Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Best scope for 7-08 blr Whitetail Rifle

Hunting 100-250 yards with old eyes; What scope under $400 would be best for consideration to be mounted on a Browning 7-08 BLR.
Lwr308

I like Bushnell 4200 Elite 3-9x40 or maybe a Zeiss Conquest. Sightron Big Sky is a nice scope with really decent optics but it is very sensitive to eye position and only comes with a Wide Plex Reticle. Also, SWFA sometimes has some of the newer V3 Leupolds on their SAMPLELIST that are brand new and under $400.00 that were only used for stock photos.

1.75-6 leupold

2.5x Leupold ultralight. Won't alter the balance of your rifle, plenty of eye relief, more than enough power for the ranges you describe.

Hard to argue with this one.

LWR,
As one with eyes that have seen 56 hunting seasons come and go, have had several surgeries on my eyes, i would offer just a little different opinion for a scope for the 7-08 BLR. If you shoot enough from the bench and in practice developing loads or just shooting with factory loads, i would use a scope of more than 1.5x6. That's a great scope for relatively close work and good eyes. If i were in your position i would choose a low profile, high quality scope of a minimum of 3x9 and even then you might not be able to see your shots on target at 9x. I like being able to see and plot my shots without having to go downrange and look at them and i don't like having to take a spotting scope to the range, but that's just me. AS our eyes age we loose the ability to focus on that crosshair and more importantly we loose the ability to see a fine crosshair in low light situations...getting old for our eyes is a bummer....
Bill

I am 56 also, I shoot with a 1-4 and on up. At 100 off the bench if you make a big X (a Muledeeer/John Barnes suggestion) I can shoot into about 2 inches with the bullets the gun likes. This is a lightbarreled semiauto so 2 inches is good for me. A Marlin 44 mag with a 1-4 on it could be coaxed into shooting into 2-3 inches, 1.5 for 3 on occasion. Like many I prefer the 3 x 9 off the bench at 9X, but shoot every thing on 3. Buy an ebay 2.5 x 8 leupold, they will always fix it at no charge no questions asked if it is not working right.

For that particular rifle and cartridge I'd like a Leupold VX-II 2-7x33. It is a trim scope and more than sufficient for the ranges you're hunting.

I used one like it for some time on an A Bolt.

Now using a 2.5-8x36 on a 7mm-08 M70 Fwt and think I'd have been better off going with the 2-7.

I'm 53 with middle aged eyes that spend too much time in front of a computer screen so take my thoughts FWIW.

For me, a straight 6x36 Leupold would be nice for a compact lightweight scope w/good eye relief but plenty zoom for 250 yds.

If wanting a variable, a good 2-7 or 2.5-8x would be a good balanced match in performance and size for those svelte compact BLR 708s.

Nice rifle you have there, not knowing your terrain, etc.. a straight 2.5x or 4x may or may not be good for you, and you mentioning your eyesight, you may want a little more magnification, if anything for zeroeing/practice at the range to gain confidence. Anything from a 4x fixed to a 3-9x variable will likely get you fixed up.

I prefer fixed 6x on many rifles, but realize a fixed scope may not be best for everyone, nor every hunters conditions. Truth be known a good Leupold or Zeiss 4x is a solid simple choice that will do alot of deer killing and many overlook them IMHO falsely feeling insecure with less than a higher magnification scope. On the other hand, there must be a reason 3-9s are a top choice, they work well for most people under most circumstances.

Confused yet? Sorry.....if so. Splitting the difference, your back at the 2-7 or 2.5-8 scopes, and for a deer hunter at your ranges, that ain't a bad place to be

lwr308,

For me, there would be a 2 1/2-10X Tasco in my future.

Wait a minute. That's what I have on my deer rifle right now. I paid seventy-one bucks inbcluding freight. What do you think of that?

For the 7-08 and its .308-based brethren, I've used the following (note comments):

Leupold Vari-XII 1-4 (low maginification for all-around use, but I purposely did this to discourage shots outside the intended user's effective range - <girlfriend at the time>)

Leupold 2-7 Compact(was a bit too compact for proper mounting with standard rings/bases, but would have worked with a shorter lenght of pull)

Leupold Vari-XII 2-7 (good match)

Leupold Vari-XIII 1.5-5 (good match...in fact, I have two of these)

Leupold Vari-XIII 1.75-6 (original shorter tube model was a bit too short for proper mounting with standard rings/bases...but Leupold lengthened this the next year, if I recall)

With today's prices, unless you know someone with a FFL who would sell you at near cost, some of these would be over your cost threshold.

In the past 10 years or so, when selecting rifle/scope combos for my father and father-in-law (now ages 73 and 68), I went with a Leupold 3-9 for dad's .308 and a Leupold 2-7 for my father-in-law's 7-08. I felt Pops could use the higher magnification as he was once an "Expert" in the Army and supposedly shot at the nationals...but that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Another 56 year old - I really like the WEAVER CLASSIC EXTREME 1.5-4.5X24 30MM TUBE ILLUMINATED GERMAN #4 RETICLE Link has a flexible eye relief, big bright site picture, and nifty red dot adjustable rheostat.

I'd go for any of the fixed or low powered Leupolds. 1-4, 2-7, 1.75-6, 2.5-8 are some of my favorites.

I've run a 2.5x8 on two BLR's. They work great. The comb of a BLR stock seems to be somewhere between "irons" and "scope", and the large eyebox of the Leupold really helps with that.

2-7x33 VX-II

Bushnell Elite 3200 3x9x40. Under $200 US.

Best bang for the buck out there. Excellent Japanese optics, comes with Rainguard, will never give you any problems.

A Leupold VX2 2-7x33 with a heavy duplex reticle would fit a Browning BLR nicely.

Jeff

sir springer,

That Rainguard is worth a hundred bucks. My next scope will have it.

Thanks everyone= It is good to know I'm not the only one in this boat. Leaning towards the 2-7x33 Leupold. Lwr308