Riflescope Suggestion thread

IMO you can't go wrong with Leupold..

ETA- I'm 80% Leupold on my rifles. Always had good luck with them and on one very uncommon issue they replaced and upgraded me.

What's your priorities? Glass? Reliability?

Now that I have one, I really like the SWFA 3-15x42. It's bombproof, good enough glass, great reticle, and enough scope to do whatever kind of long range shooting you might ever dream of. Can be had on sale for ~$600. The 3-9HD is supposedly even better but they're never in stock.

If you plan on doing long range stuff, you should read the scope evaluations on rokslide. There are a lot of scopes out there that don't track reliably.

Trijicon and Nightforce also get really high praises over there. Between those two and SWFA they span from $400 to $3200.

I have 2 Leupold VX5 hd 3-15x44

it's the perfect hunting scope in my opinion. No reason to put a 50mm on a hunting gun.

The VX6 HDS 3-18x44 would be great as well, I don't see the point to go to an 18x hunting in the south.

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i enjoy the ability to zoom in. get better looks at horns or what not.

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this, I regularly take deer at 200+ on Tensas turn rows and like counting the cockleburs stuck in the scrotum hair.

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the 44 vs 50.... does the 50mm allow more light in low light conditions?

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Everything else being equal, yes. The bigger objective is always going to transmit more light. At a certain point your eye can't take advantage of it, tube diameter starts to be a limiting factor, etc. I dont know the full science behind it, but I know I can perceive a difference between a 50mm 3-10 VX3 and a 40mm 3-10 vx3.

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no way am I paying $2K for a SFP Leupold.

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If the OP has any thought of shooting long range in the future I would stay away from SFP.

Second the post on not needing a 50mm. My 257 WBY is sighted 3” high at 100 yards, and I can hold on the body at 400 yards. No need for turrets or busy reticles. You can do something similar with your .30-06, but won’t be quite as flat.
Leupold
Ziess
Trujicon

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what i struggle to understand is why ffp is better or advantageous etc. all the scope stuff starts to get very difficult to understand.

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If you’re shooting in competition a FFP will make the reticle the same MOA/MRAD regardless of the power the scope is on.
Meaning a 1 MOA/MRAD on the reticle at 3x will be the same at 10x
This is only for competition Christmas tree reticle.
To further explain it

My long range rifle. If I’m shooting at 600yds I come up 3.5 mrad. The FFP will always be 3.5 regardless of the power

With SFP the numbers change based on the power.

At 600yds 3x you’d come up let’s say 3.5 mrad. At 15x it would be 1.5 mrad.


That is only using the reticle and not the turret.

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differences between ffp and sfp

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pretty simple.

With SFP (second focal plane) the markings in the reticle vary depending on the power (zoom). So if the scope is on 5x the markings are different than if the scope is on 25x or 6x.

With FFP (first focal plane) the markings in the reticle do not vary with power (zoom). So if you are at 5x or 25x the reticle is the same.

You can tell if the scope if FFP by looking through the scope and if reticle changes (zooms in and out) when adjusting the zoom its FFP. On a SFP the reticle will not change when you adjust the zoom.

You can’t go wrong with a vx6 leupold they’re a great scope. Great customer service. The cds dial is awesome. Don’t over look trijicon, I have a tenmile that i also like just as much . I own one of each .