[egonzalezit]

Hi,

I'm new to the group and looking for some help with choosing a scope.

I'm 50 years old and use glasses, so my eyes are not as good as they were before. I just purchased a tikka T3 Lite and I inclined to purchase a Nikon Monarch due to light %and glass. I live in Florida and must of my huntings will be hog and deer. I don't see myself going west any time soon; so I don't exepect shooting long distances but I like to have the option to shoot at 3 or 400 yds if need it.

Can you advise on either 3-9x40; 2.5-10x 42 or higher like 3-12 x 42 oreven 4-16x 40 etc ?

Thanks for your help in advance.

Ernie

 

[hailstone]

In the past I always used 3-9 variables on my rifles. Last year a shooting buddy talked me into getting higher magnification scope in the 6-20 and 6.5-24 range. Since doing this I've been amazed at what I'm missing when zeroing in rifles and so far limited hunting usage.

Like you I'm in that age group where the eyes have been well used and are tired. Took getting used to shooting the bifocals but over time its become second nature. After getting the higher power scopes I'll never go back except in special cases i.e. 45-70's wear 1.5-4.5 and 2-7 power scopes.

I use either Nikon Monarch or Leopuld VX-3 scopes finding the eye fatigue to be minimal with them. Other brands of lower quality tend to cause eye strain producing watering eyes and some cases headaches.

 

[Zilog]

Have you tried out the Bushnell Elite 6500 2.5-16? Its possibly the answer if your not 100% of what zoom range your after. It will cover all you have looked at. I have a 2.5-16x50 on one of my guns and think it's a very good scope. The sun rarely shines here in the UK but I would be tempted to go with the smaller 2.4-16x42 if I lived some place sunny. There worth a look at least just to see if you like it or not.

 

[BKeith]

That's a tough range variable. It's extremely easy to over magnify a scope at close range and not be able to find what you plan to shoot. 9X is getting to the point that the cross hairs are going to cover a lot of you're target at 400.

I have a Tikka T3 Lite, 243 with a Nikon Monarch 3x9 with BDC recticle. While I can shoot small groups at 400 yds with it, I do it by quartering the target. The cross hairs in the scope will almost completely cover up a 4 inch dot.

Try to find some friends that will let you look through their scopes out in the field. There is no way to tell much about them trying to look through them in the store. The problem with that, so many people buy those cheap scopes, the optics are so bad it's hard to get a good feel for what you're better scopes will do.