Scope Advice....

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Bump to the top. Kind of figured it out. Now stuck between the SHV F1 and the SS FF 3-15x42
 
I absolutely love my SHV F1. Using it on my Clarence Hammonds build 260 R700 I took a black bear at 200 yards, 846 bull moose at 350, and a 246 pound whitetail at 450 yards, all in the last minutes of legal shooting light.

I feel that unless you are doing some kind of crazy extreme long range shooting, or getting paid to shoot, it will excel at everything a hunter, recreational long range shooter can possibly do. Low light clarity is great, and even at dusk hunting yotes I can crank it down to 4 power and turn the center illumination on and it becomes an extremely quick scope.

I've taken that rifle/scope combo out to 1150 yards with absolutely no drama. Had an easier time spotting my hits than my father did with his Burris XTR II 5-25. The glass more than makes up for any shortage of magnification people complain about with the F1 model.

Buy with confidence.
 
I would take a look at the 2.5-25 or even the 5-50 March scopes. I have a fixed 50 a 10-60 and an 8-80 and they are very good scopes. Out of numerous nightforce from 12-42br 12-42nxs and 15-55 comps that have shot loose over the years knock on wood the only March that has been sent back was because a rifle was blown off a bench in high wind and bent the tube.
 
I don't have the link handy, but someone over at sniper's hide did a great breakdown on selecting optics. Pretty sure it's a sticky on the optics thread. Might be academic at this point, but you never know.
 
Bump to the top. Kind of figured it out. Now stuck between the SHV F1 and the SS FF 3-15x42

If I were in your shoes, I would go to a Cabelas and check the SHV out. They are right in your price point. If you like it, buy one and try it out. It will be an easy scope to sell, if it doesn't meet your needs. Probably much easier to sell than the SS. I think the new SHV with the open turret would be nice.
 
That light testing is quite interesting. I will try to do that sometime.

In the woods 131 yards from my porch are some deer antlers with three points on each side. I use these for low light testing. I laid out a Swarovski z5 5-25X52, Leupold VX-6 4-24X52, and a Bushnell 6500 4 1/2-30X50. After the sun set I started looking at the antlers through each scope. Back and forth, back and forth. When I could still see the main beam of the antlers, but could not resolve the big tine I called time. All three went down at the same time.

I have done this with lots of brands and these three are tops in hunting weight scopes. Nightforce scopes always beat these. Maybe it's because of the 56mm objective, but I don't think so. I bought a Minox 5-25X56 thinking it would smoke the others. It wasn't even close in low light or bright light.
 
That light testing is quite interesting. I will try to do that sometime.

In the woods 131 yards from my porch are some deer antlers with three points on each side. I use these for low light testing. I laid out a Swarovski z5 5-25X52, Leupold VX-6 4-24X52, and a Bushnell 6500 4 1/2-30X50. After the sun set I started looking at the antlers through each scope. Back and forth, back and forth. When I could still see the main beam of the antlers, but could not resolve the big tine I called time. All three went down at the same time.

I have done this with lots of brands and these three are tops in hunting weight scopes. Nightforce scopes always beat these. Maybe it's because of the 56mm objective, but I don't think so. I bought a Minox 5-25X56 thinking it would smoke the others. It wasn't even close in low light or bright light.
I certainly do not have the experience of Mr.Coyle with optics it or if go off this article:http://www.outdoorlife.com/articles...-14-new-riflescopes-reviewed-ranked-and-rated
And compared to a Leopold Vx6 at the range ,I like the Minox zx5x25x56 mm .more and I got my best group so far with my old Remington 700 in 300 Weatherby.
Thinly thing i don't like is the super fine reticle so if you do decide to try one ,make sure it has the lights reticle .It has the wisest fov and eye relief when cranked up.
Again though optics are very subjective to different eyes.
The other issue I have while assembled in Germany, the glass is Japanese but it's the best scope I could afford to get and so far I am more than happy.
 
Ok this is a thread that has been posted 8 million times, but I'm asking anyway. I'm rifle rich and scope poor. I'm tired of messing around with budget optics and want toughness and reliability in turrets. #1 priority is tracking reliability/repeatibility, #2 toughness, #3 glass quality.

Here's what I've got:

Remington 700 semi custom .243
Remington 700 semi custom .260
Savage 110 semi custom .308
Remington 700 semi custom .338 Lapua

Semi custom is the works, HS precision stocks, full blue print, shilen barrels, etcs. I need 4 scopes for these rifles. Primary use will be long range steel busting, hunting, and PRS. There are an overwhelming amount of scope options and every option I have researched has positives and negatives which only confuses me more. This is what I've narrowed it down to:

SWFA 3x15x42mm FFP MOA
Nightforce SHV 4x14x50 FFP MOA
Viper Vortex (not sure on model, just need FFP MOA)
Luepold VX3I LRP 4x16x50mm FFP MOA

These 4 options with my mil discount keep them right around $600-$800 for each scope. I want to keep all the scopes the same for each rifle for famaliraty purposes.

So after my long rant which scope would you choose and why???? Thanks for the help and I love this forum.

I thought you were done with budget optics? everything you listed is a budget optic to someone else.
Personally, I'm ok with these scopes for everyday purpose. They work, i just thought id get you mind working. If you are unsure about the difference between a Vortex PST 5-20 mil/mil ebr whatever, and a schmit and bender pm2 you need to look more into it.
They all have their pros and cons, a lot of it should fit what you are doing. For instances have you looked at how many mils or moa of adjustment total that each scopes have? whats your max ranges are you shooting, are you using a 20 or 30 moa base? will you have enough ups to make it to where you are shooting. I'm not a PRS competitor, but i do have a background for as they say "tactical shooting" that might be more of durability, light and color, ability to have a ranging reticle as an option and of course tracking. For hunting, i use the same qualities from what im use to, with tactical rifles, because...im use it it. However for target shooting a lot of guys like more magnification. Its not necessary, and can throw your poi off as the reticle gets bigger and increases in moa in the scope, depending on how you zero. Sometimes when shooting a smaller target and ridiculous distances the reticle being 1 moa now, covers that target that is 2 moa in radius, so you can probably to that math of potential error with the reticle alone. Some people like a busy reticle, like the horus type reticle, some like old traditional mildot, some like some of the crazy proprietary reticles that you have to learn.
Basicly, despite what a bunch of people are about to tell you, based on whatever it is they do... the right, cartridge, rifle, setup, scope etc, is all you. what matches what you do and how you do it, the accessories you are willing to have or not have etc.
 
Hello everyone! I would be interested in what you think would be better for European night hunting Nightforce shv or Leupold vx-6HD?
 
I would lean in the direction of quality over quantity and acquire two good scopes for the two most capable rifles to be used for hunting and PRS. To be competitive in serious PRS you will do best with a good FFP, 5x25, (probably a MIL based scope). A top quality scope is required due to the very heavy usage of the turrets, parallax, power ring, and optical demands of the sport. For hunting use, the power range will depend on your particular range requirents, but an SFP with a max power of 15-20x or so will work well and have a lower cost. Either scope could be used effectively for LR steel or hunting. There are quite a few good scopes available. The Sig Whiskey lone looks intriguing but are not yet proven out. The Vortex high end scopes(Razor/AMG) are good but are priced like the NF. . Nightforce scopes are well proven, hold their value, and rarely, if ever, break. Given your military discount, and going with two scopes instead of four, I would lean towards a NF 5x25 ATACR F1(PRS/steel),and a NF NXS 5.5x22(hunting/steel)...... but that's just me....
 
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