My experience has been best when I just keep my recoil reasonably low. Thus if I really don't need it I don't shoot shoot the higher recoil stuff. 6.5 Grendel & 6mm Arc are my higher recoil guns for the past 5 years. Then the scope choice is less critical I suppose. The area I hunt consist of whitetail maybe a mule deer if I venture out west a fair bit & as far as dangerous game Cougar / Mountain lion is a very rare sighting by nearly anyone in my stomping grounds. So 30 grains of propellant pushing projectiles generally less than 129 grains or so just gets the job done quite handily with out much fuss.
Your milage may vary.
I’ve begun to see that light, not so much for scope longevity, but simple economics. A Grendel-class round squeezes about 60 more loads out of a pound of powder and barrel life should never be an issue for most. Still have a few rifles for “standard” rounds, but I’m headed towards my Grendel as my working gun, with a couple of 6mms for when I might need to go longer. Lighter guns are easier on granda’s legs too. The easy answer to tough scopes is a lot of heavy parts, but light ones can be tough too when well-designed with good innards. Obviously they’re also easier on mounts, and it’s the whole system that determines reliability.
