Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics If you were to build a hunting scope?

There is about a gajillion scopes out on the market today. Seems about half the new offerings are meant to appeal to the tacticool crowd but doesn't seem like much new is being built for hunting rigs.

What I'd like to see is a 30mm, light weight, compact scope, with a low profile EL turret, small ocular, maybe even a straight tube 24mm objective and I want it bullet proof and under 16oz.

So many scopes out now seem to have HUGE objectives that require a damn truss to mount it, weigh over a pound and a half, and still can't hold zero. Not to mention I dont need 24x's to shoot a fuggin' deer. I like and still use 6x42 Leupolds, but would like to see an updated compact version that doesn't have a two inch tall turret sticking out the top.

Is there such an animal out there? Does 6x and a 24mm objective make it a PIA to square up behind?

This is about the closest I've seen to what I gthink would be the perfect big game scope:

http://www.nightforceoptics.com/competition/4.5x24

No one is going to agree. That's why there are so many choices out there... Just sayin..

Absolutely.

What would you put together for a big game scope?

A Leupold fixed FX-II 6x36 already comes as close to perfect as I can think of for size, weight, clearness, eye relief, lots of mounting room, usable magnification and all at a very affordable price. I'd upgrade it with finger adjustments under the caps instead of coin slots and absolutely reliable tracking so 4 clicks up and 2 clicks right moves the bullet 1" up and 1/2" right, not 2" straight up, then 3 clicks down with no further windage adjustment finally puts POI 1" higher and 1/2" right of your first group like you originally wanted it.

I'd modify their FX-II 4x33 like that and also make a fixed FX-II 9x40 for certain other applications.

Right now, my favorite do it all scope is the 6X SS. Excellent eye relief, good usable reticle, dials like it’s on rails, and is pretty bright in my opinion. It has a lot of tube length and mounts easily on most actions.

Had two scopes take a crap on me a few weeks back. Replaced them both with SS 6x I had on other guns. Took two shots to zero and I was back in business.

I’d give the SWFA 3-9 around 4” of eye relief, a shorter, capped windage adjustment, and a zero stop on the elevation turret from the factory. Some weight loss would be nice, but not if it would in any way compromise reliability, so the current weight is just something to live with. Instead of losing scope weight, I design the rest of the rifle project knowing I’ll need to lose a little weight elsewhere to make a target overall weight and balance goal.

I am seriously considering purchasing this scope.

http://marchscopes.com/tactical-3-24-x-42-ffp.html


It has everything I could ever need and the weight is incredible at 22.6 oz! $2k street price.

I just wish Leupold had a "Fine" version of their windplex. After that, 6X42, 3.5-10, 4-12, 4.5-14, or 2-12 would all work just fine for me.

MadMooner asked, "If you were to build a hunting scope?"

Tube diameter is irrelevant to me. I've had 1", 30mm and 34mm. But objective diameter is important. I want at least a 50mm objective and as large an ocular as required for the bolt to function freely. The magnification range needs to start with about twenty-two feet field of view and to to 24X or more. Low light performance should be very good.
The weight should max at twenty ounces. Sixteen is better. If the Swarovski z5 5-25X52 was reliable it is already there.

That is really close to what I want.

The now discontinued Zeiss Victory 2.5-10 x42 in a number 4-ish reticle with lit center cross or dot, maybe some hold points on the vertical, with the addition of more internal travel and a lo-pro locking elevation turret, capped windage and .....that's all. Perfect all-rounder hunting scope.

I had one and elk hunted with it. Very nice scope. It checks a lot of boxes. The sweet spot for me was when set at 10x to 16x.

Yesterday, I put about 80 rounds through a short action Fieldcraft wearing a Tract Toric 2-10x42. I like the scope. If changing anything to make it my perfect hunting scope I'd make it in 6x fixed for less moving parts and slightly lighter. A few of the things I like about it:

Easy to use: Great glass, great eye relief, great "eye-box" (closest I've seen to the 6x42 Leupold....very easy to get behind), bold reticle.

Elevation dial with zero stop: The standard capped elevation dial can be swapped out for a taller elevation dial with a zero stop. The zero stop is a hard zero stop and the design is excellent. Raise it up, dial up to slightly less than 1 rotation (~18 MOA available, 20 per full rotation but the zero stop eats a little of the rotation), can be pushed back down at any point in that range so it doesn't change. A slightly higher cap comes with it so the user can cap the higher dial if they wish. Standard capped windage and no parralax on this model. I'll use this capped elevation dial, capping it with a 100 yard zero when hunting woods and traveling, then leaving it bare when hunting fields to dial for longer shots.

1" tube/mid-weight: I like the 1" tube vs 30mm for slight weight savings. Down side is loss of elevation adjustment for LONG rangers. I think overall it only has ~60 MOA elevation. For a hunting scope, I don't need more than 18 MOA from zero (with zero stop installed), but I understand that some may. The weight is still a little over 18 oz's with the capped elevation dial...I'd love it to be under 16, but it's still lighter than most tactical scopes.

Yesterday I zero'd it at 100, found my 200 adjustment, found my 300 adjustment, and went back and forth between the ranges many times shooting mainly 3 shot groups. Often I'd run it 18 MOA up then back down. Return to zero seemed good, but I only put about 80 rounds through it, dialing every 3-6 shots....so this is limited testing and yardages were short...but a lot of 18 up/down was done even when not needed.

I've not run this scope through the ringer enough to sing it's praises and call it all good, but for a "hunting" scope, I really like a lot of the features it offers, especially for a hunting scope that's going to be dialed. This same scope in a fixed 6x42 would just about be my "perfect" scope....assuming it stands the test of time/use. I'm planning to use it as my only scope this deer season from mid-Oct to the first week in Feb (aside from my muzzleloader). I'm planning to switch it across several rifles....but I'm liking the Fieldcraft so it may stay on it for the entire season...we'll see. It will get a lot of rough use during those ~4 months...we'll see how it does.

I'm not affilated with the company and I purchased the scope, so don't take this as me pushing the company. I think the folks at Tract put a lot of thought into how they were designing their "hunting" scopes. They seemed to have designed these scopes specifically for hunting. I think it shows in the product. They've got several models aside from the one I used yesterday and I'm not familiar with all the options, bells, and whistles that come with them so check out their website. One more thing that stands out about Tract is their business model of selling their scopes directly to the consumer to avoid retailer markup.

Toric on Fieldcraft. This is with the zero stopped elevation dial installed and capped:

As a hunter with over 5 decades of experience I have owned and used about everything at one time or another. I am 100% convinced that most hunters are handicapping themselves with too much magnification, weight and too little field of view. They get highley impressed with their scope on a rifle range or off a bench rest, and never figure out that such applications are NOT how a hunting scope will be used.

So here is my dream scope for big game hunting

it is a super strong 30MM tube made from Titanium or spring tempered stainless. The tube should literally be strong enough to pound nails with it without damage.
It has a 38MM objective. Not larger.
The glass should be the best available and the mounting of the glass in the tube should be "bomb proof".
It is a fixed power. For my use the 4X would be the best all around.
It has a vertical reticle that has 4 MOA cross marks on it going down to the bottom of the field of view but being in colors, Green Red Blue Green Red Blue and so on for ease of counting.
It should be as short and light as it can be made without sacrificing it's ruggedness.THAT'S IT and THAT ALL!!!!!!!!
No BS widgets, gizmos, and gimmicks. Just the best gun sight made. Not a machine, not a calculator, not an instrument for a vidoe-game player.....just a SUPER GOOD RIFLE SIGHT!

Such a scope can be made SUPER bright because of it's average size objective lens and 30 MM tube.

The 4 MOA marks can be easily learned as hold overs for any gun with any bullet, with just a bit of practice. You learn your weapon as you should, like it's part of you, instead of a abacus that needs constant adjustments.
You zero with your load and learn the hold overs using the marks provided. It's just a sight, light, bright and simple, and is about as resilient as an avail.

I agree with a lot of your thoughts, but I don't believe the 30mm tube will make one brighter.

I can state unequivocally the tube size has nothing to do with the brightness of a scope. Comparing a Swarovski z5 5-25X52 1" tube, Bushnell 6500 4 1/2-30X50 30mm tube, and a Leupold VX-6 4-24X52 34mm tube they all fail at the same time in my low light test. The Swarovski z8 2.3-18X56 smoked them by twenty minutes! Maybe the glass is better in the z8. For sure it has a 56mm objective.

It would look exactly like the NXS 2.5-10x42 with MIL-R reticle but with heavier wires & marks.

For me, 4.5x is not enough for long range shooting.

MM

For me it would be a S&B Summit 2.5-10x40, but wit a low profile dialing turret like on a Bushnell LRHS scope...

This but I would add 4 .25 mil hatches on the horizontal reticle and reengineer Schmidt benders (copy) low profile locking turret system and erector. Capped windage. Zero stop.

Done.

It's obviously all subjective, but why do you need need 24x or more for a big game scope? My eyes ain't good, but I found that 6x is plenty for deer and elk out farther than I have business shooting. I'll miss wind before I will lose a reticle on a deers chest with 6x.

That said, I don't try to dial in loads on a 4x scope.