Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Good Scope for 338 Win Mag?

My .338WM wears a 2.5x8x32 Conquest, a discontinued scope. They pop up on EBay for around $350. They have a long tube for generous mounting and have the same large eye box as other Conquests. My .375 Whitworth has the same scope, so the Conquest is robust enough for the bigger recoiling rifles. The 32mm objective makes for a trimmer package than the larger 3x9x40 Conquest.

I'm fan of 2-7X and 2.5-8X Leupolds, but my 338 Win Mag won't be used for small targets. It has a 1.5-5X Leupold.

I have had a few .338 Mags over the years, and all of them wore Leupold 3-9x40s. My first one still had the same scope that I put on it over 17 years ago when I traded it last year, and it was still holding zero. Guess that I was just lucky...

I'm in the 2.5-8x Leupold crowd...

I've been curious about those. I think it was Bob who spoke highly of them. That, and the 4x they disco'd at that same time were very interesting scopes.

I think that anyone who tried a 3-9x40 Conquest on a .338 would come away thinking it was pretty ideal. Miles of eye relief, big clear easy sight picture, very solid adjustments, etc.

Surprised by all the folks liking the Leupold 2.5-8 for this application. I like that scope and have owned a half-dozen of them, and when they fit a rifle they are pretty sweet, but there's just not much mounting leeway on a long action rifle- at least my Remingtons.

Early on I had two rifles in 338 Win, one had a 2x7 and the other a 2.5x8, both Leupold's.
As I got older the realization came to me that these rifles and others used fro hunting were always set at 6X as a default setting. Most all game was taken at 6X.
The 338's are long gone and now use a 9.3 for heavy game and a 30-06 for hunting everything else. Both wear a 6x42 with M1 and CDS dials installed.
These are rugged and reliable with a very generous eye box which negates some of the magnification at close range and 6X is good to at least 600 yards.