Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics toughest scope

Not known him to pull punches, IIRC every BRAND of scope tested, has gone belly up on his "test" rifle.

I like the older Leupolds. I thought and maybe I’m wrong that the old M8 line of Leupolds were the toughest of the lot. I have some old variables too. But ever since I was a teenager I had the belief that variables were weaker. I think I have a M8 4x on my 375 H&H AI - I have not shot that other than at paper, but that’s held up so far.

Don`t know if it`s available to the general population, but Marcus Luttrell`s account of he and his MK 12 with a Leupold MK4 going full tilt down a mountain side, with both being fully operational at the bottom, impressed the hell out of me. You might want to look that up.

I would consider that "Tough".

No, not every brand tested--but right now far more than the 12-15 brands JGRaider quoted.

Have had 20 brands of scopes now go bonkers on various test rifles. Some I expected to, but some I didn't.

I don't recoil-test nearly as many new scopes as I used to, partly because I don't write a regular optics column for any publication anymore. To tell the truth, this was something of a relief, due to growing a little weary of shooting hard-kicking rifles enough to determine anything.

But I also grew weary of scope companies claiming that there was nothing wrong with the scope that failed to work correctly when I sent it back to them. One major company with a reputation for making VERY tough scopes even claimed this, and said the problem was the scope slipping in the rings--which they determined by seeing tiny impressions from rings in different places in the scope. They said they refinished the scope and sent it back to me.

There were two problems with this. First, I'd already told them that it had been my major rifle test-scope for around 5 years, because it worked so reliably--which meant that it had been mounted on a bunch of rifles, with the rings in different places.

The other problem was that I record the serial number of all the scope I own. Started doing this maybe a decade ago, just to keep track of which scopes had been on which rifles. The scope they "returned" to me had a different serial number than the one I'd sent them.

Old Burris Signature with the Posi Lock is battle tank tough.

Question MD, would you mind, “What scope or scopes has never failed in your tests?” I am tired of scopes failing, though admittedly I know you have way more experience than I dream to have had.

(Other than the one El Paso scope I sent in and maybe another, I record the serial number on scopes. But only the ones I’ve sent in.)

What irks me is a major scope company sent me a scope back and said there’s nothing wrong with it, yet when I mounted it on an accurate rifle the group size was much much larger than normal.
It sort of soured me on their warranty.

Lost faith in Leupolds, moving most of my optics to SWFA. If $ allowed I'd add some NF

Can anyone be trusted anymore??

Thanks for the reply.

Earlier, I said that 1inch scopes have 2mm walls, like the 30mm scopes. I have since found out that this is not the case. The 1inch tube walls are closer to 1.2mm thick. (We always thought the 30mm tubes were stronger than the 1inch tubes because of the larger diameter. It would appear that it's mainly because the walls are thicker.) Also, it is possible to have a large range of adjustments in a 34mm tube with 4mm thick walls by reducing the focal length of the objective. Age is a terrible thing; I knew that last one and forgot. As an added bonus, a shorter scope body will be tougher than a longer scope body with the same wall thickness. I am not aware of any riflescope with walls thicker than 4mm at the moment. So look at the 34, 35, 36 and 40mm for the maximum in toughness and look for the shortest one as the king in that department.

Bugger,

So far haven't had an SWFA scope fail, but haven't owned as many of those as some other brands. Did own one where the clicks didn't move POI exactly what they should have, but were still very consistent.

One of the problems with a lot of scope "brands" is a wide variety of scopes, in both price and quality, with some even made not just in different factories but different countries.

A fixed power SWFA SS is probably one of the toughest scopes you can buy and the toughest sub $900 scope. Its pretty rare to hear about a SWFA SS 6x42 or 10x42 failing.

I remember that add
I saw a rifle hanging in a Marine hardware store in Anacortes Wa years ago. Looked just like it a wetherby I think
I aske to see it the scope was still
Perfict. I asked if it was the one used in the add but the employees there didn’t know. And I never presued it further as I bought an 88 win the same day they had hangin in there it was too cheap and I wanted to pay and run before they changed there mind

Finally someone mentions this. You can’t beat physics, and three points of opposing contact on the erector assembly vs. two and opposing springs wins every time. Good engineering. Too bad morons kept trying to adjust the scopes without loosening the posi-lock feature, I believe Burris got tired of repairing user induced damage.

Probably vortex- they have a good warranty and lots of soldiers Ive seen on Instagram use them.

Likely the answer is the Trijicon ACOG. Is has been said that the handle on the AR will distort or break before the ACOG.

Just returned a signature that had some
Debris floating around in it it had damaged the glass internally those feel like a brick solid built scope but first scope I ever had with crap
Floating around in it

Nightforce.

2.5-10x24
2.5-10 Compact
5.5-22 from back in the day, saw em take some pretty solid licks, they never done anything but lie there bolted on ready to go to work for you!

Overall, I've found the USA built Burris offerings to be very tough and consistent in their tracking. Still have a couple of their USA built Short Mag and older gloss compacts in service, and I wouldn't say no to more of them for levers and "woods" rigs.

Perhaps their current offerings are just as tough - the FF2 seem widely regarded as a tough scope - but I don't have much first hand experience with thier Asiatic offerings.

I just saw this posting on another site. The rifle in the video is chambered for a 14.5X114 necked down to .50 cal, shooting a Hornady 750gr .510 A-Max.

https://marchscopes.com/news/10738/


The presenter says the recoil is much worse than a 50BMG rifle, and that means I do not want to try it as I do not like recoil. Yes, I am a wimp, but that March Genesis scope isn't.

I bounced my Remington 700 with a 2x7 Leupold directly onto the scope from a 6' top bunk at our cabin, and it hit the floor and actually bounced about 2'. It was only off by about 1/4" at 100 yards when I checked it.. Sold me!