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

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.

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

Absolutely.

What would you put together for a big game scope?

1-12x42

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.

Now that would be the chit too, keep the weight down to 12 oz's and make it track perfectly and look good too... I'd buy one..

An S&B PM II 6 x 42 with mildot reticle.

Agree. Love my 10x42, there was an attempt at a group buy for a custom PMII 6x42 P3 reticle somewhere a year or two ago but I don't think it went anywhere.

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