School me on Scopes

[Dark Mod]

Ok so i realized i know practically nothing about scopes. I know that clarity is more important than magnification, but how is that measured? is there a way to judge the clarity of a scope while buying online? or is it something i have to look through to decide if i want to buy?

Or maybe should i stick with a known manufacturer like Leupold? or are there others that make the same quality scopes at half the price?

what exactly do the numbers (20x50mm for example) mean?

How does the bullet drop compensator work? are there different scopes for different bullets? even then how does it know how much your particular load will drop?

Will i need different scopes for .223 and 300 Winmag?

How do i judge eye relief? i will need a super long one for a mosin, but a short one for an AR.

Any reccomendations on scopes for shooting 500 yards and under with a .308 AR, .223 AR, 300 winmag bolt action, and a Mosin Nagant?

[xoutxkastx]

Hello Mark,

I'm also new to the scope game. What I do know is there is a big difference in clarity as you go up in price. But there are scopes out there that give great bang for the buck.
20x50 means you have a fixed power scope of 20x magnification and the glass at the end has a 50mm diameter. Variable power like 3x9x40 would mean variable magnification from 3-9 with the glass at the end of the scope at 40mm diameter. Not sure on BDC part as I have not used that reticle. I;ve been watching the Magpul Precision DVD and it states if you buy a quality optics with a quick release mount you should be able to utilize that from rifle to rifle. They did test and the mount held zero every time. As for eye relief. You need to mount the base to the rifle, then scope loosely to the mount. Set the scope to the highest magnification and push the scope as far forward as possible. Now look through the scope and move it back until you have a full view. Once you have that lock the scope down and your are gtg.


I have a remy 700 in 308. I bought a Vortex Crossfire 6x24x50mm with Vortex scope rings from SWFA. Total cost was $150 and for the money is a darn good scope. The pics below was shot at 200 yards with factory ammo and easily hits metal out to 600. I plan to upgrade it to the Vortex Viper which runs $400-$500 or the Vortex PST which runs close to $900 I believe. My buddy has the Vortex Viper and shoot out to 1000 no prob.

I like going on caprc.com and sniperhide.com to learn about optics. The Magpu dvd is great too. If you have a spare 32GB flash drive. PM me for my address and send me the Flash drive to get a copy of the DVD.

Grouping at 200 yards (got lucky ) w Vortex $150 scope with rings


My Remy 700 w Vortex Scope

[PrimaryArms]

Ok so i realized i know practically nothing about scopes. I know that clarity is more important than magnification, but how is that measured? is there a way to judge the clarity of a scope while buying online? or is it something i have to look through to decide if i want to buy?

Or maybe should i stick with a known manufacturer like Leupold? or are there others that make the same quality scopes at half the price?

what exactly do the numbers (20x50mm for example) mean?

How does the bullet drop compensator work? are there different scopes for different bullets? even then how does it know how much your particular load will drop?

Will i need different scopes for .223 and 300 Winmag?

How do i judge eye relief? i will need a super long one for a mosin, but a short one for an AR.

Any reccomendations on scopes for shooting 500 yards and under with a .308 AR, .223 AR, 300 winmag bolt action, and a Mosin Nagant?

Clarity is important but holding zero and true DOPE adjustments is far more.

20x50 means that the scope will make things appear 20x larger. And 50mm is the size of your glass or objective.

DBC is a pre calculation of how much a round drops at various ranges.

There are different BDC for different calibers and .223 and 300 do not share the same drop.

This is a good scope

https://www.primaryarms.com/Bushnell_Elite_10x40_MilDot_Fixed_Power_Rifl_p/et1040.htm

[Ziggy91]

Buying a scope is best measured by first-hand experience. You can rate a scope's quality by holding it an looking through it yourself in person because a website won't do that.

Clarity is a big plus for a good scope. Good glass can be looked through all day, and can see everything clearly through all of it's magnification levels. Go to a store, look through EVERY scope, play with all the settings, see which price w/ features applies to you, chem reviews online, and move on to purchase or next choice.

Also, If you want a good scope you want an adjustable rear eyepiece, a parallax adjustment for clarity, a good magnification range (usually the higher the better) and obviously windage and elevation adjustment. I would avoid anything with BDCs because you can't really use those on other caliber rifles.

I forgot some stuff, but others will chime in.

Good luck.

[gunnerstuff]

Buy a scope for what you are going to do with it. If you are going for longer distant target shooting at the range, then a higher powered scope is great. If you are using it for hunting, then it can be a totally different setup. For moving targets, high power scopes loose sight picture alot, so a lower powered would be better. When we do our desert shoots, we'll set up various 'targets' (cans, fruit, tannerite) that blend in with the environment. Much harder to acquire targets with high power, so zoom becomes important.

[TacticalTed.com]

I wrote a couple of short articles that cover some of the questions you have.

http://TacticalTed.com/blog

Hope this helps!

[OpticsPlanet]

Ok so i realized i know practically nothing about scopes. I know that clarity is more important than magnification, but how is that measured? is there a way to judge the clarity of a scope while buying online? or is it something i have to look through to decide if i want to buy?

Or maybe should i stick with a known manufacturer like Leupold? or are there others that make the same quality scopes at half the price?

what exactly do the numbers (20x50mm for example) mean?

How does the bullet drop compensator work? are there different scopes for different bullets? even then how does it know how much your particular load will drop?

Will i need different scopes for .223 and 300 Winmag?

How do i judge eye relief? i will need a super long one for a mosin, but a short one for an AR.

Any reccomendations on scopes for shooting 500 yards and under with a .308 AR, .223 AR, 300 winmag bolt action, and a Mosin Nagant?

Here are a few write ups we put together over the years. Some of the info is a bit dated, but there is some great general information here:

http://www.opticsplanet.com/info/how_to_buy_riflescope.shtml

http://www.opticsplanet.net/how-to-choose-riflescope.html

http://www.opticsplanet.net/selecting-reticles.html

Chase B.