Long Range Competition Scope

[browninghunter86]

Anyone have thoughts on what Brand I should be looking for if I am wanting to get into benchrest/F-TR competitive shooting? Looking for least expensive yet having good quality.

I have been looking at a Millet LRS and Vortex PST and Sightron SIII scopes in atleast 24x power but not sure what I need


Thanks for the help

[brmfan]

I have the Sightron SIII 6-24x and for the price I doubt you will find a scope with better glass or solid tracking ability. Plus you get a new scope if something breaks- not fixed up or a refurb- for the life of the scope.

[big al hunter]

I have 2 vortex scopes and a binocular. Good quality. Whatever you choose look through it and compare to other models.

[browninghunter86]

If only using for target/benchrest I think I would save money by getting a fixed power scope? I need parallax adjustment and atleast 16x magnification

Hopeing to shoot out to 1000 one of these days

[Powderman]

For pure competition use, I'd look hard at the Nightforce benchrest scopes.
If you want a truly versatile scope that you can use for either competition, hunting, or anything else you care to think of, get a Nightforce NXS model.

The 3.5-15x50 or 56 and the 5.5-22x have by far some of the widest adjustment ranges available. You have a full 100 minute adjustment range for elevation.

For example, the .308 175 grain bullet at 2600 fps (think Federal Gold Medal Match 175 grain) will drop 410-413 inches at 1000 yards. If you have your scope mounted well, and a zero near optical center, you can adjust for 41.25 minutes of elevation and still have almost 9 minutes left to play with--and that's without a 20 minute rail, too!

The only scopes I have seen that are as clear and bright as a Nightforce are Kahles, Zeiss and Schmidt und Bender. Take a look at them!

[geetarman]

^^^^^^^ True dat.

The first time I looked through a Nightforce scope, I was spell bound by the brightness and clarity. Nothing I have touches it. I only have one.

From all the folks that really like Zeiss, Schmidt and Bender, Swarovski, I am afraid to look through one of their scopes. I don't think my bank account could handle the hit

[browninghunter86]

sorry i forgot to mention I need to be well under those scopes price range. Needing to be under $500 at most


Been reading alot about Weaver T36x and the SightronSII 36x scopes are about as good as you can get for that price point?

Any thoughts?

[Powderman]

Dude!

Bear Basin Outfitters is your friend.

0% financing if you pay within 12 months. That's how I got mine.

Now, repeat after me....

ALL YOUR NIGHTFORCE ARE BELONG TO US!!!!

[4runnerman]

I second Sightron 8-32x 56 here..

[browninghunter86]

now I can't decide what reticle in the Sightron would be best for F-TR shooting

[Powderman]

Hate to tell you this friend...but, your Sightron 8-32 scope appears to not have the necessary elevation adjustments to get you out to 1000 yards.

As an example...shooting a .308 175 grain bullet with a MV of 2600-2650 fps, and a 100 yard zero, I will have to add 41-42 minutes of elevation to hit a 1000 yard target.

The Sightron scope has a total elevation travel of 70 inches. That's 35 minutes from center, up or down. That's 6 minutes (24 clicks on a 1/4 minute scope) too short.

You can stretch it a bit by adding a 20 minute rail to the rifle, if you wish. However, you might consider buying a scope that has the proper adjustment range in the first place.

And, I know you said where your budget was. Here's the sad truth--you WILL get what you pay for in almost any endeavor. Of course, there will be bargains to be had but those are the exceptions rather than the rule.

If you can, I highly recommend that you save your coin for some REALLY good glass. If you must buy now, you mentioned a Weaver. I would take a long look at them--a proven line with a great history. Other than that, the LOWEST end scope I'd consider for serious work would be a Burris--and they're darned good scopes for the money. I have a 6-24x50 XTR--it has stood up well to calibers from .223 to .308 to .50 BMG without issues.

Leupold is an excellent choice, of course. But--check out some other optics, and save your money if you can.

[4runnerman]

True Powderman for the 308. Although not to many shoot 1000 yards in FTR. I shot FTR last year and we shot 600- 90% of the time and a few 800 yards. The majority of the time it is 300 and 600. As you mentioned a 20 scope base would be required. I shoot a 6MMBR and have all the room i need to get to 1000 yards with my Sightron. I wish i could afford a Nightforce,but budget say's not yet. Being FTR is limited to 223 and 308 and the fact that you shoot 300 and 600 yards almost always the scope would be fine for what he will be doing.

As for scope choice both Weaver and Sightron in straight 36 power is ok. The one issue you might run into with a straight 36 is Mirage, you have no adjustment to help minimize it with a straight power. I would go variable if possable. What i see ( with my eyes). F-class Open and FTR seem to be controlled by variable while Bench seems to be straight power.

[Jim Watson]

The few places I have shot F-T/R, if they have a 1000 yard range, they SHOOT 1000 yards. One range near here will shoot midrange if they cannot arrange to close the road between the 1000 and 600 yard lines, but not otherwise.

Most shooters I know use an elevated base even if their scope claims to have enough adjustment to reach 1000 yards. They want to stay near the middle of the adjustment range for better optical and mechanical performance. This may mean that they can't go DOWN far enough to plink at 100 yards but they don't much care. A friend is getting a base tweaked so it will allow him to zero at 200 yards with about a minute to spare for quickie tests but the main purpose is 500 yards and more.

There are a lot of plain crosshair and small dot reticles in F class.
You don't need a ranging reticle, you know the distances.
You could use a mil-dot or some other graduated reticle to hold for wind changes but it is as easy to hold center or "9 ring at 3 o'clock" with a plain reticle. And no risk of losing which dot or hashmark you were supposed to be using under given conditions.


In a fixed power scope for simplicity and economy, I find a 36X about all I want for benchrest and maybe a little too much. My 8.5-25X variable crept up from about 16X to 25X as I got used to it, so a fixed 20-24X would be worth considering.

[browninghunter86]

Based on alot of help on forums and lots of looking online I think my best value scope will be a Sightron SIII in variable and like mentioned here a Weaver or Sightron fixed power scope.

Here in South Georgia mirage can be bad. Only a couple times with my cheapo Nikon 12x hunting scope have I had mirage bad enough I did not want to even shoot. Which leads me towards the variable power scopes again


And yes I will be putting a 20MOA base on rifle regardless of what scope I go with

[hagar]

Take a good hard look at the Weaver Extreme scopes, I like mine better than an expensive Leupold LR scope. They are a little pricier than the regular Weaver scopes, but worth it.

On a side note, I once shot my 22 inch flattop AR15 with 75 AMax bullets in a 300/500/600/800/1000 yard match. All my varmint scopes ran short on elevation adjustments, especially the Bushnell/Bausch & Lomb models. I had an older Weaver V9 and just for the heck I tried it, and it had more than 60 minutes of elevation adjustments. People laughed at me when I showed up for the match, but I shot a darn decent score (485/500) with it, and clobbered people with $3000 rifles and $1500 scopes. That 75 Amax was coming out that barrel at more than 3000 feet/sec with 24.7 RL15, and had more than enough umphh for the range.

[browninghunter86]

Any thoughts on what reticle may be "better suited" for what I am wanting to do either the Sightron SIII 8-32x MOA or the 8-32x 1/8 Target Dot reticle?

This is going to be used for Fclass shooting

[brmfan]

If you are shooting 600 yard or even 1K F-Class the target dot might cover too much of the bullseye (5" circle @1K). I like the modified mil dots with the 1/2 mil hash marks, and the crosshairs are still thin enough to put it on the center ring. I also prefer not to run the turrets up and down, and the hash marks come in handy for minor windage and elevation changes on the fly.

I shot one F-Class at 1K a couple years ago where the crosswind was between 20-25 mph full value. My dope sheet wasn't helping much and I ended up using the mil dot reticle to 'wing it' and managed to hook most of the bullets into the 9 & 10 rings.

[browninghunter86]

looks like the 1/4 Dot will cover half the x ring at all distances. The 1/8 Dot will cover one quarter the x ring so not sure what that does for aiming. Like mentioned never shot this before but those don't seem bad as long as it doesn't cover the entire x ring

The MOA has a 1/4 DOT in the center of the reticle plus the MOA hash lines

[4runnerman]

I went with fine crosshairs on my sightron for just that reason. The red dot is nice for some reasons (like NRA targets ) I remember my first time out. The offical NRA Targets are all dark Black in color. Being the rookie i am-My first question was WHY.. Put a dang white dot in the middle of the thing.. Took some getting used to. Hash marks are another benny for sure,but with a decent tracking scope and knowing you bullet drop are not really a must have extra. For me-zeroed at 300 yards= 33 clicks and dead on at 600 yards

[browninghunter86]

witrh the 8-32x 4runnerman can how well can you make out the target at 300-600 yds?

[4runnerman]

At 300 you can see the lady bugs when they land. At 600 if you have targets that show color when you shoot ( what ever they are called) on a good day you can see the mark. Other than that on white or black paper you can not see them at 600 yards. My pratice Target at 600 is a 1 inch circle. I have no problem seeing that at 600 or further for that matter

[browninghunter86]

Aim small miss small

[4runnerman]

Aim small miss small

How true How true.

[browninghunter86]

I'm just trying to determine if the DOT reticle would "hinder" my sight picture on target. Some say it will others say it is great and problem I have is I do not live close to a Sightron Dealer to go look at the scopes in person

[oldmanFCSA]

Consider using an angled base to permit scope adjustments out to desired range.

15 - 30- 45 - 55 minute bases are available.