Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Matte scope on blued rifle

I just bought a tang safety Ruger in 358. I don't have a gloss scope to put on this shiny blue rifle. How do most of you feel about matte on bright blue vs. gloss on bright blue. I don't want to buy or trade for a gloss scope but I personally hate matte on blue. powdr

Me too. Even if you want to purchase gloss, head out to find one. Good luck. Last time I wanted new gloss, I drove about sixty miles and came up empty. I have a few rifles that matte is OK on, but some scream for gloss. Jack

The only person who has to be happy with it is you. But I am a curmudgeon and my gloss rifles have gloss scopes. They are not hard to find on the Classifieds.

When confronted with this issue, my usual response has been to use gloss bases with matte rings. It doesn't look quite as awkward as a matte scope standing alone in gloss rings...

Good thought Mudhen. That is definitely an option. powdr

Sort of depends on the blued rifle. Today some of the so called blued rifles look somewhat matte to me so those are OK but on a high polish blue like a weatherby etc. it looks pretty bad. I believe that Leupold does still offer some gloss scopes but the pickins are getting slim. I think the matte craze is one of the great scams ever pulled on the gun buying public.

Matte scope with matte rings looks good on a gloss receiver to me. Of course I'm easily satisfied.

I use matte scopes on two pre-64 M-70 rifles, I think it looks fine.

Gunner

Pretty much the same with me. Also have some gloss scopes on matte rifles. I do somewhat prefer to match 'em up, but obsess far more about exactly the right size, magnification and other features of the scope more than the finish.

I have a gloss Leupold 2.5-8 that I would trade you. Given that I sold you that gun, I think my comment that it warrants a gloss scope carries extra weight. The bluing on that gun is deep and lusterous. A matte scope will be jarring 9even though I typically do not lose much sleep over such details.)

Count me in with Mule Deer... I've got some "mismatches" but I don't worry about it all that much even though I usually prefer a match. I do like to at least have the rings match the scope finish. Some folks get carried away with that stuff beyond just scopes; like the guy at the range who couldn't stand the looks of a gloss Harris bipod on his matte rifle.

Would rather see a matte scope on a blue rifle, than a gloss black scope on a matte finished rifle.

Goin with Muledeer on this. Matter of fact I put only Talley LW matte on all my guns save for a pair of DNZs my 270 wears. All have matte scopes regardless if they are gloss, matte or stainless rifles. Wish I'd have seen this article before, I just put the matte to a gloss Burris Mini 3x9 you may have been interested in

It's hard because the Ruger rings and bases are one piece. I have several sets but they're all blue. The scope I have is the ZEISS 1.8-5.5x38 which I think is about perfect for a 358. I don't know...I'll figure something out. Thanks guys for the feedback. powdr

Except for a silver scope on a blued rifle, I could care less what matches, as long as the scope is right for the rifle and round.

I was scrounging for rings the other day to mount a matte black scope on a SS rifle. I found one silver base, one gloss black base, and gloss blue rings.

Amazingly, the rifle shoots great.

I guess I'm in that camp as well. When I used to have 20/20 vision and never needed to fiddle with the eye piece much, I just picked whatever Leupold scope I wanted for that rifle and matched the scope finish to the rifle - gloss or matte. Now that I have to wear glasses all the time, I've really come to like the Euro style fast focus eye pieces which means my scope finish choices are primarily matte. I've since gotten used to the look of matte scopes on gloss blue rifles and it doesn't bother me as much as it used to.

I don't worry about it much either. I prefer matte scopes on most all rifles, and don't like silver ones period. I'm sure most rings could be de-glossed pretty easy if need be. Not so easy to go the other direction.

Matte scopes look good on p64s because the receiver is beadasted. I believe the OP is referring to gloss bluing/matte scope.

This.

I personally wouldn't sweat the mismatch.

If you really want gloss, look used. A slightly older Leupold will be easier to find and I think that the used gloss scopes run just a little cheaper than the matte.