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Scope suggestions

H

heymax

Copper BB
Most of my shots are 50 to 75 yards with possibilities of up to 400 yards. I need a new scope without breaking the bank.

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Hello and good morning, welcome to Mossberg Owners!

Without breaking the bank can be subjective. What caliber are you shooting and how's your eyesight?

I use a 3-9x40 which is fine for a lot of people. Some folks can make 100 yard shots without magnification but that's not me. 200 yards with what I have is tricky. I have a Redfield Revolution that usually retails for about $180 but there are similar scopes like the Nikon Buckmaster for about $150 and certainly there are others with lower magnification for less or you can go the other way and for around $200 get a similar scope in the 3-9x40 range with some more features like a Nikon BDC.
 
I have a 7mm-08 shooting 139 grain to 140 grain bullets. As far as breaking the bank, I dont want to spend more than 350.00. I'm not the type to put a 1000.00 scope on a 300.00 gun. This was my first year hunting with this gun and I had put one of my old BSA scopes on it that cost me a whopping 27.00 through Sportsmansguide. 3-9-50. I shot 3 deer. That scope has seen its day and I would like to upgrade considerably. I have a Nikon Slughunter on my Slug gun and a Bushnell Trophy XLT on my muzzleloader. I attempted to put a Trophy XLT DOA 600 for Centerfire rifles on the 7mm-08 but was told by Bushnell that the BDC wouldn't work with that light of a bullet and with the speed.

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I'm not a big fan of BSA optics.

With that said, Simmons has a $20 rebate going on through 2/1/17 I think.

Nikon makes really good scopes starting around $140.

I also like Bushnell optics. I have many bushnell scopes. I can't say for certain, but I believe that Santa may have left a Bushnell 1-4 shotgun scope under my Christmas tree right now that I plan to use on my blackout next deer season ;)

As for the BDC reticles, most none of those are very good on any brand unless you're using the same bullets and bullet weight and whatever that they used when they were designing the scope. That's the catch with most of those that they don't mention in any of their ads.

But you can always make your own dope chart or cheat sheet sending out live fire at varying distances to see where they land. That's actually what I recommend doing anyway regardless of which scope you bought.
 
Nikon and Leopold will custom etch turrets if you send them all your specific load data. Matching BDC'S is tough. Even for higher end scopes. Primary Arms has good quality scopes, at very reasonable prices. And I feel they put more R&D into they're BDC than some others. You may be able to find a used Vortex mil dot reticle in your price range, and with some practice learn the holdovers. With that being said, no mil dot, or BDC scope will be accurate without proper range estimation.
 
The Redfield scope I have uses their "accurange" reticle. It's supposed to function like a BDC reticle but looking over the provided info it's supposed to work with certain weight projectiles of certain calibers.

The work around for me was to contact Redfield and get the distance between each hold point in MOA. Then with some help from @Water Monkey (ok he actually did the work) I got a dope card made up and was able to figure the correlation between the scopes hold points and actual distance for each. Theoretically.
 
I have always been a fan of Bushnell. Good optics that do not break the bank.

Vortex are also great and can frequently be found on sale.

Nikon and Leupold are also solid choices but will typically cost a little more. The older vx1 Leupolds are still great scopes and can be found a lot cheaper than the later vx?? Models.

As far as magnification, people tend to over do it. I usually bought 3-9's but find I rarely use anything but 4 unless it is doubling as a spotting scope. Even out to 300+ yards a 4x is more than sufficient for most people. Your indivdual eyes will dictate that. I've been tending to buy lower power optics for my hunting guns. Either fixed 4x or 1.5-4 or similar.
 
I have a Vortex Diamondback AO 4-12 on my Patriot 308......and a Vortex Diamondback HP 2-8 on my Marlin JM 45-70 and a Burris FF2 2-7 on my Marlin 336 30-30. I really like Vortex quality/price and service.....lifetime warrantee like Leupold.
 
heymax said:
. . , I dont want to spend more than 350.00. I'm not the type to put a 1000.00 scope on a 300.00 gun. . . .
Click to expand...

Personally, I would say that depends on whether or not it's a very good $300 gun. It's not about how much it costs. It's how far this thing will shoot accurately.

It also has a lot to do with your eyesight. I spend more on the Optics than the rifles, because my eyesight requires it. If yours are 20-20, you're going to shoot better than I do no matter what cheap scope you choose.

I like the Leupold VX series Scopes and also the vortex Diamondback and Viper scopes. I also have a Leupold AR Mod1 rifle scope and Ventana spotting scope and I like them both very much for the price.

IMHO There is no sin in owning a $300 rifle. If you spent $300 on the rifle and $700 on ammunition and practiced with it you would be much better off than had you bought a $900 rifle and $100 worth of ammunition and got very little practice.
 
If you're willing to break the bank. I'd go Leupold gold ringtone. American made. Great warranty. If your looking for best bang for the buck with awesome warranty. Hard to beat Vortex. Unbeatable warranty. Only negative is foreign made. Very happy with the Vortex I got.

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I like my Diamondback scope a lot & optically they are about equal to the Leupold gold ring, as far as I can tell. But then my eyesight stinks.

I also own a late-model Tasco, a Simmons, and a Redfield, they all cost around $50, and I would consider them only if you are so desperate this is all you could afford until you can save up the money for a good scope.

This is a shame because I have Tasco scope and Redfield Scope from the sixties and they are very good solid models, if not up to all the modern advancements.
 
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I wasn't aware that tasco made firearm optics in the 60's.

I didn't think they started selling gun scopes until well in the 1970's and were first imported from Japan.
 
You may well be right John.

I bought the scope used and the guy I bought it from may have been mistaken.
 
heymax said:
Most of my shots are 50 to 75 yards with possibilities of up to 400 yards. I need a new scope without breaking the bank.

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Click to expand...


Don't laugh. My favorite for those distances is an ancient 1.75x-4.5x Bushnell. Deadly fast and accurate. The current version has 1/4 minute clicks and a better reticle.
 
Well now I'm in the market for a new scope for a Savage 12VLP and I've been shopping online all week. Unfortunately this gun is stainless steel and I think I already bought the last silver Leupold scope in the world. Everywhere I look the silver ones are out of stock.

What this is probably telling me is that I should just buy a black scope and then camouflage the whole rig.
:jester:
Better than this going crazy trying to find another silver one. The one I have is not leaving my Mossberg.
 
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