[quote]countingbeans wrote:
Can we talk optics?
WTF!
Can anyone point me in a good direction, I’m lost, lmao.
I want something for a bench shooter bolt action, mainly between 50-200 yards max. (By the time I’m looking to bust this fucker out to 600 I’ll know what I’m doing.)
Is a 1-6x enough, or should I go with 3-9x? Not looking to break the bank here either, some shit burger that holds zero is fine, I don’t need fancy gizmos, super awesome taticool redicals or 3,000,000x magnification.
Was looking at the 1-4x & 1-6x because as I graduate I can put those on the AR and use the 1x as a “red dot” type site. [/quote]
It gets pretty complicated and I’m not a scope expert.
The general rule of thumb people throw out is 1x magnification to hit a 1 moa target for every 100 yards range. So to shoot 600 yards, you’ll need at least 6x. This is kind of a bullshit heuristic and high power shooters shoot to 600 with iron sights. The military used to use a fixed 10x for the army and marine sniper rifle platforms.
There is a SWFA 3-9x that is a good deal, but 3x magnification is a bit much for short range blasting. They also have a fixed 10x that is a good deal. I’d recommend these for entry level scopes for a bolt gun. No fancy reticles, zoom options, or features, but they work and the dial true. I have a 3-15x SWFA that was maybe $700 and have been out to close to 800 shooting a short barreled .223 in mild wind hitting moa targets consistently.
There are some nice 1-6x and 1-4x scopes out there, but a true 1x power variable power scope with a zoom is expensive ($~1500). A lot of them sacrifice and do like 1.1x-whatever power because it is less of a design challenge. You’ll see most of the 1-4 and 1-6 scopes cost almost as much as the 3-9x, 2.5-10x, 3-15x.
If you are looking to shoot groups at 100-200 yards, you’ll want at least a 10x. If you want to ding larger steel targets, 1-4x is good, and will be less of an investment than a 1-6x.
Look at the SWFA and Vortex PST scopes. There’s more options out there, but these are good price point scopes that will get you started shooting, and then after you get some experience you can figure out what you really want.
The key is to have a scope that if you have to dial, will return back to original zero when you dial it back. Even if it doesn’t dial true, you will need it to return to zero. Everything else you can figure out by shooting and get your DOPE.
Hitting at 600-1000 yards is not hard. If you can hit 1" dots at 100 yards consistently, you will be able to hit 6" targets at 600 yards without a whole lot of trouble. Wind is the only real problem.
