Scope for lightweight rifle

Thanks for all the replies.

I do like a full vertical crosshair. In 2006 I took a nice 156" whitetail on the way into my stand. It was on a very foggy, cloudy morning and my binos showed deer in front of me in the bean field I was crossing to get to my stand before light. Some of the deer were headed my way and I had nowhere to hide except to kneel behind the terrace I was near. After a short time the buck I was there for ended up stopping to see what I was at 30yds. I had him in the scope and it was legal shooting time (the first minute of it) but I couldn't see the crosshairs against his body so I put the vertical crosshair behind his shoulder and an equal amount of it above and below him and pulled the trigger. The muzzle flash blinded me as he ran off into the fog and I headed back to my truck to await full daylight so I could check the results of my shot. Once the fog burned off I walked out and found him about 60yds from where I shot him hit perfect with the 180gr Accubond. Anyway, I do want a full length vertical crosshair after that experience, it came in handy once upon a time.

I like the look and idea of the new Vortex scopes, thanks for bringing them to my attention. I think I'll probably buy something else though looking at the reticle choices. I checked the weight on the Zeiss, looks like it's heavier than the Swaro or Leupold. After stewing on it all day and reading this I'm actually kinda leaning toward stealing the Swaro off my 204 AR I predator hunt with for the Kimber and buying a VX-6 to put on it. I have another 30mm Burris PEPR I already, it would save some money and work just as good.

For what it's worth I've had the Swaro Z5 3.5-18x44 and the Leupold VX-6 3-18x44 side by side in a lot of conditions including low light. I can't really tell a darn bit of difference between them, both are excellent scopes. I realize the Leupold has a 30mm tube and therefore an advantage, but the Swaro is the more expensive of the two. Can't go wrong with either I don't think. The 264 win mag I whitetail hunt with has a Leupold VX-6 3-18x50 and I took my buck this fall, a 6yr old 10pt scored 152", in the last minute of legal light with it at 300yds. It was very warm during gun season this year and daylight movement was very limited. The thing I notice about scopes of this quality is that you can still see on higher powers, up to 8 or 10x, as it gets dark. The 10yr old VXIII 4.5-14x40's these replaced you couldn't use anything but 4.5x early or late. Optics have come a long way.
 
Hey mcseal2,

I love my Sightron SII Big Sky 4x16x42 Mildot scope.

It weighs 16.6 ozs, has 80 MOA of vertical adjustment and has held up to the rigors of a 300wm recoil with no problems for 6 years now.
The scope has a fog-proof coating to allow you to see through the scope even when your hot face steams up the lens.
I have no problem hitting steel at 1200 yards with clear detail.
The turrets have removable caps if you want to dial in yardage, but they are screwed on to protect them while hunting.

Average cost is about $630 for the Mildot scope.

Great lightweight hunting scope IMHO.
 
Me and some buddies have been arguing over this reticle for a while. What you said is basically the main reason why some guys don't like it... just not enough references to draw your eye to the center crosshairs, which I agree is the definitely a negative on this scope. Your point of duplex vs target dot is right on. I really wish they would have done something like their reticle, but I think Vortex is trying to market to the pure lightweight hunter that is not looking to shoot to extreme distances.

Very much like the OP, practice out to longer distances while keeping hunting distances within ~500 yards. I bet Vortex did a bunch of market research and I would guess the average sheep hunter does not like the cluttered tacticle style reticle like the EBR-2C.

I am still looking for the perfect light weight long range scope... there are several good candidates, just nothing perfect yet.

Look at the sightron moa2. I've said this before and I'll say it again, its one of the best if not the best reticle I've laid eyes on. Would be nice if other company's offered something similar and would be nice if Sightron offered a slightly thicker version too.

Hey mcseal2,

I love my Sightron SII Big Sky 4x16x42 Mildot scope.

It weighs 16.6 ozs, has 80 MOA of vertical adjustment and has held up to the rigors of a 300wm recoil with no problems for 6 years now.
The scope has a fog-proof coating to allow you to see through the scope even when your hot face steams up the lens.
I have no problem hitting steel at 1200 yards with clear detail.
The turrets have removable caps if you want to dial in yardage, but they are screwed on to protect them while hunting.

Average cost is about $630 for the Mildot scope.

Great lightweight hunting scope IMHO.

I have 2 siiBS. One 6-24 mildot ao and 6.5-20 moa2 sf. Other than the mushy turrets I love these scopes and their price point. A LOT of Bang for the Buck. Whats odd is I have an SI and the turrets are far better than the SIIBS... go figure.
 
I think the options have been mentioned so far leupold vx3 or vx6 about 3-6 oz differences,swarovski 3-18x.... and march but I think that's a little different setup possiblely. . I have a vx3 LR 4.5-14x40mm on a 280 AI (7 3/4#) and a 50mm vversion with target turrets on a 300WSM (same weight) both work well but have been interested in the Z5 3-18x and the vx6 3-18x as upgrades
 
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