Rifle Scopes
Choosing a rifle scope can be down right frustrating. With prices starting under $50 and exceeding $2000 where do you begin?
Your budget of course. But should you really "Buy as much scope as you can afford ?"
Speaking only from my point of view, I would much rather have 2 rifles and 2 cheap scopes than 1 rifle and 1 expensive scope. And to that end, that's pretty much the way it plays out for me. Sure I have more rifles than I need, but needing and wanting are two different things.
I am convinced the number 1 problem with scopes is the shooter. Owning a gun shop I have heard everything from "this gun is defective" to "this scope is junk". But when you start pushing to get answers you discover things like the "testing" was done freehand while standing or only 1 type/brand or ammo was tried.
I've seen scopes literally rattling in the mounts, mounted un-level, mounted with the windage screw on top you name it.
THE SCOPE MUST BE PROPERLY MOUNTED !
That means:
Recently I sighted in a rifle for my brother. I burned up 10 rounds to get the job done. For me that is unusual. 99% of the time I can get in done in 4 or 5 shots at the most. The problem was two fold. The sun was in my face and I could not find my shots in the plain brown cardboard backer that I was using. So I moved in close, like 35 yards and fired a shot from as solid a rest as I could come up with. Of course the scope was off but I had no clue which direction until I moved in close. Then "off" at a short distance is a bunch at a long distance. My last 2 shots were an inch apart at just over 100 yards.
It wasn't the scope, it wasn't the gun, it wasn't the ammo it was me. I COULD NOT SEE WHERE THE BULLET WAS GOING ! Once I resolved that question the rest of it was a piece of cake.
In this situation the scope quality had nothing to do with it. With the sun in my face any scope would have been impossible.
Last Modified: January 3, 2012