Passagehawk
New Member
Looking for a mid-price scope with long eye relief - lowland/woodland roe and muntjac. Any suggestions?
Scope: thoughts or advice
- Thread starter Passagehawk
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An Taín Hunting Outfitter
Well-Known Member
If you can push to it definitely think about the Bushnell Legend.I have fitted my Steyr Pro Hunter with that and the accuracy with the right ammo and is unbelievable! I actually moved my zero from 100m to 200m as I have complete confidence in the current setup and it suits the mountains I'm shooting in.I have been told the glass in the 200-300pound range is the same they have in the 1000pound range and what really makes this scope is shooting early dawn or late into the evening at dusk.There are zoom adjustments front and rear and the coating has a fantastic expensive looking finish that would really kick off the looks on any rifle.If I was to buy another rifle I wouldn't buy any other scope other than a Bushnell Legend.
Hales Smut
Well-Known Member
MEOPTA . A fixed power 7x50 or something similar.
8x57
Distinguished Member
+1 on the Meopta you won't go far wrong, or look at a second hand Schmidt & Bender either 6x42 or 8x56 you will see both advertised in the classified section of this site quite often. If you should at a later date move on to something else you will have no problem selling any of these scopes.
BuckarooUK
Well-Known Member
I recently bought a Minox Z5. Eye relief is long and I'm generally pleased with the optics. I usually buy Swarovski or S &B but couldn't stretch that far so soon after Xmas. I'm not going to state that it's as good as, but it's not far off.
caorach
Well-Known Member
How long is long? Are you talking about something specialised for a scout type rifle or just decent eye relief?
If it is a scout type rifle then I think maybe Leupold might do something? Other than that it is going to be hard to get something to suit.
I've heard it said that "there is no excuse for buying a French car unless you actually live in France" and I'd guess you might say something similar about American optics. You can get really, really good second hand Euro optics that would put the best glass possible on your rifle for £250 - £300 and you'd need to have very special requirements to look any further.
My view, and it's worth what you paid for it and I'm excluding Nickel as they are hard to get second hand as nobody who owns one will want to sell, is that if you want the best glass then look at Zeiss, if you want the best value in a robust package then look to S&B and if you want the best brand image then look to Swaro. My experience has been that there is nothing to choose between Swaro and S&B in terms of glass.
If it is a scout type rifle then I think maybe Leupold might do something? Other than that it is going to be hard to get something to suit.
I've heard it said that "there is no excuse for buying a French car unless you actually live in France" and I'd guess you might say something similar about American optics. You can get really, really good second hand Euro optics that would put the best glass possible on your rifle for £250 - £300 and you'd need to have very special requirements to look any further.
My view, and it's worth what you paid for it and I'm excluding Nickel as they are hard to get second hand as nobody who owns one will want to sell, is that if you want the best glass then look at Zeiss, if you want the best value in a robust package then look to S&B and if you want the best brand image then look to Swaro. My experience has been that there is nothing to choose between Swaro and S&B in terms of glass.
jimbo1984
Well-Known Member
+1 in my experiance American glass just doesn't compare to european
Passagehawk
New Member
Thank you Gentlemen, I shall start shopping with your advice in mind.
Tom D
Well-Known Member
There is little practical difference between Leupold and expensive european glass. I have both and can honestly say that the leupold is very very nearly as good in low light as the shmidt that was 3 times the price.
People don't like to admit this as they too have splashed out on expensive european glass...
People don't like to admit this as they too have splashed out on expensive european glass...
jimbo1984
Well-Known Member
to be honest tom i bought all my glass ( schmidt and bender and zeiss ) secondhand so not a huge amount of money on my part spent, i had a leupold where the build quality wasnt great, and after spending a while in canada using bushnell and leupold scopes i can hnestly say that i dont rate them i dont thnk they are nearly as good in low light and dont feel half as strong as my euro glass
caorach
Well-Known Member
The other advantage of the Euro glass is that the fixed mag scopes, especially, are good value second hand and the total cost of ownership is zero, in fact you might make money if you buy well. So you can have the confidence of the best build quality and glass basically at zero cost, you don't get a better deal than that. I think the confidence thing is really valuable especially for someone just starting out in shooting and bombarded by the "Internet Experts list of things that can go wrong." If you are confident in your scope that is one less thing to worry about.
As an example, lest anyone doubts my claims of zero cost of ownership, I bought my 8X56 S&B secondhand for £250. If I wanted to sell it today and put it in the classifieds for £300 I doubt it would sit there longer than half an hour before someone was posting me a cheque.
As an example, lest anyone doubts my claims of zero cost of ownership, I bought my 8X56 S&B secondhand for £250. If I wanted to sell it today and put it in the classifieds for £300 I doubt it would sit there longer than half an hour before someone was posting me a cheque.
Tom D
Well-Known Member
Both mine are less than a year old, so I can't speak for the older stuff, The shmidt does have a more quality feel to it, but in terms of performance they are very similar. I would definately recommend the Leupold.
One of the problems with the Yank scopes is that they have such a huge model range, the cheap ones can't be in the same league as the top line ones, so they will inevitably drag the brand down.
If swarovski started doing scopes for £150 they would probably see their reputation suffer too.
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