Joined
·
8,425 Posts
I recently was on a guided bear hunt in Maine with a friend. Our first afternoon in camp was spent checking out each others hardware. He had recently bought a new rifle, with some encouragement from me, and had put a lot of thought into just what scope to mount on top. His new rifle was a Marlin 1895 SDG, which is a limited edition, short barreled version. This set-up (rifle and scope) were to be his go-to set-up for hunts for black bear and hogs, as well as a woods deer rifle.
He had already owned and enjoyed a scope with an ill. reticle and decided to go that route again. his choice for the 1895 turned out to be a Burris Euro Diamond E-Dot in 1-4x24(30mm). The scope has a 3P#4 reticle with an ill. dot in the center, which is invisible when not turned on. To say I was impressed with this scope would be a huge understatement. It was, without the dot turned on, a very clear, crisp scope. The 30mm tube seems (as with the ones I own) to give the shooter a more forgiving eye box. The dot has a side-mounted (opposite the windage turret) on/off switch which also incorporates a rheostat which has multiple (10?) settings for brightness. His opportunities to sight bears over bait at well after SS showed him that it was indeed an excellent scope for such shooting. And black bears in deep woods after SS with black reticles against them are not the easiest things to aim at.
All in all, it was a very nice scope and although not inexpensive, when you compare it to other similar 1" and 30mm versions from other quality scope manufacturers was a very good deal. I would not, should the need arise, hesitate to purchase one for myself. I put it completely on a par with my Leupold Euro 30mm in 1.25-4x20 which does not have an ill reticle. For the record, I find the two Leupold 30mm scopes I own to be very close to, if not completely the equal of the three Zeiss scopes I am lucky enough to have.
Anyway, this is simply a somewhat long-winded effort at letting members here know of a scope that they might find useful for themselves. I am rarely bothered by a scope which has no higher magnification than 4 or 5 or so. A 4X scope should be sufficient for any 300 yd shot on big game when rifle and shooter are also up to task, IMHO. The benefit one gets in FOV from a 1-1.5X low end magnification makes it a great choice for many applications. And I think many hunters think magnification before they think quality and put way too much stock in getting a 9, 10 or 12X scope for hunting big game at ranges of 100-300 yds. Simply not needed IMO. After all J.O. did a huge amount of his varied and considerable big game hunting with nothing more than a 4X atop his favorite rifles. My J.O. special happens to be a pre '64 M70 Featherweight in .270 wearing a Burris 4x32 scope. I'm thinkin' the fella knew what he was doing!
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=457352
He had already owned and enjoyed a scope with an ill. reticle and decided to go that route again. his choice for the 1895 turned out to be a Burris Euro Diamond E-Dot in 1-4x24(30mm). The scope has a 3P#4 reticle with an ill. dot in the center, which is invisible when not turned on. To say I was impressed with this scope would be a huge understatement. It was, without the dot turned on, a very clear, crisp scope. The 30mm tube seems (as with the ones I own) to give the shooter a more forgiving eye box. The dot has a side-mounted (opposite the windage turret) on/off switch which also incorporates a rheostat which has multiple (10?) settings for brightness. His opportunities to sight bears over bait at well after SS showed him that it was indeed an excellent scope for such shooting. And black bears in deep woods after SS with black reticles against them are not the easiest things to aim at.
All in all, it was a very nice scope and although not inexpensive, when you compare it to other similar 1" and 30mm versions from other quality scope manufacturers was a very good deal. I would not, should the need arise, hesitate to purchase one for myself. I put it completely on a par with my Leupold Euro 30mm in 1.25-4x20 which does not have an ill reticle. For the record, I find the two Leupold 30mm scopes I own to be very close to, if not completely the equal of the three Zeiss scopes I am lucky enough to have.
Anyway, this is simply a somewhat long-winded effort at letting members here know of a scope that they might find useful for themselves. I am rarely bothered by a scope which has no higher magnification than 4 or 5 or so. A 4X scope should be sufficient for any 300 yd shot on big game when rifle and shooter are also up to task, IMHO. The benefit one gets in FOV from a 1-1.5X low end magnification makes it a great choice for many applications. And I think many hunters think magnification before they think quality and put way too much stock in getting a 9, 10 or 12X scope for hunting big game at ranges of 100-300 yds. Simply not needed IMO. After all J.O. did a huge amount of his varied and considerable big game hunting with nothing more than a 4X atop his favorite rifles. My J.O. special happens to be a pre '64 M70 Featherweight in .270 wearing a Burris 4x32 scope. I'm thinkin' the fella knew what he was doing!
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=457352
