Nikon Prostaff BDC on a .223

[jd3020]

I have recently purchased a savage edge .223 centerfire rifle and i am wanting to change out the factory scope for a new one with BDC. I am kind of headed towards the Nikon Prostaff 3-9x40 in matte black with the BDC reticle. Is this a good choice for this caliber of gun and how well will the Prostaff hold up to the recoil of the .223?

[rantingredneck]

I've used the Prostaff BDC scopes for awhile now on .30-06, .308, 7mm-08, and .243 Win rifles with no problems. Your .223 will not hurt it.

The BDC reticles are set for a 150 gr .30 caliber projectile at 2700 fps using the 9 power setting on the scope. There are instructions in the scope manual that tell you how to calibrate the reticle to your caliber/load by adjusting the magnification power to match your trajectory. YMMV on how well it works.

[jd3020]

I guess i did not realise that the bdc was calibrated to one specific grain of a bullet. I understand that i couldnt put this on my 223 and sight in at 100 yards and expect the next circle to be a 200 yard shot but the bdc is supposed to take the guess work out of it all. But after researching with the nikon i found out that they have an app for the iphone that you put in your scope model and what you are shooting and the bullet type and it will tell you what your next circles will be as far as yardage. So would it be safe to assume that this is correct? The only reason i ask this is because of my shakyness when seeing a coyote at 250 yards. I want to be able to have someone take the range finder and say that, that animal is 250 yards i move my gun up to a lower circle and pull the trigger instead of having to guess how much 2 inches high at 100 yards is to be dead on for my 250 yard shot.

[Poodleshooter]

Nikon's ballistic calculator is going to tell you what your drop is for each circle, and for the intersections of each circle with the crosshair for a given load. So for example the first circle top might be POI at 178 yards, the circle center might be your POI at 198yds, the bottom of the first circle POI at 211yds and so on. Your job is to remember this stuff for your load.
Real world results will vary. Loads seldom drop exactly as the little charts tell you because there are too many variables.
The BDC is designed to be a "best guess", like any other ranging reticle with limited hash marks.

[pabuckslayer08]

They work well, thing is get onto Nikons spot on website and you choose your ammo, bullet and gun caliber. They ARE NOT caliber specific. You just get onto the the site and set the calculator to what you have it shot in at and boom you have all your dots with yardages right there. For the money they work very well, I have a BDC on my 30-06 and the BDC is down to the 1 inch out to 300 or so. Works great but be sure to use the Spot On feature, they say 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 but use the spot on, mine ended up being, 100, 212, 317, 401, and 458.

[M.O.A.]

just get the coyote special it comes in 3-9 or 4.5-14X40 with i woulld go with the 4.5-14 for yote hunting. it has the bdc that is for the 223 tipe loads


if u would have got the savage predator in 223 u would have already had this scope

as for me i like a mildot scope for bullet drop and wind ajustment

[tAKticool]

I have a new Nikon ProStaff 4-12x40mm that I put on my Remington 597, it's a great scope for the $160 or so I go it for. I am considering getting the 4-12x40 BDC variety of Nikon ProStaff for my Savage Mark II GXP in .22LR, although I doubted it was calibrated or even useful with a .22LR I just liked the way the scope is and the reticle looked, and figured it couldn't hurt.

[M.O.A.]

or even better leupold has a new mark AR that is made for the 223 cal rifles

[M.O.A.]

tAKticool i dont no much about them but BSA makes a sweet 22cal scope thats made for 22LR in 36 38 and 40gr bullets

[pabuckslayer08]

I have a BSA and its nice but for a long range plinker and hunting gun the Nikons way better. The BSA is super clear but not built as well

[M.O.A.]

yah i know that was too the guy that was talking about his 22LR

[jd3020]

Like i said in my second post that nikon has the spot on chart avaliable for the i phone which i just recently downloaded and i put in that i was using the prostaff 3-9x40 with a 55gn remington hollow point bullet and when you set every thing up to 100 yard sight in and 200 yard target and hit fire it breaks it down from the top of the circle to the bottom of the circle. But i think i have decided to go with the prostaff bdc just because of price. I have looked through one and they seem to be very clear and have good light transparency.

[crockett007]

I ran the Prostaff on my AR for about 6 months. Primary mission was sniping coyotes out to about 600.


IMHO the BDC is worthless. The other issue was the thick reticle, blotting out the target past 150. The scope also has no parallax focus capability, which at longer ranges was a real issue.

I recently upgraded to a 30mm tube tactical scope, much much better.

Nikon has good glass, but, the Prostaff is a 150 yard scope. For a .223 bolt or gas gun, save for some better glass. Just my 2 cents

[Palmetto-Pride]

The Prostaffs are good scopes for the money, but I dont think that they are really made for 600 yd shots. Some of the BuckMaster scopes(Nikon's next line up) have side focus that will help with longer ranges. I personly think Nikon makes some of the best scopes for the money I would put my $500.00 Monarch up against my $1000.00 ZEISS any day.

[dontcatchmany]

Looked thru a Monarch versus a Buckmaster today and the clarity was amazingly superior with the Monarch

Also the BDC circles did not seem as if they were too thick as many have said. I might would see a problem when targets are small and the range causes one to have a poi on the upper or lower of the circle is over the intended target.....i.e. the arc covers the target.

I like the idea of the BDC, just ain't sure of it as yet.

Also looking at Vortex...their ballistics type reticle seems better....of course I might just have to go back to looking at a Zeis Conquest or on to a higher end scope for a 25-06 that might get used 6-8 times a year.

But I have wasted money on many things in my long life

[.300 Weatherby Mag]

I would put my $500.00 Monarch up against my $1000.00 ZEISS any day.

[jd3020]

im not looking to make a 600 yard shot at a yote. Most of the places i hunt the farthest out i could shoot would be 4-500 yards. im not the steadiest shot unless my gun is sitting on a bench in my shooting rest but i dont have enough room in my blind to set up a shooting bench. i just want to know if the prostaff is going to be a good enough scope with the bdc for the 150 bucks that its on sale for right now

[Fusion]

I have a Prostaff, and I think they are decent scopes for the $100 you can get the Nikkoplex model for. However at the $160 the BDC one still sells for I don't think they are a good buy at all, and I'd never pay $160 for one.

That being said, I don't think it will have any problems holding up to a .223. I've got it on a larger centerfire rifle and it holds up just fine. I also was hunting with it and dropped the rifle. I caught it on the way down, but it swung back and the scope hit me in the knee hard enough to leave a bruise. I thought for sure it would be off, but it wasn't. The durability of this scope has been good.

Now, where it doesn't seem so good is the turrets and the glass. The turrets are the type that take a coin or screwdriver to adjust. This is an annoyance and they are fairly hard to adjust. If you are the type that is going to set it one time at the range and leave it, they are fine. However, if you are going to be changing zero's fairly often they are a pita. They seem to track decently. I'm not sure they are exactly 1/4moa like they claim, but they aren't too far from it.

The next is the glass. The glass is decent in this scope. It's by no means bad, and I've seen a lot worse, but it's not up to par with other scopes you can get in the $160 price range. I honestly can't tell a difference optically between this scope and the Simmons Blazer it replaced. I tried several different low light tests, several in the bright daylight, etc, and I just can't tell a bit of difference. Both are slightly better in low light than the Leupold VX-I I've got, but about equal in the daylight. Now, compared to a Bushnell Banner, or cheaper Bushnell's I've tried out, or the Center Point, or several others it does seem slightly brighter, but not a ton. The Burris FFII I've got blows this scope out of the water optically, and you can find one with their version of the ballistic plex reticle(which imo is much better than the circles Nikon uses) on eBay for under $160 quite often or I think they are around $180-190 at most stores. In the daylight with the Burris, the colors vivid and the image appears sharper. In low light the Burris really excels and seems to be a decent bit brighter. The Burris FFII to me is just a better scope in every way. It also has quite a bit better turrets. It's not that the Nikon is a bad scope, but when you can get a Burris FFII for a similar price, I don't see the Nikon being a good buy at all. The Vortex Diamondback is another good choice that's optically superior to the Prostaff, and basically superior in every other way. Both of those have BDC type reticles that imo are quite a bit better than large circles in the scope. Another choice that's even better than both of those is the Vortex Vipers on clearance if you can still find one.

That's basically my opinion. I feel this scope belongs in the $100 market that the Nikkoplex model is in right now on sale. I don't think it can compete with the class it's normally in.

This is also a great read if you have time.
http://opticstalk.com/inexpensive-sc...opic21176.html

[Fusion]

I would put my $500.00 Monarch up against my $1000.00 ZEISS any day.

Sorry, but your Monarch while a great scope isn't near the optical quality of a Zeiss, and anyone that's owned or used both would be glad to tell you that.

[bman940]

JD, Have you checked out Nikon's M-223 line of scopes? I have one on my Savage .223 and it has hit 4 inch jars at 623 yards using the M-223 3-12x42 with the Rapid Action Turret. This is a stock rifle that is 20+ years old. I used to think I was limited to 300 yards because of my own abilities, not any more.
If you like the BDC reticle the Nikon M-223 comes in that configuration as well.
Make sure you check out Spot On as well. www.nikonhunting.com/spoton/

[huntinaz]

I have a BDC reticle on my Monarch and I like it. There is a program online you can get ballistics and theoretical yardage for the circles...my advice is to test them yourself. The yardages Nikon gives don't match in my case, but I have found where they hit and I think it's a useful tool.

Test your yardages, especially for hunting, and I think you will like it.

[4runnerman]

JD3020-- I had the Savage Edge in a 223 also. I put a cheap scope on it and had no issues at all. A 223 really has limited kick,nothing to worry about.
I had a cheap NCStar scope on it and never had a problem out to 600 yards with it. Well over 4000 rounds down the rifle(awesome accurate rifle).
I did get a great deal on a $800.00 scope,Put it on and other than a different scope and better glass, which did not matter to me.made no difference in my accuracy. So it's like 6 of one or half dozen of other. Not much help , i know,but don't buy into the hype of having to spend $1000.00 on a scope

[a7mmnut]

I have several Nikons, three are Pro Staffs, but all of them are 3-9x40's. The light and clarity is unequalled for $100 (Cabela's or Academy Sports). I have a really good Pentax Gameseeker 4-12x40 on my 'yote buster that I paid $150 for five years ago--no issues and very repeatable & reliable. They have the Pentaplex ballistic reticle with varying lengths of crosshairs, and it works great on the .223. It just isn't as bright and clear as the Nikons-not very many are. That being said, Sportsmans Guide has a terrific sale on that Pentax right now for an unbelievable $69.97! Click on the "By Brand" tab, then on "Pentex", or use this link:

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/c....aspx?a=502864

http://thefiringline.com/forums/atta...1&d=1296660805

Don't forget to grab a steady rest stick at Wal-Mart if you can't get a bipod right away. They make a great hiking staff, anyway.

-7-

[jd3020]

ok guys im going to try the nikon prostaff 3-9x40 with the bdc in it. I downloaded the nikon's spot on deal on my apps for my iphone so hopefully it will help with the figuring out of the circles. But i will report back in a few weeks with my findings as long as the weather stays decent here in good ole mo. thanks for all the help

[Palmetto-Pride]

Quote:
I would put my $500.00 Monarch up against my $1000.00 ZEISS any day.
Sorry, but your Monarch while a great scope isn't near the optical quality of a Zeiss, and anyone that's owned or used both would be glad to tell you that.

I have and do use and own both. And I prefer my 4-16x50BDC Monarch over my 3-12x56 Conquest.

But hey if it makes you feel better to spend $1000.00+ for a scope then knock yourself out.