Long Range Scopes - Magnification Requirement 1000 -1500 Yards?

[TACDAVE]

All

 

What scope magnification would you recommend I purchase for shooting out to 1500 yards plus.

 

Whatever I buy will end up eventually sat on the back of a .338 lap mag.

 

Just need to do my homework before the spending money.

 

cheers

[Ronin]

Back when I had my 338, I used to have a 4-16 PM11 on it.

 

Could hit clays at 900 (witnessed at WMS), with relative ease and fig 11 targets out to 1500 mtrs - again with reasonable regularity.

 

If I was shooting that far now (im not at the moment), id bee looking at a fine ret / high quality glass - March, S&B, would be prime choices..

[Tiff]

This:

 

http://www.valdada.com/12-52x56-mf-40mm-ed-terminator-multi-bdc-illuminated-mp-8-xtreme

 

The glass is superb, tracking perfect & 25 MOA per turn, very solidly constructed (understatement to say the least...), 52x is great for aiming/spotting splash way out there, the reticule is excellent with calibration of 0.05 Mil @ 14.4x, 1 MOA @ 26x & 1/2 MOA @52x (brilliant idea!) - Plus 100 MOA of elevation and 20+ further MOA on the reticule!

 

With the possible exception of custom US Optics scopes, there is nothing on the civilian market (that I know of), which can equal it for ELR shooting.

 

It is a great scope and is perfect on my .338.

 

Edit: Just found these - please excuse the picture quality (poor light, cheap camera i.e optical clarity is not being shown etc.), they do however give an idea of the reticule in use:

 

The sheep are around 800-900 yards away:

 

 

[ChrisF]

To me if you want to be able to dial a lot of elevation adjustment & have a reasonabiliy high magnification .

So if it was me , I would only be looking at 2 scopes .

S&B PMII 3-27x56mm , with the optional 36 mil knob

Zeiss 3-26x56mm , has 36 mils as well

[TACDAVE]

Thanks Lads

 

Tiff never even heard of the scope your link refers to but it looks the business and what a great name!

 

Who sells these in the uk?

[Tiff]

Joost van Gerven in the Netherlands is the official UK (& other countries) distributor. His website is basic, but he is excellent on emails/phone and has a London bank account - making payments easy etc.

 

http://airgunheaven.com

 

Optics Warehouse do sell them in the UK, but when I checked at the start of the year they were importing them direct from IOR & as such, could not offer the 30 year warranty that Joost could as the official importer....easy choice considering they were the same money! Everything I've brought from Joost, that was in stock, has arrived within 3 days and he kept me informed all the way through.

 

Here is a picture of the scope on my AI, to give you an idea of it's size:

 

[tackb]

I found an NXS 5.5-22x56 perfectly adequate out to 1760 yds on my 300rum ? (Fig 11 size steel plate)

[Jagged 77]

I use a Sightron 6-24 on my 338, glass is excellent, has 100moa of elevation and plenty enough power for 1500 yards. I have a 3.5-15 nxs on my .50 and have no problems identifying targets and spotting hits out to 2600 yards. Good glass, tracking and enough elevation are much more important than extra magnification (say above 24 x).

[Hatzi]

That IOR has an exit pupil like a pinprick and eye relief that changes massively when zoomed up or down requiring you to wind your neck in and out, literally!. The 40mm tube is like a maglight on your rifle and it weighs nearly 1.5kg. I wasnt impressed. I sent it back as i felt it was totally unfair to compare it's functionality at that price point with the competition regardless of its large elevation travel.

[jcampbellsmith]

How about one of Gary's scopes? https://www.marchscopes.co.uk/index.php/site-map/march-x Regards JCS

[gbal]

How about one of Gary's scopes? https://www.marchscopes.co.uk/index.php/site-map/march-x Regards JCS

Tacdave:

It is a god idea to seek views (literally) on scopes,but they are a very subjective thing,as the quite legitimate but quite different assessments by eg Tiff and Hatzi indicate.

Nor is it the case that more money means agreement.

There are one or two more objective criteria,which might help-what targets are you going to engage (as well as at what distance),as this bears on reticule subtension.Do you want a splash spotter option-some higher mag might be useful,depends on backstop.

How much are you prepared to pay?-you may find you don't need £4k,and can get by very happily with eg a NightForce for half that,which seem more than adequate to at least 1000-I have not used one seriously beyond that(32,42x variables) but can see possible targets a lot further.Magnificaion again very subjective-some like a lot,others much less,and there may be a trade off with picture,or not-your eyes come into it too-seems obvious,but seldom gets mentioned.Try before you buy!!

You need to like it,and have confidence in it,so the technicals are essential,but then you enter the 'equation'.Good viewing-there is at least quite a choice.

Gbal

[Hatzi]

Im sad to say my IOR opinion is very objective. I have reviewed pretty much all of the so far mentioned scopes and the IOR is the only one i struggled to find any redeeming words to say about it, so much so, I sent it back!, sorry but im well on record with my scope opinions. I like sightron at the budget end, they punch well above their cost. I like the versatility and reticle options of nightforce with their reliable, clean designs, i like many scopes for their superb abilities like March, i like german glass in hunting scopes, i like PMII's for their beautiful turrets and glass, I loved the Kales 624i as it offered so much for the money, i like premier reticles because at the time, they actually beat the PMII to my eyes which was a hard call. Many scopes are a very personal choice, we all require different features, clicks, turret directions etc etc etc but value for money must be key at all prices and although there are diminishing returns between a 1k and £3k scope, they do generally fall into position but some just stick out, they are a lot of money for what?

E exit pup

By the way, unless you are shooting tiny targets, you dont need massive magnification and when used all day long, intermdiate mag is far less taxing on the eyes IF it is coupled to good image quality with sharp resulution and colour rendition. Im shooting a lot of hunting scopes at the moment with 10-12-16 power and the Germans at 10-12 kill the cheap scopes at 16x when shooting even small targets. Rgticle choice is equally important and having hundreds of tint hash marks at high mag with a tiny exit pupil is destined to tire your eyes, and neck out if you stuggle with the image quality and exit pupil size. I used a 72mm zeiss for a whole evening and went home thinking i ought to be tired and then realised that huge exit pupil with intermediate mag had been relaxing to use, just an example by the way.

[Tiff]

Interesting to hear about your experience with the IOR, I have heard similar things about the first run they made. Mine is great, so maybe they have resolved a few 'bugs' or I just got lucky?

 

I set the scope up on 26x and do not need to move my head position forward/backward noticeably - If it was mounted at 12x or 52x then a very slight change in head position is noticeable. The small exit pupil really isn't an issue for me, since the glass quality is their in my scope (equal to S&B / March I've had alongside) and with a decent check-piece/weld I have no issues finding the 'eye-box' within a fraction of a second at 52x. Equally the scope weight/size is not a problem for me.

 

That being said, I'm younger (a lot younger in many cases) than most rifle shooters in this country, so my eyes/body are less fussy...

 

Back to the original question, I think it's becoming clear it really depends on what sort ranges/ targets you intend shooting at. For me it's small targets 12" to 2'x2' steel plates in places where spotting the small target/backstop splash is essential, (often without a spotter), so I need the magnification. If on ETR or FFA with larger hard targets and ground with good splash properties (+potentially a partner spotting), less mag is workable. Probably best to get along to a few shoots and look through scopes being used in the situations you plan on and make the decision from that.

[shotgun sam]

^{some intrestin stuff there thanks for all who posted.}

 

^Sam

[The Gun Pimp]

Two other things to consider - if you can't see it - you can't hit it!

 

How big is your target at 1500 yards? I wouldn't like to shoot an F Class V bull at 1000 yards (5 inches diameter) with less than 32 power.

 

However, remember 'bigger' doesn't always equate with 'clearer' and few March scope users, with 80 power on tap, seem to use them at max power.

[Brillo]

Joost van Gerven in the Netherlands is the official UK (& other countries) distributor. His website is basic, but he is excellent on emails/phone and has a London bank account - making payments easy etc.

 

http://airgunheaven.com

 

Optics Warehouse do sell them in the UK, but when I checked at the start of the year they were importing them direct from IOR & as such, could not offer the 30 year warranty that Joost could as the official importer....easy choice considering they were the same money! Everything I've brought from Joost, that was in stock, has arrived within 3 days and he kept me informed all the way through.

 

Here is a picture of the scope on my AI, to give you an idea of it's size:

 

Hi Tiff, what bipod is that??

[gaz6br]

8-32x56 nxs np2dd seen that shoot out to 1790 yards.

[John MH]

Hi Tiff, what bipod is that??

Rigby