Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Scope for Youth Rifle

Rifle - Tikka t3x compact in .243. Suggestions on a < $400 scope for a solid youth setup? I want to stay lightweight.

Bias to cameralandny offerings

Burris FFII 3-9X40 is pretty solid and will give you some money left over to buy ammo.

The Hawke Vantage 3-9x40 AO MIL DOT for $119.99 is certainly worth a look.
11 layer fully multi-coated optics for excellent clarity
Adjustable objective for parallax correction (AO models)
1 inch mono-tube chassis for superior strength
¼ MOA low profile ‘no-snag’ fingertip turrets
Fast focus eyebell and high torque zoom ring
Threaded objective/ocular for optional accessories
Waterproof, Shockproof, Nitrogen purged.
All calibre rated.

Even with the shorter LOP of a youth stock, a child may have a hard time getting behind a scope with short eye relief. I'd put long eye relief near the top of my list.

How young? Young people don't have the patients that adults have and tend to putz with stuff if left to their own for too long. Fixed X scopes tend to work well for a youngster as there aren't any dials to turn to see something in the distance. Just a thought.

Good choice here.

A burris ffIV 2.5-10×42 is what I put on my daughters cva scout compact in 6.5 creedmoor.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Burris-Fullfield-IV-2-5-10x42-Plex-Matte/425280013

I'm a fan of fixed power scopes for beginners. Less to fiddle with or think about when it's time to make a shot. I have a Weaver K6 on a Ruger American for the boys to use.

My niece is 12 - this will be her dedicated deer rifle to grow with her

I put a Leupold vx1 2-7 on my daughters Weatherby Vanguard 243 when she was a small 12 year old. Long eye relief and wide field of view, also mounts low. Has done well for her past 9 years. Man how time flies....Joe

Just went through this for the youth compact.243 I bought to get my kids started. Decided on a Leupold freedom 2-7x33 duplex.
Reasons I choose it were;
Long eye relief with big “sweet spot” that seems to be a little more forgiving if they don’t get their face on the same spot on the stock than some of the cheaper imported scopes that I had my 10year old daughter try to look through.
wide field of view,
Smaller diameter so I could mount it extra low for their smaller face and neck
At least for starting them I think 7x is plenty for the max range I will impose on their shot distances.
And I think a lower end “high power” is desired so that if they turned up the power ring it wasn’t going to be on 20x and have a small field of view and they couldn’t find animal. Had a friend who’s son did that on their first hunt and the pig walked away and his kid never saw it in the scope. Later he saw his son had cranked up the magnification to 18x because that’s what he shot it with off a bench the day before.
I went with Leupold because I plan on this being the starter rifle for all four of my kids and possibly my nephews so I was willing to spend a little more for quality and a warranty than if it was for just a few seasons for one kid to out grow.
That said if I had seen a good deal on a quality fixed 4x I would have grabbed one but I couldn’t find any in stock when I was buying it a few months ago.
Good luck

I'd say more than plenty for anything inside 300 yards.

This exactly. I'd add a Weaver K4 also.

I put an FX-3 6x42 on my youth gun.

I put a fixed 4x Leupold on a Ruger 77 compact in 243 Winchester 20 years ago I bought new for my son’s first deer rifle. My son is now 28 and still deer hunts with it solely every year. To him it is a tool and it works so why change. Not positive, but think only two minor adjustments on scope over 20 years. Wood and blue rifle, all original and MOA accurate with handloads.

Dad is a rifle looney with a safe full of guns and shoots many rifles and calibers. Haven’t gotten him to shoot anything else yet for deer or groundhogs, except for a father son elk hunt. For that he chose a -06 that was his great grandfather’s that I removed a bushnell fixed 4x for a Burris 3-9 FF2 back in 2005. He did kill an elk with a hand load Dad worked up for him, 180 grain Nosler partition.

Keep it simple, especially for the new hunters.

Yes.

Leupold 2 x 7 x 33 or 1.5 x 5. sight in at highest power and zoom down to 2x for hunting.

This.

Having picked up one... I'd second this recommendation in a heart beat!

I just replaced the disposable Bushnell Trophy XLT 3-9 (disposable as in if he dropped it out of a treestand, no big deal) on my grandson's rifle with one of the $100 Amazon FFIIs, but this is his fifth season, so he has some experience and a few bucks under his belt. On reflection, I think an LPVO with a proper hunting reticle would be a good idea, ideally a 1-6. Generally they have good eye-relief, and even if the kid is a power-ring fiddler, he/she/they can’t get into too much trouble with 6x on top.