What say you??

[skipglo]

Sorry, I wasn't able to respond last night.

I absolutely know there are differences and some people are willing to pay for those differences, including me. In my list of possible scopes are the ZCO, march, and atacr.

It's really no different than buying a factory rifle or building a custom. I'm building a custom because I want specific things and "better" quality.

I agree that we all have different wants and needs but my question boiled down to: Has anyone with a $1500 scope not been able to take the shot at an animal that a $3000 scope would have allowed?

I know it can be different for target shooters, competition, etc but I was specifically talking hunting situations.

Not in my experience....and that's alot of time infield!

 

[Mark37082]

I'm sticking with the comment "buy what you want". I've wanted to buy a custom rifle in the past and may do it one day. Today we have so many excellent factory rifles to chose from that building a custom is far less important than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Top quality can be a personal perception, but that is important because you will be spending your $$ on whatever you are buying. If you are trying to impress your buddies or want to stand out from the crowds, you can put $15k in a rig. However, there may be someone next to you that will out shoot you with a $1500 rig. Have fun and good shooting.

 

[Old Rooster]

I'm sticking with the comment "buy what you want". I've wanted to buy a custom rifle in the past and may do it one day. Today we have so many excellent factory rifles to chose from that building a custom is far less important than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Top quality can be a personal perception, but that is important because you will be spending your $$ on whatever you are buying. If you are trying to impress your buddies or want to stand out from the crowds, you can put $15k in a rig. However, there may be someone next to you that will out shoot you with a $1500 rig. Have fun and good shooting.

I have watched it done Mark37082 and recently.T/C Compass in 308 out shot several well known rifle brands.
We all see differently through a scope.At 20 I saw one thing and now at 70 I see differently.
We have a lens on our eyeballs and the lens on our eyeballs thickens with age and can even distort optical clarity.We use that lens to look through the first scope lens and through the other end things are not the same for every person.That came from my eye doctor!
My years old Zeiss don't look as clear as it did in my younger years.Just a sad fact!

 

[74honker]

I'm sticking with the comment "buy what you want". I've wanted to buy a custom rifle in the past and may do it one day. Today we have so many excellent factory rifles to chose from that building a custom is far less important than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Top quality can be a personal perception, but that is important because you will be spending your $$ on whatever you are buying. If you are trying to impress your buddies or want to stand out from the crowds, you can put $15k in a rig. However, there may be someone next to you that will out shoot you with a $1500 rig. Have fun and good shooting.

Very well put and exactly true.

 

[Rich Coyle]

Fly junky,

Part of "this has better glass than that one" is because one scope to the next one of the same brand varies. I tried four Swarovski z5 5-25X52. Two were noticeably not as good in low light as the other two on the deer antlers I have 131 yards from the porch. One Swarovski z6 5-30X50 was not even as good as my Bushnell.

The next Swarovski I tried blew away all the previous scopes. Well, except the S&B.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I know very little about glass! I just know what I can see! The USAF has a chart that you can place at a distance and evaluate various scopes! I will not buy an expensive scope unless I can do that at dusk light conditions!

I use one at 127 yards and small deer antlers at 131 yards. The chart is for day while the antlers are for low light.

These really tell the story.

 

[Rich Coyle]

Sorry, I wasn't able to respond last night.

I absolutely know there are differences and some people are willing to pay for those differences, including me. In my list of possible scopes are the ZCO, march, and atacr.

It's really no different than buying a factory rifle or building a custom. I'm building a custom because I want specific things and "better" quality.

I agree that we all have different wants and needs but my question boiled down to: Has anyone with a $1500 scope not been able to take the shot at an animal that a $3000 scope would have allowed?

I know it can be different for target shooters, competition, etc but I was specifically talking hunting situations.

Some time in low light conditions.

 

[DartonJager]

For me. The mechanical ability of the scope is most important to me first and foremost. Will it hold zero, will it track straight, will it return to zero, are the turrets tactile or mushy. I`m not a glass snob by any means, and while I do own NF, Burris XTR IIIs, Leupold, and a couple Sig Sauer. The edge to edge, CA, is something I don`t even notice in a rifle scope. My eyes just aren`t that good to tell much of a difference with a quality scope compared to a super high end scope. I`m just fine in the $1000-$1500 range. my .02

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^This absolutely this^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For a serious long range hunting scope that you plan on dialing for elevation and wind not one for plinking and hunting small game like squirrel's or rabbits being absolutely dependable and 100% repeatable and return to zero is an absolute must. Most of todays quality long range specific scopes have a image quality more than good enough to allow you to make any shot during legal light.

I'll take bomb proof reliability and average glass over great glass and suspect or unknown reliability any day.
I MY OPINION its the extremely labor intensive costs of making a scope absolutely reliable to dial elevation and wind countless 100s or even 1000s of times and have a dead solid zero set is what makes such scopes cost way more than set-it-and-forget it scopes.

I looked long and wide for a great tactical scope for hunting and long range shooting and unfortunately my budget was not above $1k. I ended up with a Trijicon Creado HX 2.5-15x42mm and have put about 100 rounds down range with it and are 100% satisfied with it.

I did do a box test and it passed very well but I lost that target so to post such results without photographic proof is not my way of doing things. Now that I finally secured 500 pieces of new Lapua brass I will make a bunch of reloads and do some serious scope testing including using turret tracking targets from Box to Bench.
Plan on using IMR 4166, 175 SMK, Federal LRG/RFL primers and Lapua brass.