Tactical/practical hunting scope opinions...

I'm getting ready to put together a tactical style rifle in .260 Rem, but it will also be my only scoped centerfire rifle now. Mostly just deer and pig hunting. Which of these two scopes would you go with? I'm open to suggestions for others that are $400 or less as well.

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct...tnumber=273033

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct...tNumber=928807

I was looking at this Weaver really hard, but I don't like the 1/8moa adjustments.

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct...tNumber=874924

Get the Viper Vortex with the 50mm lens:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct...tNumber=722509

I have one on my varminter and it is fantastic!

[img width=600 height=168]http://webpages.charter.net/hotbrass/ar-varminter.jpg[/img]

Unfortunately, $500 is out of my budget. I have had good experiences with Leupold(Overpriced IMO), Bushnell 3200 and lately Nikon buckmasters 4.5-14 mil-dot which I thought was good for the price but I didn't like the 2 piece glued together tube. I have no experience with Vortex, Weaver or the other brand I was looking at, Swift. Swift SEEMS like it could be sorta like the Nikon buckmasters, good for the price but a little on the cheesy side?

Go to www.swfa.com there are many scopes in your price range you'll be dizzy by the time you are done going through them. While there take a look at the sample list lots of demos and trade ins at reduced prices, you could probably pick up a lot more scope for the money going this route.

Hotbrass....what brand of can is that?

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Originally Posted by sharpshooter

Hotbrass....what brand of can is that?

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CHEAP!
TAC-16
Works great!

Tell me more.......where,how much...

Look at Hawke, Mueller and Falcon as well. Those are all decent scopes for the money.

While you are looking for a tactical scope try to get one with the same adjustments as the reticle like MIL/MIL or MOA/MOA. It makes everything easier when it comes to making adjustments. If you have a MIL reticle and MOA turrets or the other way around you will have to do some math to convert. They make scopes with .1 mil turrets, it isn't quite as fine as 1/4 MOA turrets but calculations are a lot easier. It is all a trade off. You could also make a drop chart with your turret adjustments in MOA. That is what I did in the begining, now I use the mildot reticle for everything, ranging as well as hold over and it works well for me. I have my drop chart in MIL's so I don't have to make any turret changes.

Using MIL for ranging is very easy. It gives you the distance in the same value as the input. IE, target height in yards=target distance in yards or target height in feet=target distance in feet or target height in meters=target distance in meters.

Most calculations can be done in your head.

The formula is height multiplied by 1000 divided by the height in mils in the scope equals the distance.
Example a 2 meter tall man multiplied by 1000 is 2000 meters. Divide this by the mildots in the scope, say 5. 2000 divided by 5 is 400 so 400 is the distance in meters. It works exactly the same with yards, feet or whatever, input is the same as output.

Sharpshooter,
Here is the link to the Tac-16 suppressor.
http://www.tacticalinc.com/223-ar15m16-c-21_25.html
I have thought about buying one myself because it can be taken apart for cleaning. Because of this you can use it for rimfire as well a 223. Rimfires tend to clog up with lead rather quickly unless you stay on top of cleaning and having a can that can be disassembled makes it easier to stay on top of cleaning.

If you wanted you could probably make you own with the shop equipment you have. Suppressors are relatively simple and can be made legally as long as your state allows them. All it costs is $200 stamp on an approved Form 1. Even simple designs can be very effective but it is the more elaborate designs that tend to squeeze the last little bit of suppression out of the can.

The following states allow private ownership of suppressors: AL, AR, AK, AZ, CO, CT, FL, GA, ID, IN, KY, LA, ME, MD, MS, MT, NE, NV, NH, NM, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, and WY.

Dolomite

Probably a good idea to do a bit more research and find out where those mildot scopes range at.

Weaver not sure, but probably 8-10x.

Muellers all range at 8x.
Nikons all range at the highest power up to 12x, then above that all at 12X.
I think bushnells range at 10X but I am not 100% on that.
Not sure about Vortex.
Sightron has a few scopes that range at the highest power, like 24 or 36X.

IMO, ideally for hunting you want a FFP scope with mil adjustments, but as you zoom in
the retical gets too big for target.

For your application, I think a 3-12X, mil/mil scope that ranges at 12X, and has a milhashII etched retical would be good.
I don't think there is a top scope in your price range like that though.

Milhash II is really nice for holdover and doesn't cover so much of the target.

I've done a fair amount of reading at demigod and longrange shooting.com as well and I've been varmint hunting for almost 10 years so I'm not totally in the dark about scopes. If budget wasn't an issue, then of course I would get a US optics or a nightforce or maybe one of the nice Vortex BUT with my current situation budget is a reality and I'm gonna have to make do. That means no FFP reticles or mil/mil moa/moa scopes for me :-[ I've really narrowed it down to those first two I posted. The Bushnell elite 3200 5-15 tactical or the Vortex Viper. One is $390 and the other is $400.....hmmmm

Well for what it's worth, i had the 3200 tactical and it's a good scope, however i found that for me the tact knobs weren't what i wanted. I ended up with the simmons whitetail classic in 6.5-20x50ao wide angle. It's on a 308 12fvss that i will use for long range, the best group to date is 6 rds at 200yds, (my zero) in 1.029x.789 inchs. I know that the word simmons brings up the thought of junk, but you might want to look through this one before you say no.

Midway has them on sale at $109.95. I plan to use this rifle out to 600yd+, and so far the scope has worked out to 400yd without any problems. In fact i liked it enough that i ordered two more, one will be going on my model 11 .243. blue

Thought about a Pentax Gameseeker with the PP (Penta Plex) reticle? Has lines in the scope...just sent the scope at max variable power and build your drop chart on that power and lines.

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Originally Posted by sharpshooter

Tell me more.......where,how much...

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Tactical Innovations at tacticalinc.com, I think. I am at work so I cannot look it up.

Dealers discount them so if you can find a local stocking dealer it will probably be about $50-$100 less.

The Vortex Viper looks decent.
Never used one though, but as you I am also looking for a new scope in the 4-16X + area.

It ranges at 14X which is decent.

I ordered the Bushnell elite 3200 tactical 5-15 from amazon.com. They had killer pricing and Ive been reading pretty good reviews for this scope. I almost went with the Viper vortex 6.5-20, but it would have been about $100 more all said and done. The Vortex viper doesn't have tactical scope turrets either.

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Originally Posted by dolomite_supafly

The following states allow private ownership of suppressors: AL, AR, AK, AZ, CO, CT, FL, GA, ID, IN, KY, LA, ME, MD, MS, MT, NE, NV, NH, NM, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, and WY.

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you can add Ks to that list

Not 100% positive, but I think ND should be on there too.

I grabbed the list from a google search. Probably an outdated list.

Thanks for the corrections

Dolomite

I am facing the same problem as far as picking a scope.

www.cdnninvestments.com has great pricing on a couple of scope "groups" you might want to take a look at; high end Kahles Helia CL 3-10x50 Scope w/Plex Reticle & MultiZero™(highly rated for light transmission) $629.99 & low end Simmons Aetec 4-14x44 Black Illuminated Truplex Reticle Scope (SF) $169.99. Vortex Vipers (30mm) and Nikon Monarchs are some others I've been looking at. I believe one of our sponsors has Vortex.

Pretty happy with the Bushnell 3200 elite sitting in the box at least. Waiting on the rifle it will be mounted on. It only has 45 moa of elevation, but with a 10 moa base it should be plenty for a .243. It came with a sun-shade wich was a really nice kicker instead of charging me $30 more for one.

My go to rifle for pest control problems is my savage model 10 flp .223. The scope on it is a Millet BuckGold 4-16x56. I like the low end of the power for hunting purposes or pest control purposes, (whichever I need to use the gun for) and higher end of the power spectrum for target shooting. Generally speacking, there are great scopes for hunting and great scopes for target shooting, but your going to face some trade-offs in finding the median between the two. Excellent long range target scopes usually have a higher power range say 10-50, but thats way too high for most hunting applications. A good hunting scope on the other hand, will have a power like 2.5-10 or 3-9 and while these work great for hunting applications, not so great for long range shooting. If it were me, I would go with the Vortex. I've found the side focus makes quick shots in the brush easier and long range shots a breeze without having to reach to the front of the scope. Just my opinion.

Give Swift Optics a look. They've a new 12X tactical scope in the $300 range. Boasts 30mm tube, mil dot reticle, target turrets, side mount focus, and offer their own rings. Only mfg I know with lifetime over counter replacement guarantee. Good customer service too. I plan to set one on a DPMS Sweet Sixteen (my third Swift) Have a Swift 6-18X44 on my 10 fp 308 (11 years now) and wouldnt trade it for any other. Very good scopes at great price.

This is the original thread starter, I already bought a scope. I appreciate all the input. As I stated before, I went with the Bushnell 3200 Elite 5-15 tactical. Still waiting on my new rifle to mount it on, but it seems really nice for the price so far.