honest response and the acknowledgment of the areas you need to improve on.

This is pretty much what I figured it would be. In that scenario,  knowing roughly what your drops are would allowed you to just hold high lung and break your shot off. Dead buck.  Another practice is to dial your gun up to a 200 yard zero while walking around. Eliminates the issue of having to do anything for those fast close shots. Or get a ffp scope    But regardless of focal plane choice you still need to know your system inside and out. Just makes things more automatic.  You ever get up towards yakima hit me up and we'll go burn some powder

Fortunately I don't live in Seattle anymore, way easier to go shoot. And only 2hrs from Yakima so I'll have to take you up on it!

[fishngamereaper]

That Ziess will arguably have the best glass...
If you haven't looked through all of them I would recommend it before buying.
NF is great scope. Well built. But they tend to be on the heavy side.

[Crunchy]

That Ziess will arguably have the best glass...
If you haven't looked through all of them I would recommend it before buying.
NF is great scope. Well built. But they tend to be on the heavy side.

I know Zeiss is great glass.  If that was the only factor I would pick them . I have the Leupold VX6HD 3-18X44 but need more on the upper end of the magnification.  I am not super impressed with Leupold clarity, It is just ok maybe a 7 on a scale of 10.  Getting their 4-24 model isn't an automatic.  .  Nightforce I am least familiar with, but as long as the glass is better than Leupold it might be a good option.

[jamesjett]

Building a new rifle, have action, trigger, stock on order, and barrel being built soon.  I have always been a Leupold guy and have never had any issues with their rifle scopes.  Binos yes.  Anyway, I like the custom dial with Leupold products.  So it is nice to range a target and dial in the yardage on the scope in yards.  Neither Zeiss or Nightforce offer that option (must be a reason). Clarity, durability, and weight are my main concerns.  It is a hunting rig, and a bit of long range shooting.  Input?

I have several Leupold VX-6’s.  I really like all of them.  I recently built a 7PRC and was at the range today.  I had my VX-6 3-18 on my .308 and put a VX6HD 4-24x52 on the 7PRC.  The upgrade to the HD is absolutely worth it if this helps. Maybe its my 53 year old eyes but the HD was much clearer..

[Crunchy]

Building a new rifle, have action, trigger, stock on order, and barrel being built soon.  I have always been a Leupold guy and have never had any issues with their rifle scopes.  Binos yes.  Anyway, I like the custom dial with Leupold products.  So it is nice to range a target and dial in the yardage on the scope in yards.  Neither Zeiss or Nightforce offer that option (must be a reason). Clarity, durability, and weight are my main concerns.  It is a hunting rig, and a bit of long range shooting.  Input?

I have several Leupold VX-6’s.  I really like all of them.  I recently built a 7PRC and was at the range today.  I had my VX-6 3-18 on my .308 and put a VX6HD 4-24x52 on the 7PRC.  The upgrade to the HD is absolutely worth it if this helps. Maybe its my 53 year old eyes but the HD was much clearer..

Nice set up.  I am also building a 7prc.  What powder/bullet combo have you tried?

[jamesjett]

Building a new rifle, have action, trigger, stock on order, and barrel being built soon.  I have always been a Leupold guy and have never had any issues with their rifle scopes.  Binos yes.  Anyway, I like the custom dial with Leupold products.  So it is nice to range a target and dial in the yardage on the scope in yards.  Neither Zeiss or Nightforce offer that option (must be a reason). Clarity, durability, and weight are my main concerns.  It is a hunting rig, and a bit of long range shooting.  Input?

I have several Leupold VX-6’s.  I really like all of them.  I recently built a 7PRC and was at the range today.  I had my VX-6 3-18 on my .308 and put a VX6HD 4-24x52 on the 7PRC.  The upgrade to the HD is absolutely worth it if this helps. Maybe its my 53 year old eyes but the HD was much clearer..

Nice set up.  I am also building a 7prc.  What powder/bullet combo have you tried?

I just loaded up some 139gr. Hornady with 68.5gr of RL-25 because I had to use it up.  Proof Research recommended a break-in procedure so I just loaded those to get some rounds through it.  I have some Barnes 145 and 168 LRX I plaln to work up with SC4831. 

[Crunchy]

Building a new rifle, have action, trigger, stock on order, and barrel being built soon.  I have always been a Leupold guy and have never had any issues with their rifle scopes.  Binos yes.  Anyway, I like the custom dial with Leupold products.  So it is nice to range a target and dial in the yardage on the scope in yards.  Neither Zeiss or Nightforce offer that option (must be a reason). Clarity, durability, and weight are my main concerns.  It is a hunting rig, and a bit of long range shooting.  Input?

I have several Leupold VX-6’s.  I really like all of them.  I recently built a 7PRC and was at the range today.  I had my VX-6 3-18 on my .308 and put a VX6HD 4-24x52 on the 7PRC.  The upgrade to the HD is absolutely worth it if this helps. Maybe its my 53 year old eyes but the HD was much clearer..

Nice set up.  I am also building a 7prc.  What powder/bullet combo have you tried?

I just loaded up some 139gr. Hornady with 68.5gr of RL-25 because I had to use it up.  Proof Research recommended a break-in procedure so I just loaded those to get some rounds through it.  I have some Barnes 145 and 168 LRX I plaln to work up with SC4831. 

my plan is to shoot Berger 180vlds or 180 elms.  I have retumbo, h1000, and n560 to try.  Just waiting on barrel, stock, and need to order this scope in the next couple of weeks.

[EnglishSetter]

The NX8 has a hold for 16 or 32 power.  But more importantly, why hold over when you could dial in a hunting situation?   Wind for me is always a hold as I never dial my wind, but again the NX8 has holds for 16 or 32 power. 

The FFP scopes I have looked have such fine reticule on the lower power that I just can’t buy into it for hunting situations.   I wish I liked them more, but at 4 powere it is almost unusable with my eyes.

Dial for elevation for sure if the situation allows for it. Being able to hold over at any power if a quick shot is needed is nice though. Probably could have shot a buck in Montana last season if I hadn't taken a few second to dial after getting my adjustment from the BDX. He dumped over the ridge right as I got steady. Needed a couple more seconds to pull the trigger. Reticle usability at lower powers is a good point.

Honest question for you...was it the added time to dial that was truly the issue or was it likely your unfamiliarity with building a shooting position and getting on target that cost you time? If that buck got away because you had to dial that means he was moving. If he was close enough to warrant a shot at a moving animal then he wasn't far enough to warrant dialing and if you knew your drops intimately you could have held accordingly and fired. No hash marks needed. Please don't take this as me picking on you as I very much am not. These are honest discussions we need to have with ourselves about our true capabilities with a weapon and what our real weapon skills need to be to take certain shots.

I've used both ffp and sfp. I'm still a sfp guy. I understand the merits of a ffp but I also think being proficient and knowing your weapon system mitigates all those arguments.  For example, if the animal is far enough away that you need to precisely hold wind, you have time to back power down to half or up to full.  If it's closer and that level of precision isn't needed simply hold into the wind and go.

All scope function adjustments should be made while in the gun. Dialing, parallax,  zoom. Learn your system. A trip to any range USA will prove that these are the vast majority of shooters issues. Spot deer, range deer, get on the gun, dial, aim, shoot.

I realize this is a necro thread, but....good point.

Assuming you have a cartridge with some speed, why the need to dial for 240 yards?  Why wouldn't you already be carrying for something in the 250 yard zone?

A lot (me included) could practice estimating yardages instead of relying on electronics/optics.  Use the electronics to train your estimating.  You don't need to be spot on, just bracketed.  Shooting deer inside 300 yards with most modern cartridges shouldn't need much if any peripherals. Leave the dope for the actual long shots.  We can get too reliant on fancy tools and neglect the one in our noggin.

[Magnum_Willys]

I’ve used Vx6 7-42, Mark V 7-35, NX8 4-32, ZCO 4-20 for target shooting - 1000’s of rounds at 1000+ yards and hunting.

The VX6 turrets died on me - repaired then died a second time.
 
The Mark V is sharp, well designed and my favorite tho 4 oz heavier than NX8.  It is SFP - only Mark V that is.  Been holding zero so far - 400 rounds from Lapua 338.

The NX8 is my hunting rifle I can depend on and only 28 oz.  Glass not as good as Mark V but useable.  SFP sits on my 338 Lapua Ai

The ZCO glass was amazing.  I sold it tho wasn’t worth the extra weight - I was hoping the forgiving eyebox would help with spotting shots but it didn’t.

[Crunchy]

I picked up a NX-8 4-32 and love it.  Very nice hunting scope in my opinion.