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Old July 15, 2013, 07:39 AM   #1
Magnum Wheel Man
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Join Date: July 26, 2006
Location: Southern Minnesota
Posts: 9,333
Scope reviews...

I have a nice collection of center fire bolt action rifles ranging from 17 Fireball, to 416 Rigby, & it's come time to do some "serious casual" shooting, so I'm going through & replacing scopes as needed, & adding some to rifles I got, that didn't have a scope...



most of my shooting is done with aging eyes, for relaxing, & shooting at ranges from 50 yards to 300 yards on my personal range...

I have a thread explaining more about what I'm looking for here...

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=528522

so right now I'm going to review each scope & decide if I want to keep it on the existing rifle, move it to another rifle, or send it down the road at the next gun show... I'll be reviewing both new & old scopes, as well as some cheaper, & some up to Burris & Luepold in quality ( I don't currently have anything I consider better quality than Burris or Luepold, but I do have a dedicated & purpose built long range rifle in 6.5 X 284 that I'm building, in which my budget for a scope may go a bit higher...

1st scope being reviewed is on my custom Remington 700 chambered in 17 Fireball ( 2nd one down on the left side )... the scope was on the rifle originally when I got it, & the rifle was originally chambered in 17 Remington, but the throat was eroded enough, that a change was needed... the scope is a "vintage" Redfield 4-12X with adjustable Parallax... & a plex reticle

Condition of the scope... obviously used... light dents dings & scratches showing lots of use, but no real abuse...

Clarity... is just "OK"... fading around the edges at the higher magnifications, it was able to focus well for me with both glasses & without glasses... Parallax works fine, a little stiff around the 50 mark, but smooth at the rest of the rotation

Function... I thought I remembered I had sighted in the scope... 3 shots went into a 4" dot at 100 yards on initial firing of some factory ammo I had to shoot up, turret adjustment is easily accomplished without tools, however there is no audible or felt clicks when making adjustments, & they are not resettable to zero

Repeatability... on all these scopes I'll be performing box tests... in this case, I started with 10 lines ( since the adjustments don't click ) up, then 10 lines left, then 10 lines down, then 10 lines right, with the goal of ending up right where you started... box test function was perfect... there was no marking saying how much adjustment a "line" was... I assumed it would be a 1/4" but 10 lines netted me a 5" box indicating 1/2" adjustments per line

Final Thoughts thumbs up or down... despite the optics IMO, not being as good as a modern scope, & the fact that the turret adjustments don't "click", & that the adjustments aren't resettable to zero, the perfect score on the box test, & the power range, I think I'll keep this scope, on this gun... I think it'll work fine for my intended use of this rifle... I doubt I'll ever shoot a 17 caliber over 300 yards, when I have better calibers for that purpose... I'll likely try to find a way of marking the turret position, so I can adjust for wind & elevation, & return it to it's original position...

please feel free to add your own scope reviews here, as you may effect what I purchase in the future, & I'll keep adding mine... I have a Vortex 4-16X coming, that will get put on my 22-250, but my next review will likely be a Burris 3-9X that's mounted on my custom fast twist 22 Hornet Ruger 77... then the next, another vintage Redfield 6X that's on a heavy barrel Remington 700 in 223
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Last edited by Magnum Wheel Man; July 15, 2013 at 08:11 AM.
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