Rifle Scopes Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS)

[Nicholas]

The optic is the most important piece of your kit assuming you have a great shooting rifle to put it on. Over the years I have spend thousands and thousands of dollars testing and shooting dozens of rifle scopes. I wish someone would have put this out there for me when I was new to the sport (of course scopes are way better now than when I started so I don't know if it would have been as much help)

When it comes to your system keep is simple, that means eliminate all possible chances for SCREWING THINGS UP. No converting between knob values and reticle values, no crosshairs that change value at different magnifications, no turrets with less than 40 MOA of adjustment per rotation of the dial, no running out of elevation adjustment before you reach the subsonic distance of the cartridge you are firing.

1) Repeatable adjustments
2) Click values = what they claim them to be (I don't want to talk about my .44 MOA clicks that were supposed to be .5 moa and fighting with the scope company for months about the issue)
3) At least 90+ MOA or 26+ MILS of travel, if you ever want to get to that mile mark you gonna need it and with our large caliber conversion kits you can easily do it.
3) High travel per rotation of the knob, PLEASE don't buy a scope with more than two full rotations of elevation adjustment. (I am having nightmares of turning my old nightforce scopes 6.5 full rotations to get to 1 mile and loosing my place on the dial when jumping back and forth between distances.)
4) Second Rotation Indicator, this tells you when you are on your second rotation to prevent you from getting off a rotation and blowing a shot, my favorite is the S&B yellow flag system on there PMII scopes.
5) Front focal plain reticle (this means your great measuring lines are accurate at any magnification, YOU WANT THIS TRUST ME!!)
6) Mil or MOA scaled reticle with MATCHING KNOBS!! (some US services are still running mildot reticles and MOA turrets in their scopes so snipers have to constantly convert between MILS and MOA which is an opportunity to screwup and slows things down. Running reticle and knobs with same values no slow conversion process is required.
7) Magnification is less important than all the other items above assuming you are running a variable power scope with a top end of 12x or more. Once you get over 20x mirage becomes a big problem and doesn't help.
8) Strong tube/housing that can take a beating
9) Light Weight if there are two scope options that are comparable and one is 3 lbs and the other is 1.5 lbs, get the lighter scope.
10) Short as possible allowing for night and thermal optics to be mounted forward of the dayscope

Will clean this up in the morning, too freaking tired gotta get some sleep.

[michik007]

Good Post.
As you can see on my picture i use Premier with ERA-TAC Mount.
S&B actually is not my favorit.
Maybe the profesionell Opticts from Zeiss (Hensoldt).

Michael

[Nicholas]

Got to play with the New 3.5-25x Heinzholdt two days ago, no I can't spell it but it is really cool. Too heavy and needs a bit of streamlining but they are on the right path.

[ShadowPeo]

Personally I use S&B PMII's on all my "precision" rifles or rather will as I still have one to purchase, and one is currently being rebuilt, although it has its scope already. All of them are P4 Fine reticules, that way I achieve maximum consistency between all three rifles allowing for the easiest change between all three, two are similar in handling, one is however completely different in handling due to its design

[Nicholas]

S&B 3-20x PMII is personally my favorite optic, however the skyrocketing prices and poor delivery times has soured my taste for S&B unfortunately.

[ShadowPeo]

I use the 5-25x56 Myself

[Archaos]

Yes the wait on PMII is a long one, only been 4 months waiting on mine. I also went P4 fine, I guess the wait on the tan ceramic coated one is longer than the standard.

[Nicholas]

I do hope that a us scope company gets with the program and makes a comparable scope at a resonance price. Vortex or Nightforce have potential to do it. Leupold is doing some neat stuff but they are up in the night on their pricing.

Also has anyone else notices that when you adjust the parallex knob on the NXS scopes that the crosshairs moves? Don't believe me, put a bore scope on your gun and it will anger you because it moves several moa through the adjustment range.

[ShadowPeo]

What annoys me about the Nightforce more is its an Australian brand, and yet I can still get it cheaper importing it and paying all the taxes that go with it, than I can buy it for here.

Interesting that the delay time has gone up so much I got my last one only 12 months ago and it was here within a week.

[sib1948]

Will be ordering my DTA Covert SRS 308 later this month. Presently shooting RW Snyder Rem 700 308 with March F 3-24 42mm, which has worked in 500 yd 60 shot prone matches. Plan to pick up an Aadmount 20 MOA 30mm mount for the SRS. They seem rock solid. Since I want the A1 chassis, I suspect I'll be waiting several months to get it, which will makes it's arrival more sweet. Ordering through Eurooptics.