School me on long range hunting scopes

[diamond10x]

If you practice shooting at those distances, and if you really know your rifle, a long range scope isnt necessary for those distances.. The less dials and knobs on your scope the better off you will be in most hunting situations.

This. Granted I have several rifles I will dial with but most I just holdover as that's how I learned to shoot further distances. Everyone thinks they're a sniper now days cause they can zoom their scope to 30x and shoot steel plates off a bench.

Don't get caught up in thinking you have to have 25x zoom. Unless you plan on hunting coues deer with this set up, 14x is plenty out to 600.

[JoelBRice]

If you practice shooting at those distances, and if you really know your rifle, a long range scope isnt necessary for those distances.. The less dials and knobs on your scope the better off you will be in most hunting situations.

I can hold over to 400 yards with my rifle as it is now, I want to get into longer distances and have a scope I can dial and play with at the range. I said 600 yards in a hunting scenario but it would be fun to mess around at the range at further distances.

For those asking it’s a CA Mesa in 300 win mag

[trophy8]

Wind will be your biggest factor. There’s gonna be lots of recommendations based on the one or two scopes some have used or they saw their buddies buddy use.

The further out you go the more important reading the wind is. Mil or moa just pick one. QUALITY turrets. FFP reticle. As good of glass as you can afford.

There’s a lot of good optics out there. Lots of different variables. Set your budget. Strongly suggest buying used. And I strongly suggest staying away from vortex or athlon or any of the newer brands unless you go to their top end.

Leupold mk5 is going to be the best bang for your buck.

[S-3 Ranch]

Wind will be your biggest factor. There’s gonna be lots of recommendations based on the one or two scopes some have used or they saw their buddies buddy use.

The further out you go the more important reading the wind is. Mil or moa just pick one. QUALITY turrets. FFP reticle. As good of glass as you can afford.

There’s a lot of good optics out there. Lots of different variables. Set your budget. Strongly suggest buying used. And I strongly suggest staying away from vortex or athlon or any of the newer brands unless you go to their top end.

Leupold mk5 is going to be the best bang for your buck.

You were reading my mind on wind .

I had a savage 116 SS fluted 300wn , with a Burris signature,
On a picnic table with bags, sniping water turkeys @ 800-1000 yards on a calm day easy , add wind and things went very different .

[trophy8]

You were reading my mind on wind .

I had a savage 116 SS fluted 300wn , with a Burris signature,
On a picnic table with bags, sniping water turkeys @ 800-1000 yards on a calm day easy , add wind and things went very different .

I make that comment due to folks thinking they can buy a gunwerks package or a CDS dial or whatever and dialing and connecting at distance. It won’t happen. Lots more involved than turning an elevation turret. Just want folks understanding what’s involved is all.

[jomw10]

Hunting at 300 yard should be no problem for any of the mid-price range scopes. You just need a scope with good turrets that you can dial and return back to zero consistently.
I have a viper HST 4-16x44 in a 6.5 cred. Turrets are great. I have no problem hitting an animal 300+ yards. Also can hit steal at 600 yards, if I do my part. My range doesn't go further than that.
I also have a leuplod vx3h 4.4-14x40 in a 308. Turrets are also great, but it is a one rotation turrets, so depending on your zero you will be limited somewhere around 4-500 yards. Also, it doesn't have paralex. For this two reasons I prefer a viper HST than the leupold.
Both are second focal plane. I don't see the advantage on a first focal plane for a hunting situation. If I'm hunting at 300 yards, I'm probably using full zoom anyway, same with shooting steel at a fixed/known distance.

[S-3 Ranch]

I make that comment due to folks thinking they can buy a gunwerks package or a CDS dial or whatever and dialing and connecting at distance. It won’t happen. Lots more involved than turning an elevation turret. Just want folks understanding what’s involved is all.

It smokes my brain reading all the long range hunting stuff on rokslide, “ I DRT this elk & 778 yards with my creedmoore after I ran up the mountain “
If I wasn’t familiar with LRH I would take a weekend course
LRH is a different world then ringing steel of a bench

When I was in high school and college, my uncle would take jugs of water and hang them up around the ranch @ various places from 150-400 yards and practice range judgment, wind, breathing

[imyomama]

300 isn't long range , and if you hunt at those distances my recommendation is a good clear optic with a built in bdc ... or you can go with a leupold with the yardage turrets ..

after that , just read the wind for drift .. it won't be much on most hunting calibers..

a moving animal at those ranges , by the time you range , adjust your turrets and fire , opportunity may be gone.. I use the BDC in my trijicon acog all the time on steel and have 0 problem hitting targets quickly to 300 and beyond with a 556.

I think you're over complicating things trying to "long range " it for 300 yards. unless you're using 22lr in which case it's a must to hit anything consistently. hell it takes 12.6 mils on my rifle to hit 300 on my bergara 22lr.

and you most likely won't need FFP either ... any time i hunt it's always max magnification anyways...

my 2c.

hell i've hunted for years with my 243 ... dead on 100 , 3 inch low 200 , a foot 300 ... close enough.... no fancy reticle no bdc .. just a little practice

[imyomama]

or you can just go high tech ... i've actually tested with a buddy .. him with turrets , me with the eliminator and beat him every time on time and was just as accurate as he was with turrets ....[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhghBQpbzKg&ab_channel=standbackitsgonnabl o"]burris eliminator on 270 - YouTube[/ame]

[trophy8]

300 isn't long range , and if you hunt at those distances my recommendation is a good clear optic with a built in bdc ... or you can go with a leupold with the yardage turrets ..

after that , just read the wind for drift .. it won't be much on most hunting calibers..

a moving animal at those ranges , by the time you range , adjust your turrets and fire , opportunity may be gone.. I use the BDC in my trijicon acog all the time on steel and have 0 problem hitting targets quickly to 300 and beyond with a 556.

I think you're over complicating things trying to "long range " it for 300 yards. unless you're using 22lr in which case it's a must to hit anything consistently. hell it takes 12.6 mils on my rifle to hit 300 on my bergara 22lr.

and you most likely won't need FFP either ... any time i hunt it's always max magnification anyways...

my 2c.

hell i've hunted for years with my 243 ... dead on 100 , 3 inch low 200 , a foot 300 ... close enough.... no fancy reticle no bdc .. just a little practice

Will agree. 300 doesn’t require any of that.

600+ then yes. And I prefer FFP as I take shots on various powers. Might be 12x. Might be 18x. And I hold wind 100% of the time.

[JoelBRice]

300 isn't long range , and if you hunt at those distances my recommendation is a good clear optic with a built in bdc ... or you can go with a leupold with the yardage turrets ..

after that , just read the wind for drift .. it won't be much on most hunting calibers..

a moving animal at those ranges , by the time you range , adjust your turrets and fire , opportunity may be gone.. I use the BDC in my trijicon acog all the time on steel and have 0 problem hitting targets quickly to 300 and beyond with a 556.

I think you're over complicating things trying to "long range " it for 300 yards. unless you're using 22lr in which case it's a must to hit anything consistently. hell it takes 12.6 mils on my rifle to hit 300 on my bergara 22lr.

and you most likely won't need FFP either ... any time i hunt it's always max magnification anyways...

my 2c.

hell i've hunted for years with my 243 ... dead on 100 , 3 inch low 200 , a foot 300 ... close enough.... no fancy reticle no bdc .. just a little practice

I’m not overcomplicating anything I said earlier that I can and have made holdover shots at 400 yards, shot a nilgai at 400 yards a few years ago holding over. I just want opinions on scopes and turrets. I appreciate the input on bdc reticles, I bet it’s a blast shooting the bergara .22 at further distances.

[Ray McGaughey]

A Swaro Z5 with BT would be a great option. Not crazy expensive, but very good glass and depending on caliber you should be able to dial out to around 700 or so. For a general purpose hunting scope it's hard to beat.

This ^^^^. I have several of the Z5's with BT. I'
ve been really happy shooting animals at ranges you mentioned.

[stxhunter]

I’ll be a little different than some of the posts. While many of my suggestions aren’t necessary for what your describing, it’ll certainly make things easier as you pass 300 which it sounds like you’re interested in doing.

Things I’ve learned over the years as I’ve spent (aka kinda wasted) time and money shooting further distances

1. FFP scope will help, this way you know distances in your reticle are the same regardless of magnification.
2. I’ve used BDC reticles in the past when I had less experience. While they’re OK they’re usually found in SFP scopes causing measurements to be different for different magnifications. In the heat of the moment this could be an issue. Personally I’m not a fan.
3. I don’t like custom turrets. Any time you change loads, elevation etc your measurements will be incorrect.

My suggestion would be to get a FFP with a MIL reticle and MIL turrets. It’ll help in your long range journey should you decide to stretch things out further. Get a ballistics app, Hornady 4DOF, StrelokPro, applied ballistics etc. Athlon makes some budget friendly FFP scopes that would work great for what your wanting to do.

[PlanoDano]

All the scopes below are tough and will do the job. Pick a price point

SWFA SS 6X $300
SWFA SS HD 3-9X42 $600
Nightforce shv 4-14X50 f1 $1400
Nightforce atcar 4-16X42 f1 $2800

[Tall0]

All the scopes below are tough and will do the job. Pick a price point

SWFA SS 6X $300
SWFA SS HD 3-9X42 $600
Nightforce shv 4-14X50 f1 $1400
Nightforce atcar 4-16X42 f1 $2800

Good choices, I'd go with the NF nx8 2.5x20. Solid scope. I think better price point and right between the shv and atcar.