Thread: Picking an entry level ~600m scope

Appreciate all the input each of you have taken the time to provide - lots of good food for thought here.

Originally Posted by Matt-P.Nth

Personally if my budget was set at $700 I would be trolling through trademe looking for a second hand bushnell 2.5-16 6500 to pop up. It ticks all your boxes but does have capped turrets but it’s hard to beat that magnification range at that price.

Appreciate it - will look into them.

Originally Posted by burtonator

I can vouch for a weaver superslam 3-15x42.
Not the greatest glass but a pretty good scope and pop up turrets are great for dialing
If you look out for a second hand one they are usually about $5-$600
Great scope for the $$

Will look into them too, thanks burtonator.

Originally Posted by GWH

I can 2nd that, i have one, I ran it on my 7mm SAUM for a few years, and now its on one of my 284's. Its done plenty of work dialing out well beyond 600. Mate has one too on his 280AI, good scopes, good at first and last light too.

Heres another option for you, with HD glass etc - https://athlonoptics.com/product/midas-tac-6-24x50-mil/

I know where you can prob get a good discount under the RRP too. I have an Athlon Ares BTR 4.5-27x50 on my 28 Nosler. The midas Tac has basically the same inner workings as my Ares BTR, FFP, hard zero stop, it just doesnt have the Illuminated ret of my Ares.

Appreciate that GWH. Athlon's been one of the brands that I've heard of intermittently as a good undervalued scope but never looked into further.

Originally Posted by Tahr

https://cameralandny.com/products.ht...evance&x=0&y=0

Thanks! Hadn't seen that.

Originally Posted by 300_BLK

There was a second hand Sig Sauer Tango 4 on here the other day for $600.

FFP
MIL / MIL or MOA / MOA
custom turret free matched to your load
Life time warranty
Dials well (to 1200m, furthest I have shot one)
Illuminated
Locking turrets
Parallax adjustable
Glass is good

I've got a lower power sig scope that I've been happy with. Haven't found the one you mentioned yet but added it back to the list. Had done an initial look into Sig Sauer but it seemed like they were out of my budget. I'll have to look harder.

Originally Posted by gonetropo

pretty happy with my minox though it zooms up to 25X power. works well

And added minox to the list. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

go loopy....they work and will alway do so or get refitted to do so. they hold thier value...you asked for no frills....vx1 will do that but Im told the higher spec /$$$ models have much better glass (my vx1 is ok and works but older M8 beats it hands down for clarity) that said the last 3 deer Ive shot with .270 and said vx1 3x9x40 were all over/around the 300-350 mark and had no issues.

Good to know - appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Some peripheral advice:
You will need a rangefinder so if you haven’t got one then get that first.
Get plenty of practice to see what you can hit at 500m before you shoot at animals.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

When you first get the scope test it out on the range perhaps on a 22.
See how it tracks up to 5 mil or 20 moa and does it return to zero ?
Check it shooots to the same point of impact over the power range especially at the top.
Do a Löw light and Resolution test to check whether you can really see more in the top 2 or 3x.
Check whether zero parallax and sharp trgetfocus coincide. This depends on your eyes whether short or long sighted I think.
It doesn’t have to be mechanically perfect, just you need to know any foibles it has.

Yep, appreciate all of the above. Realistically animal shots will probably be limited to 300m+/-, and the rest of the capacity will be target shooting simply because it's something I've wanted to get into for a while. Will try out the testing options as you say.

Originally Posted by Ultimitsu

Why do you need FFP if you shoot out to 600m which means you will need accurate ranging every time?

Sorry Ultimitsu, not sure I follow the question?

Originally Posted by ebf

Yup, FFP for close shooting in a bush environment is not optimal either. At low magnification some of the reticles are just about unusable.

If you are going to bush hunt with the scope, I'd suggest you be pretty firm on low end mag of 3 or 4, and steer away from 6. Things get pretty wobbly when taking an offhand shot at 6 power

One of the other pros of Leupy is that they make scopes that are light. Significantly so compared to some other manufacturers.

That's a good point on the weight. I figured I would pare weight down elsewhere to balance it out if I had to.
In regards to FFP being difficult to use at low magnification I've somewhat accepted that as a cost, though I am leaning towards a low end magnification at 3x. I've got other options for dedicated bush or short range hunting, so this would be a 100-300 yard hunting gun, and a longer distance "learning to target shoot" gun.
I would be surprised if I couldn't get within 300 yards of an animal somehow in 90% of cases... further distance shooting than that is just something I've wanted to try for a long time.