I have thought about this for quite a while now and finally decided to ask for input here on the ever so impossible decision of choosing scopes.
Four rifles:
(1) 300 Wby Vanguard, 24". Until this year was my all-around gun for 100-300 yard elk hunting and has a 2-7x32 Weaver installed. After several years of no issues, last year gave me an unexplained 8" downward point of impact shift out of the blue; once re-sited, did not reoccur but made me leery. Recent Timney trigger. Now that I have (2), the 300 Wby is intended to become a 300-400 yard open country / glassing elk gun. Where I hunt, my longest shot at a bull so far was 350 yards uphill (a miss).
(2) 338 RCM Hawkeye 20" bbl. This one is new, will replace the 300 Wby as a carry-around 100-200 yard gun, as it is handier to tote around the hills and through aspens and dark timber. No glass on it now; irons are not very nice, stock buckhorns. I shoot a 3" group with them at 100 yards but not much better, partly due to the ball-in-divot sight picture and partly due to slight flinching (light 338 gun). So far the elk I took were at 25 to 90 yards. I know, a .44 Mag would have been sufficient but you never know if the next one will be at 300.
(3) 243 R-77 varminter, 24" bull barrel, great trigger, with a 6.5-20 Leupold Vari-X III. Intended as 300-400 yard coyote gun.
(4) 223 Bushy Varminter, 24", no scope on it yet. Intended for prairie dogs and coyotes out to 200 yards.
I was going to leave the (3) alone but a friend whom I chatted with said, why don't you throw that one in the optics upgrade mix. He didn't exactly help, did he? So I did throw it in the mix. Budget? Not totally sure; quality preferred, and I would like to stay at the VX-3 or at least Monarch quality level.
I am leaning towards something like a 2.5-8x36 VX-3 for the (2) and a Burris Eliminator for the (1) but kind of torn on the varminters since I reload and a BDC reticle may or may not be accurate for one or another handload.
Read a lot about SS and Sightrons but somehow don't feel very confident about those, although I have no first hand experience with those.
What scope options would you choose? Go ahead with "dream" sets and with "great" sets but I have no plans for BSA or Beeman class scopes. Thanks!
