Scope help.........

[bryguy]

New guy here, been hunting for years. I am getting ready to put a long range hunting rig together. Always just shot plain jane off the shelf regular rifles. Am looking at a 700 snedero in 7mm Rem mag and 160 pills. Looking at scopes and am a bit overwhelmed. My main focus will be hunting, so need a good scope for that. budget is between 1K and 1.5K. Looked at the Zeiss duralyts, Tijicons, and Leupolds. I have several conquests and like them, and I also have Leupolds and Nikons. Have read tons of stuff, but really am kind of lost now...I want a quality scope, but have no idea where to start.

[Tikkamike]

Do you want to hold over or dial for elevation?

[Greyfox]

Your rifle and caliber will enable 1000 yard hunting capability. Base capability for a scope that balances well with your choice of rifle/caliber would be:
5x20 power range
Side parallax adjustment
Turrets/ 30mm tube for sufficient elevation range
A crosshair that includes a MOA horizontal graduations for windage holds, vertical graduations will be determined by whether you want to use reticule holds with a calibrated reticle.

Some decision points will be:
Use of turrets or Reticle holds for elevation adjustment at distance.
If turrets, choice of MOA or yardage,

Your budget is suffucient to get a solid scope. Don't think you could go wrong with a Nightforce NXS, Leupold MK4, or Huskemaw, just to name a few. I have used all three with good success. It is at the high end or may cost a little more than your budget, but the Nightforce NXS 5.5x22 with an MOA reticle is probably the standard by which most scopes are judged for LRH.

[bruce_ventura]

What type of hunting will you do with this rifle? What max range will you be hunting?

[bryguy]

Main purpose will be eastern nc deer, with black bear on occasion. I prefer spinning turrets to holdover recticles. I have the leupold B&C and the Nilon BDC and they seem to busy. One of the conquest I have has a mil dot, and I like that reticle. Ranges will be inside 700 yds. We shoot out to 500 now on our range and I think we can stretch it to over 1k. As to MOA vs inch, whatever is easiest to use.