Rifle Scopes and Other Optics
Bill Wade 2011
I obtained my first rifle scope in 1975. It was a Bushnell 4x20 Rimfire scope.
Since that time, I have owned Bushnell, Bausch & Lomb, Simmons, Tasco, NC Star and Leupold.
I have peered through Nikon and other fine brands. I have read, studied and listened to others in lengthy articles and discussions on the topic. I've shot prairie dogs out to 400 yards, deer out to 300 yards and coyotes to 150 yards.
I still have no solid conclusions save a couple of personal preferences in scope options.
What has become obvious to me is that a good percentage of what I have read, seen and heard over the years is not based on fact but instead based on opinion. Opinions are not a bad thing but they are hard to quantify.
While nobody can dispute facts about things like: Light transmission, exit pupil and parallax, many other aspects become a gray areas.
Owning a gun shop affords me the opportunity to hear about amazing 600 yard shots, rifles that flat will not shoot, shooters that flat can't shoot and so much more. I have shot many rifles, not as many as the next guy but more than the last.
Rifles shoot, period. Sure some of them might have minor issues but for the average shooter, I would be comfortable saying most rifles are capable of shooting better than the shooter is capable of.
So when I hear "my rifle won't group" I am always suspect of everything except the rifle. There absolutely are too many variables to arrive at that conclusion without eliminating as many of the variables as possible first. And 95% of the time that has not been done.
There is no "perfect scope". It's not out there. If it was, they would have the corner on the market and all testing, research, branding, marketing and opinions would be worthless.
"Buy as much scope as you can afford", heard and read it a hundred times. While this has some merit, it's no guarantee that you'll shoot any better.
Deer season 2009 was an eye opener for me. On one sunny afternoon I packed 2 rifles to the stand with me. One sporting a new NC Star 3-9X40 with illuminated reticle and one sporting a 6-18x40 Simmons ProHunter.
Sitting in the deer stand, I spun south to shoot a deer and the sun was hitting me in my right eye as I tried to look into the scope. I got the job done on the 1st of 2 deer. The second deer ran slightly up hill and stopped. I completely missed her.
Cussing the scope when it was over, positive that it had been all or at least the biggest part of the problem. Minutes later a shot to the north presented itself. Looking into the scope, the sun was now coming over my right shoulder from behind and hitting the eyepiece then bouncing back into my glasses. Terrific ! Didn't make that shot either but I'm blaming distance for this one. I had mis-judged the distance and the bullet just didn't get there. My bad.
2 different scopes, $150 of dollars apart. So which of those 2 scopes is the better scope? Killed the deer while using the less expensive NC Star. Couldn't see any better with the more expensive Simmons.
I'm betting that either situation would have turned out the same way even if my scope had cost several hundred dollars. On the first pair of deer, I could not keep the sun off my eyeball. On the second shot minutes later, I couldn't keep the sun off my eyepiece.
I mentioned using a new NC Star scope. Let me back up just a little. NC Star contacted me encouraging me to try their products. In a nut shell, my response was, “I’ve seen your product advertised for sale on the web and have seen it at gun shows. I find it hard to believe that it is any more than the worst product out there.” “It’s cheap, it’s made in China and everyone sells a cheap Chinese scope, what’s the big deal?”
And I truly have to give the saleman credit here. He remained calm cool and collected and explained that “Our company does not spend millions on advertising. We own the plant in China and for these reasons we can sell them at incredibly low prices affording you great profit margins”.
Yea, OK I’m from Missouri. “Let me think about it and get back with you”.
Ummmmmmmmm NO
Again a couple of weeks later, the salesman checked in with me to see if I had looked their catalog over and if I had any questions. “Yes, I looked, No I don’t have any questions.”
He fires right back “so can we get you set up as a dealer and get some product out to you?”
All that came to my mind was the old Lori Morgan song “What Part of NO Don’t You Understand?”
This went on for probably 2 months and I finally caved in and had them send me 2 scopes. The scopes arrived promptly and I opened them up to have a look at them. Well, they don’t look hideous. So I look through one of them. Huh, well the sight picture looks pretty good. So I turn on the eluminated reticle, kinda cool.
OK, gotta find something to hate so I can say “told you so”. The objective lense coating shines like a headlight and it looks like Bobby and Billy made the scope rings in shop class at high school.
However, the actual product that I am concerned with, the scope itself, actually kind of impressed me. Now the salesman is encouraging me to purchase a cluster of them to get started as a "dealer". So before I would return his phone call, I stuck one of his scopes in the freezer for 30 minutes. I don't really know what this proves but it sounded like a good idea. I expected it to fog up and condensate all over the lenses when I brought it out of the freezer and into a 70 degree room. It didn't happen. No fog, no water.
OK short of bouncing the scope off the wall I was out of "testing ideas." I put price tags on them and they sold instantly.
Well, alrighty then, send me some more of this disgusting Chinese product. Price tags on, out the door they go.
OK can’t keep doing this. I mount one on my little Ruger Compact in 243. Sight it in, shoot a nice little group, kill a deer with it.
Between rationalizing the sale of NC Star products in my shop and some other pointed optics questions of my own, I start reading and writing and here we are.
Question
Why would I pay hundreds for a scope when a less expensive one performs?
I stumbled into a show on the history channel about camera lenses. It was very interesting and informative. In summary, it takes many many steps and weeks to make a perfect lens. Now granted they make many lenses at one time but each lens is "worked up" by human hands. So I'm thinking the "expensive scopes" might be made in the same manner.
That explains some of the difference in price but it doesn't answer the question.
I'm not attempting to take award winning photos I'm shooting targets and game.
When I truly got into rifle shooting I could not afford expensive scopes. Then as my love for rifles grew, I decided I would rather have 2 rifles with "cheap scopes" than 1 rifle with an expensive scope. Ironically, I still feel the same way. One of my favorite rifles is a 60's model 700 in 243. It wears an 80's model Simmons Pro Hunter. Last tally put deer killed with this combo somewhere over 20. In fact opening day of the 2010 season I dropped a 9 pointer in his tracks at 100 plus yards. Nah, your right 100 yards is nothing, guess you had to be there. It was kind of like "holy crap, click, bang, drop" and took you longer to read this sentence.
It seems to me that the old Simmons scope has no issues with light transmission, target acquisition or holding zero. I bought the scope used in 1993 for $125. I used this same set up to take a doe in the last minutes of daylight in 1998 at 300 plus yards.
I wrote about a Simmons Aetec in this article but long story short, the original "Aetec" series scopes were built in the Phillipines and current models are built in China. No longer the same scope, no longer the same quality but basically the same price.
When I discovered that the Aetec had become something I was no longer interested in I began searching for older model Simmons Pro Hunter scopes. The older "Pro Hunter" series scopes are made in the Phillipines and they are in my opinion, great scopes. They made among others a 4-12X40 and a 6-18X40 both with adjustable objectives. These can be found used in the $50 to $100 range.
There really is no end to this topic so I will stop here by asking again.
Why would I pay hundreds for a scope when a less expensive one performs?
