best all round hunting scope advise please

[craig.25]

iam about to get my ripley xl9 hydrocammo dipped and wanted peoples best choice for an all round hunting scope
i have a nikko diamond 10-50x60 (the one with the green turrets) but my gut feeling tells me this is too big.
so want a good quality scope so when i get that dipped also i know they will work great together
any advice please
to pay for this iam going to have to sell something very special

[MR NICK .B]

mtc mamba or viper mate cant go wrong with either really , for the money i dont think you would find anything of the same standard. atb nick

[Davey K]

You didn't specify your budget so I'll deal with the around £150 market with which I have most experience.

Best value is a Simmon Whitetail Classic, either 3-10X50 or 3-10X40. Very cheap new and a massive bargain second hand but they only come with a duplex ret. The optics are brilliant.

Best all rounder is the MTC Viper 3-12X44, great optics, locking turrets, superb hunting and HFT ret, flip up and mounts included in the price. Has to be on the shortlist but bear in mind it is a big scope and quite heavy.

Best fixed focus is Bushnell 10X40 Elite 3200 - very small, neat and light. Target turrets and very bright optics.

I haven't got into the scopes above this yet, hopefully someone else will outline the more expensive options

[sparky]

Too be honest the choice is endless and its up to you how much you want to pay,for hunting you have

WTC 3.5x-10x50
Weaver V 16
MTC range
New Sidewinder from Deben
Bushnell range

The list can go on, but same as anything you really need to look through them before you decide as what someone else likes you may not.

Pete

[Gary C]

Too be honest the choice is endless and its up to you how much you want to pay,for hunting you have

WTC 3.5x-10x50
Weaver V 16
MTC range
New Sidewinder from Deben
Bushnell range

The list can go on, but same as anything you really need to look through them before you decide as what someone else likes you may not.


Saves me typing

[sir-slots-alot]

Probably going to stir hornets nest, So appolgise up front.
It amazes me when people spend £1000 on a rifle, then put a £100 scope on top of it.
Your rifle is a top piece of kit and deserves quality glass. Sirslots

[Davey K]

Probably going to stir hornets nest, So appolgise up front.
It amazes me when people spend £1000 on a rifle, then put a £100 scope on top of it.
Your rifle is a top piece of kit and deserves quality glass. Sirslots

If you've got the cash then treat yourself

But while it may be essential to own a £1000 scope if you are shooting deer at extended ranges in low light, how clear do you need a bunny to be when it's 30 yards away from you?

[Fluffybuck]

If you've got the cash then treat yourself

But while it may be essential to own a £1000 scope if you are shooting deer at extended ranges in low light, how clear do you need a bunny to be when it's 30 yards away from you?

That's a fair point.
A £50, 3-9x40 scope will be adequate for hunting rabbits with a 12ftlb airgun, although a more expensive scope will generally give better images (shaper image, more true colour, brighter, less image distortion), which is very helpful when hunting in mediocre light conditions, such as dawn/dusk/woodland.

I could get the job done with a Nikko Airking 3-9x42 and a HW95K. Total cost about £325
But I could use a Lightstream 4-14x44 and a HW100k (£1100) and have a much easier time and bigger "bags".

[sir-slots-alot]

If you've got the cash then treat yourself

But while it may be essential to own a £1000 scope if you are shooting deer at extended ranges in low light, how clear do you need a bunny to be when it's 30 yards away from you?

Alot of rabbit shooting is done in low light levels ( dusk / dawn ) and rabbits are small and tend to blend in low light.
since you only have 12fpe, you must be more clinical than someone using a rimfire, ( with 100fpe ).
All im saying is pay for better glass - you rarely regreat buying quality-

Lastly, you dont have to spend a £1000 on a scope , but a £100 scope wont have the same light garthering abilities .... Sirslots

[Sam Vimes]

Probably going to stir hornets nest, So appolgise up front.
It amazes me when people spend £1000 on a rifle, then put a £100 scope on top of it.
Your rifle is a top piece of kit and deserves quality glass. Sirslots

To a point I can understand that but only to a point. For many people they don't, won't or can't notice or appreciate the difference between a £100 scope and a £500 scope. There is also no guarantee that the £500 scope will actually suit them or their purposes better though. What does amaze me is when people point blank refuse to accept that there is, or may be, a difference. You see similar when it comes to pellets. Joe Bloggs happily parting with over a grand for a rifle but bitching like a girl over the prospect of paying more than a fiver for a tin of 500 pellets.

[conor1]

Probably going to stir hornets nest, So appolgise up front.
It amazes me when people spend £1000 on a rifle, then put a £100 scope on top of it.
Your rifle is a top piece of kit and deserves quality glass. Sirslots

In complete agreement with you.

For air rifles, there is little to be gained in spending fortunes on the scope because the ranges are quite limited. I have MTC , AGS and Simmons on my air rifles. On my full bores, I have gone for Zeiss. Most full bore rifles are inherently accurate so glass is where the money should be spent. There is little difference in what a Howa will do compared to a Blaser, but the scope will make all the difference.

[samthedog]

Too be honest the choice is endless and its up to you how much you want to pay,for hunting you have

WTC 3.5x-10x50
Weaver V 16
MTC range
New Sidewinder from Deben
Bushnell range

The list can go on, but same as anything you really need to look through them before you decide as what someone else likes you may not.

Pete

From that list I would choose the Weaver V16. Best scope for the money. I have a WTC and although it's a good scope it has nothing on the Weaver.

[Aeroman]

Good advice up there and I'll add my 2p as well...

Rather than cover the same ground as trodden by Shady and Sparky et al. and say "look through as many as you can and go with what suits you, sir" I'll give another take...

People change their rifles. Some more frequently than others, but with new developments and such, people will upgrade to the next gucci bit of hardware. Advances in rifle hardware have been progressing quite quickly of late but I'm not sure that scope technology will. If this is so, then quality optics will be just that. Quality.
I work to the principle of getting as much scope as you can afford and buy the scope once, as I've changed rifles over the years buying and selling, but not bought too many surplus scopes as once I have a scope i am happy with, the rifle wearing it may change but the glass will stay. I've aqquired scopes as combos with rifles I've bought, and given some away to various causes, and mounted others on other rifles I have kicking around.

To recommend a scope now, i can tell you what I would be looking for and what I have that does the job, and why. But ultimately we go back to what "suit you sir!".

Depending on the type of hunting I'm doing....
I would be looking for.
Good light transmission
Reticule I'm comfortable with.
Forgiving parallax error (seems to vary from scope to scope a little even with the same model)
Magnification range not too great, which seems to help with the above...

DMP 4-16x56 Mildot IR. 30mm tube, Sidewheel parallax. Good build, sturdy, mine is one of the really early ones, so Jap optics IIRC. Does the job but relatively heavy. Turrets and sidewheel exposed to knocks, but repeatibility is excellent and is forgiving to me getting my eye position slightly wrong.

EB Sniper 10x42 Mildot. Sidewheel Parallax. Bombproof build, though turrets and sidewheel exposed. Medium weight and goes a good 'un.

Bushnell 6-24x40 4200 Mildot. True Mil at 12x mag. Used one of these for HFT for a couple of years to good effect. Not too heavy but yery long body tube, and front parallax which is more awkward for hunting if you adjust your parallax. Not very forgiving to mispositioned eye. Sam uses the 5-15x40 Legend which is shorter, lighter weight and does the job just as well.

Runing out of time, but i may include a few more when i have time

[craig.25]

thanks to all for pms
if someone has a leup they want to trade for a nikko diamond 10-50x60 (with green turrets )
let me know
or some quality glass they want to part ex with

[onlyme]

my first post in an absolute age ! (ive been to busy shooting, with my time hunting as its all i do nowadays),
if like me you hunt daytime, dusk and nightime, there are scopes ideal for all situations, but if its going to be a tool as my kit is nowadays, you should always go for something you find yourself completely at home with in use, forget the twidley knobs and paralax scopes, if its a hunter setup you want useability over form and bragging rights... my views are a fixed parralax scope, with amazing light gathering ability at a price that wont be a painful price to pay if you dink it on a fence or in the footwell of the 4x4... for ease of use , something like a hawke map 6 with a 50mm objective (cheap but great). simmons whitetail if you can get on with a duplex ret. and if you want a light sucking demon, something like a s&b 8x56(my first choice) if its more daytime sniping, id go for a leup vIII ... you pay for what you get, but remember your only shooting out to a relativley close yardage so optically its never going to be to hard ...people have an obsession with high mags whats wrong with shooting with a lower mag and gaining a massive advantage at nightime?
im a massive massive fan of the big nikko and i occasionally get my one out when im ammo testing, but for the field its just not practical, to big , to heavy and would make me want to waste time fiddling.... i know this because ive done it on my rimfires !!!!
good luck on your choice as its a very personal thing.... id just jump on a few shoots with mates and use there kit ! see what you like and can use 110% spot on and get something similar that reflects your wanted spend nothing wrong with copying if it works....