Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Questionable hunting scopes

The worst scopes I ever looked through were the Simmons, they are dark and give me headaches. That said, I never owned one.

I've got Simmons scope or two on a rifle that I bought on-line. They are the worst.

Can always be used as a hammer. Have a couple of cheap scopes in the basement don't really know why they will never be used. Think I'll chit can them today now that it's been thought about. Oh ! think they came on airguns and were replaced pronto.

I have a Simmons I got about 32 years ago. It does not sit on any gun nor will I probably ever put it on a gun.

I’ve had plenty of scopes that had good glass, bright, clear, held zero, adjusted/tracked well…..but had crappy reticles for the intended purpose, or that were hard to use fast in low light, and marginal eye relief and/or eye boxes that got sent down the road…..because their usefulness for my needs was dubious, but might have served the next guy very well. Everyone has their own combo of criteria. I had several Bushnell 3200/4200 that I just didn’t like for hunting scopes. Good, bright glass…..OTT they were useless as hunting scopes for me. Tons of other folks love them. They’d have been great on a bench gun or 22 for me.

I have to agree with BSA1917Hunter. Those Burris Fullfield II's and the newer E1's have some great glass and hold up quite well. I've always been a Leupold buyer, but lately I've started swinging back toward Burris, the Philippine built ones. I have a Hawke 2-7 AO scope that is pretty remarkable also.
Doug's sale ad with the 3-9 AO Hawkes is tempting me. I have lots of rimfire rifles. LOL

Unless you find one of the older Whitetail Expedition scopes. They have good glass and track well, but are heavy. The old Aetec line was decent as well.

I just sent a questionable scope back to Leupold. It is a VX-II 3x9 that was mounted on a 30-06. The rifle hasn't been shooting well for a few years but it shot well enough to hunt with. The rifle is a pre-64 Model 70 that was originally a standard weight rifle. It now has a featherweight barrel that I picked up at a gunshow. The featherweight barrel never shot as well as the standard weight barrel but again it shot well enough to hunt with.

I was working on some new loads this year and it started stringing horizontally. I tested it with some 168 match bullets and they strung horizontally too. I put an old M8 4x on it and all is well. The match bullets group around .5" for three and the hunting loads put three into an inch. It is going hunting Saturday. The VX-II wouldn't focus well either. I hope that is better when I get it back.

My VX-3 3-9x40 CDS is on my Ruger 77 MkII. Yesterday I was shooting 30-06 125 NAB's over 59 gr. Big Game. It was shooting inch groups, dead on. Great load for WT's and such.

I raised the elevation 6 clicks, wanting it 1 1/2" high. Well, the group never changed, kept on hitting the original POI....

This scope had gone bonkers before, was sent back and I assume they fixed it. Now, I don't know if it's gonna jump to the new setting or not.

Can't trust it. So, I may send it back again and when they "fix it", I may just sell it. I'm getting tired of this, although I like the scope and it's longer tube which I need for the LA Ruger. Not all scopes will work, set up to my preference.

You can see from the photo, how I need a longer tube for this rifle. There aren't a lot of long tube scopes out there. I love the Trijicon 3-9x40 on my Pre-64 .358 Win FWT. But, it's not quite long enough to work on the Ruger. So, if I sell the Leupold, what long tube scope do you guys recommend for the Ruger?

DF

Bushnell 4500 on the low end Swaro Z5 on the high end.

I remember Simons Aetec scopes getting glowing reviews from writers when they first came out.

Stuff like that drives me nuts. Long ago, when my time and money were much more limited, scopes like that caused me all sorts of anguish and uncertainty. The nearest range was pretty far off and having to go back to verify zero was a big deal, as was buying or loading more ammo. Scopes that adjust reliably make life a heckuva lot easier, and I don’t suffer the duds anymore, except for “period pieces” mounted on old stuff.

So far anyway, scopes from Burris, Tract, Trijicon, SWFA, Bushnell, and a couple of dual-spring Leupolds have been trouble-free in that regard, and the Burris and Bushnells were all under $200.

I have a Burris FF2 in regular Talleys on an FN .270 that’s a good fit for me. I may have to crawl a bit at 9x, but I don’t hunt with it cranked up. I always check to be sure that the combos I put together allow me to work the bolt from my shoulder without drawing blood from my poor old nose too.

Your friend should have checked those scopes long before a week before the elk opener. That's a tough one to deal with.

I have a couple of Leupolds, not overly impressed with the optics, but have so far held zero (Don't spin turrets on those ones). I also have Pentax, Bushnell (6500), Zeiss and Nightforce, and a newer Redfield on my Bushmaster 450. The most "comfortable" glass for me is Zeiss, particularly the color rendition and dusk performance. The Nightforce is a great scope, but the reticle is pretty busy, better suited for target work than hunting. The Bushnell 6500 is surprisingly good too. Quite clear and bright in low light. The Leupolds I would put at the bottom of the pile with the Pentax and the Redfield.

Dirtfarmer, I was originally going to replace the VX-II with a 3-9 Zeiss Conquest because it has a long tube. The bolt handle hit the scope though so I put the old M8 on the rifle so I wouldn't have to change rings. The Conquest has a longer tube than the Leupold VX-II so it might work on Ruger.

That Pre-64 is what a rifle should look like!

I have several Conquests, maybe I could swap them around.

I don't want to change rings.

Thanks,

DF

How well aligned are those Ruger rings?

About like most Ruger rings I would think.

I didn't lap them, think I should?

DF

It has been a while, but the last set I was tasked to use required a good bit of lapping. Put a Leupold in a bind and bad things may well happen.

I often end up being the gun repair guy at the range when we are shooting with groups of family or friends. Often somebody wants me to shoot their rifle or look through the scope to see if there is something wrong. Often it is something simple like the reticle isn't mounted vertically/horizontally square with the rifle. But I am always surprised when I pick up a rifle and the scope is out of focus. It always astounds me how many guys don't know you need to focus the scope to your eyes when you mount it and assume it is set perfectly from the factory. Usually I show them how and they have it set in about 10 seconds and back to shooting. I also keep a scope cleaning brush or microfiber cloth handy when at the range or hunting so I can take the grit, dust, or water droplets off my glass when I'm hunting. Missed out on a huge Kudu in Africa because I had to aim toward the sun and my objective lens was covered in dust and created a flare so bad I couldn't see the animal through the scope...

Bob