Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Three guns, one scope

I'll probably get flack for this, but so be it. I know most would probably say "Just put good glass on each one, buy once cry once, blah blah". But how realistic is it to assume consistency using one scope on three guns? All three guns have rails, all are consistent sub MOA and all have meh glass. I have a budget of about $1500 to work with, so rather than spend around $500/scope, I was thinking about getting something along the lines of a used NXS or save a bit more for a used ATACR or NX8 and swap it between guns as needed, with the hopes of maintaining zero after adjustment. Most swear by their reliability and tracking, so if I were to zero it to each gun, and adjust accordingly when swapped, theoretically, this should work, correct? I understand real world results won't necessarily reflect this theory, but have others tried this with good results?. Currently, I don't have anything as reliable as a Nightforce to test this with, but i'm sure this has been done before. Thoughts??

Orange
I think you will ultimately be served better with 3 $500 scopes than
1 scope that you swap around.
GreggH

OK.... I believe that it’s doable. But, how about one rifle, one scope.....with the possible exception of a varmint rifle! It would save a lot of re-zeroing each time you change firearms! Of course....that gives yo7 more bench time! memtb

Yup - brace for it.



You're going to end up with a small novel sized notebook on E/W adjustments just between the three rifles, and plan on adding a chapter for each bullet you what to try.

Keep the two "Meh" - buy one good, and upgrade when you can later - you'd have one "meh" as a spare if one crapped out on you.

It's also not just the scope, you have to be repeatable on the swap between rifles, using the same rail slot, fore and aft in the slot, the same torque on the ring bases, etc.

Changing the above with throw your records off as well - especially if the rails and rings are "meh" quality units as well.

JMHO.

75% of the time, it will be during range time, so I don't care about throwing 3 or 4 more rounds to re-zero. The other 25% of the time, I'll be swapping monthly, depending on hunting seasons, which a few shots to confirm zero would occur regardless.

This is what I thought too.
I have 2 scopes set up in Warne QD's & zeroed for 1 rifle so I can swap them around as I please. A VX2 3-9x40 Duplex and a VX-Freedom 1.5-4x20 Pig Plex. This works fine for me but it sounds like you are wanting much better glass.
Or, maybe you could sell your 3 "meh" scopes and have a little more wiggle room in your budget?

That's the plane. More swapping would occur between two guns, but the third would be a rarer case, which I don't shoot is as much. So swapping between two guns is a more realistic question, and should probably be much more realistic.

There are drawbacks. You can't "swap and go" because you'll need to sight-in the gun every time you move scopes. You could likely get fairly close by recording a scope's sight-in settings for each gun, then making the adjustments when you swap, and that should get you in the ballpark, but you'll still need to fire some sighters to verify.

I do a version of this by having a Savage action, upon which I swap several barrels. I have done the recorded settings thing, and it gets me pretty close, say within 1.5 moa at the worst (a few times, it has been nearly dead on), so I still have to fire and adjust, fire and verify. Note that I remove the scope to swap the barrels each time.

If you look around and watch for sales, you can find some pretty good scopes for $500 bucks apiece. Plenty good enough for 99% of hunting scenarios. I don't bother with that 1%, so I am well-served by scopes in that price range.

Just me-
I have a hard time understanding the modern
trend and.desire to adjust and
twist and fiddle when it comes to rifle optics.
I'm completely opposite- I want to be able to
pick up a rifle and shoulder it and fire immediately
and not have to flip a switch or do any twisting
or adjusting or fire any spoilers.

Of course, each person can do as they wish

There is a German system designed for exactly this use. It's called the Dentler Vario.
It allows you to use a single scope for multiple weapons by having adjustable bases on each gun and basically sighting in via adjusting the base.
It's a fairly ugly and pretty expensive, though.

You could. If I were doing it I'd feel the need check zero each time....even with a range out my front door, that'd be a pain in the winter with shorter days over a 4.5 month hunting season. No grab and go, no back up ready, no taking a backup rifle. At all times you'd have at least 2 rifles you couldn't use......If the one scope does go tits up you'd have 3 useless rifles.

I'd prefer 1 rifle and 3 scopes to 3 rifles and 1 scope.....better than that, 2 rifles, each with a good scope.

I agree.

It is like having one set of tires for 3 cars.

Not a new idea. Bausch & Lomb had it figured out and was one of their sales promotions. External adjustment scope with adjustable bases made swapping the scope to different rifles a simple process. Have done this with a Balvar 8 but used Leupold Adjusto mounts instead of B&L mounts. Model 70 and a 99Savage are the rifles. Once zeroed to rifle no adjustment needed after swapping.

I've done it back when I was using Leupold Quick Release rings & bases. Their return to zero was decent, but I'd put more faith into picatinny ring/base setups for consistent reliability in the long run now days. It got to the point that it was kind of a PITA though, so I mostly have got away from it.

I still will steal a scope off another gun to mount on a new rig for load work, then return it to the rightful owner when done wringing it out.

I may or may not test zero, depending on the application.

I'd say go for it, only you will know if it suits your expectations.

You can always put shltty glass back on 2 of them......

Can't say I understand or support the rationale but if somehow pressed to do so, the NXS is likely what I'd choose.

This is by no means going to be permanent, but a temporary (year or two) solution until I can afford to glass the other rifles appropriately. Was planning on a quick release like the Burris or Larue mounts, since all rifles have Picatinny rails to keep things as simple as possible.

No flack, just a little bewilderment. The phrase, "Seemed like a good idea at the time", comes to mind.

How about two $750 scopes for ones you'll use the most, and leave the orphan bare for a bit, or since they have rails, put a $100 red dot like a Bushnell TRS25 on it? You might be surprised by how well you can shoot with one of those. Or, move one scope between the two least-used and leave one permanently (famous last words!) on Number One.

I'd be doing one "good" scope and two reliable inexpensive ones like Burris FFs, myself.

Have fun deciding.

Did anyone tell you that this is a stupid idea?you’d Be better off with 3 50.00 tasco’s

Gotta be a silver scope to be worth the effort.

If it's black, I'd run two $300 scopes and a spendy one.

It's a silly idea.