scope advice

[03mossy]

efm77 - you just said the exact thing i have been thinking for the past year. I will eventually give Vortex a try. What i personally think is going on people are just repeating what they read on another forum or post that have never actually used the warranty themselves. I have no doubt they do have a good warranty but when people say that the warranty is better than Luepolds, who have had the same no questions warranty for years it kinda annoys me.

[efm77]

I know the Crossfire is the bottom line they have and I didn't mean all Vortex's were bad. I was merely stating a thought that's raised to me by hearing it so much all the time. 03mossy you may be right in that a lot of it could be just repetition from others. It is great that they will fix/replace a broken scope free even if it's your fault, but to me that just doesn't make good business sense. Of course maybe there won't be that many doing it but if enough people just purposely did things to their scopes just to get them replaced I could see it hurting the company over time. As I said before, some of their models intrigue me and I will give them a try eventually.

[nsaqam]

My sole Crossfire lost its whole ocular housing.

They fixed it.

[efm77]

I've really been looking at the regular Vipers lately. I'd probably pay what they cost for one, but I'm not forking out what a PST costs. I can't afford that much scope every time and if I'm going to spend that much it will be on an American made (assembled) scope. Just a personal thing. Also, I feel better with the companies that have been around a long time. Vortex says they've been in business since the early 90's IIRC but I'd never seen nor heard of a Vortex until maybe 5 or 6 years ago. I wish them all the success in the world but I'm still a little reserved as to whether or not they'll be around a long time. Sorry for stirring the pot so much.

[Westcliffe01]

Vortex has sold a LOT of the Viper PST scopes in recent years. Depending on when you order, there might be a waiting list. Were talking on $900+ scopes, but not the ridiculous $2500+ leupolds.... I tried a Minnox scope (bad idea), returned it and got a Viper PST (4-16x50 FFP). Great scope. I have it on my Savage 12 and I am looking to set that rifle up as a switch barrel rifle (243, 300WSM when able to use it - not in my part of the state).

I agree that putting good glass on every rifle you own gets very expensive. I usually put a fixed 6x38 Weaver K series scope on my shorter range guns (muzzle loader, 20ga rifled shotgun). That too is a great scope and since it is fixed I can use the reticle features for holdover. I have written Weaver and asked them to put a "proper" mill dot reticle in all of their K series fixed scopes (at least as an option). These scopes are mechanically very simple compared to a variable focus scope and stand up to severe recoil well. My muzzle loader has stayed sighted in all of last season, when I shot a lot trying to figure out the ballistics and do load development. For me 6x is about the best magnification compromise when I know that I don't have a lot of money to spend and still have it work in the field. If your vision is better, it might be 4x or even 3x. But I can't shoot a **** with iron sights or 1x optics, not at distance anyway.

The Super Sniper and other 10x fixed power mill dot scopes have too much magnification for any practical use unless you KNOW that you will be shooting at 50+ yards. I tried one on an AR and had a few close up encounters where the critter was totally out of focus, let alone worry about just seeing blurry fur through the scope... Got rid of it, couldn't be fast enough. I think it was a Bushnell Elite 3200 series...

In addition, I have a few Nikon Monarchs with the side focus. Good glass, very reliable turrets but they have caps over them that have to be removed and then not misplaced. I think I have had my moneys worth for about $350 each (3-12x42 Monarch SF). Right now you can get the M223 version with target turrets for about the same price.

[nsaqam]

Liked my 1.5-8 Minox just fine.
Liked it a bit more than the Zeiss Conquests I've owned.
Optics and reliability are same same but I preferred the aluminum turret caps on the Minox over the plastic ones on the Conquest.

The 3-15 Minox is just a bad idea as that mag range should have an AO or SF.

[87predator]

Thanks for all the info guys. Getting all sorts of opinions. I personally love leupolds, and agree with those of you about the scope being the most important part. I bought this gun for elk hunting but in next year or two i want to build a 7mm rig for that purpose. Won't sell the weatherby will keep it just to have. Just don't really want to put a $1000 scope on a gun i shoot once a year. Keep all the ideas coming!

[Westcliffe01]

You are spot on regarding parallax. My example had awful parallax at 100 yards. I couldn't shoot a group better than 3" and that was with "splitting" the shift on the target to try to aim. It was the first scope to actually give me a headache in less than an hour. Also, when I first mounted it, it had terrible chromatic fringing. The store then told me to release the rings, dial the scope to Max magnification and then re-tighten them. That did resolve this issue, which totally amazed me, but I was concerned about how the scope would fare in drastic temperature swings, since the scope tube is AL and the receiver and rail is steel. When the parallax was added, I had enough.


The 3-15 Minox is just a bad idea as that mag range should have an AO or SF.