I am looking to buy a new scope for my new custom .264 win mag.
I want the best money can buy period! I was thinking S&B or a premier? I would like somewhere in the neighborhood of a 5.5 or 6-25 for power. money is no object to a point $4000 or less,
but if there is a scope out there just as good without the fancy name for less$ well ok but
quailty is my main concern..........
100yds to 1200 yds and back to EXACT ZERO everytime!!! any suguestions from you big dogs out there would be great.
OK... back to the original post... which doesn't quite match the thread title.
Everyone comes at this question with their own unique priorities and wants.
This is Long Range Hunting and I assume this scope is for hunting unless otherwise stated. When I think of hunting, it includes a lot of rugged terrain and differing, sometimes extreme weather and enviromental conditions. Maybe that's not everyone's idea of hunting, but it is mine. I have fallen hard, twice now, on my scope in as many years in the field. Most recently, walking down a FS road with boiler plate ice covered over by about 1/2' of fresh snow. My feet went out and up from under me and I landed square on my rifle and scope (slung across my back) which landed on the hard as concrete, ice cover road.
If we were asking what the best LR paper target scope is, I would only be reading this thread and not posting in it. I would put a lot higher emphasis on glass quality and resolution than for a hunting scope. Interestingly enough, NF claims its scopes are used on more winning competive shooting rifles than any other scope, and I dont see that being disputed. For a hunting scope, you need enough resolution to shoot game at whatever distance you want to shoot it at and the longest recorded sniper kill was with a NF 5.5-22x50 at 2430 m, which is maybe about 2700 yds? That's far enough for me and I feel that I can easily use that scope set on 5.5x to hold on a deer size animal out to 1500 yds if I needed to.
I've read one member's assessment of Loopy glass being equal to NF glass and I'll have to take him at his word based on his experience. But sitting here in from of my monitor I have read many other reports that NF glass is superior to Loopy glass. I have only once or twice looked through a Loopy in the store, and not next to a NF. I have also read a whole lot more cases of Loopys being sent in for repairs than NF. Good CS is great, but I would rather not deal with CS at all. What I can say about NF glass is that it is excellent. I can count 30 cal bullet holes on a paper target at 427 yds on with my 5.5-22x50 NXS set on 22x. How far can one see 30 cal bullet holes with a Loopy, or a Zeiss or a high end Zeiss or a USO or a S&B, etc.? I can also see well past "legal shooting hours" with my NF and fairly good on 5.5x in good moonlight. If my hunting included hunting lions in moonlight, well then I would probably pick the S&B. If we're talking dark night conditions, it's time to break out the NV scopes.
I consider NF to be the starting rung in the high end scopes and for hunting purposes, the possible superiority of the glass of the other high end scopes is not needed - but if that's what turns you on, then go ahead and lay down the $$$.
Of higher prority to me than the very best glass is function and ruggedness. Back to zero everytime, even after you fall off your horse.
What scope tracks better than a NF? And what scope will track better than a NF 10 or 20 years after purchase and hunting?
What scope is as, or more rugged than a NF?
What scope can stand up to as much, or more recoil forces than a NF?
What scope can endure as much, or more enviromental extremes than a NF?
Yup, I'm a NF fan
In the end... to each his own.
