Tom Wright
Well-Known Member
A few questions I think need to be asked/thought about, some you failed to mention:
1. What caliber is the rifle?
2. What animals do you intend to hunt now and the future?
3. Do you want it set up for long distance shooting or not?
4. Do you want illuminated reticles?
There is a huge difference of options when one doesn't know those answers. There are a lot of good options in the $300-$600 range but I'd think about all the possibilities you might use the rifle for in the future. Years ago I bought an xbolt for a Canadian deer hunt in 300 win mag. I put a good scope on it then--a Leupold--VX3L 4-16 x 50, but changes over the next 10 years has seen me on hunts in Europe, and 4 trips to South Africa, this last one ending a month ago. In the process I got better at long distance shooting and with the changes in that came a need to go to a turreted CDS Leupold scope. I now feel fairly confident in shots out to 500+ yards. I never would have thought the option to hunt those places would have occurred, but they did, and while I took animals at over 4300 yards with the old scope, it involved a lot of guessing and luck!
Although you live in the East, everything will change once you include planning for a hunt in the West, Europe or Africa. It will also change when you add animals that are usually seen in edges/last or first light. A perfect example is the African bushbuck that often is hunted at night, but can be taken in the shadows and thickets if you can pick them out. I hunt a lot for wild pigs in the south, and there having lighted cross hairs makes a world of difference in the last 1/2 hour of shooting light when trying to anchor a solid black boar.
So try to answer those questions first, and then start looking for glass. Maske certain yo actually look through the scope before buying it, preferably on someone else's gun at the range. The adjustments to you eye you can make, and your ability to see are more important than fancy claims and specs. Look through a 42mm and 50mm and compare light collection for low light conditions. If you want to repost with your answers I could give you a better idea of what might work.
