I am looking for advice on which scope would be most suitable the Swarovski 1.25-4 x 24 or the Swarovski 1.5-6 x 42. It will be mounted on a .416 Rigby which will be used for Buff and plains game.

I have the Swarovski 1.5-6x42 Illuminated scope mounted atop my Weatherby .416, which will work for anything in Africa. It has great light gathering abilities for low light situations, and will be able to handle the recoil from your .416 without a problem.

Leupold may give you greater eye relief.

ghundwan

I think WPN has hit on a very important point. The Swarovskis are excellent glass but eye relief is limited. If you mount a Swarovski be very careful to set it up as far forward as you can to avoid shooters eyebrow.

Mark

G, I have a Leupold 1.5 - 6X 42 mm LPS and the 24mm tubes are not a way to go in my opinion...You will have lits of rom around animal and lots of light..got with the 42mm and you will never look back...
If you buy a Leupold they have a 1.5 to 4 or 6X with a 32mm also a very nice scope...

Mike

The new Swarovski PVI-2 models have increased eye relief, compared to the other Swarovskis, but still not as much as a Leopold 1.5-5x which is an excellent big game scope.

Have you had a look at the Trijicon 1.25-4 Accupoint? With the Tritium/ambient light illuminated reticle (no batteries and no on/off switch) and more eye relief than even a Leopold, I think that they would make an excellent big game scope.

I'm going to fit a Trijicon 1.25-4x to my .404 although the dimensions of this scope (the body of this scope is about an inch too short for a magnum action) means that I will have to 'juggle' the scope mounts a bit to get it onto my Brno ZKK-602. Basically, while the Trijicon is a 1" tube, I am going to try 30mm rings with the rear ring sleeved down to 1" and the front ring opened up by 1mm to fit over the objective bell. But I am sure it will work and will give me a great optical sighting system for my .404.

Kahles 1.1-4X. Good eye relief, 30mm tube, superb optics, very tough scope. Have had two on large bores with no problems.

There is a trade off on which scope to use, just like there is in most things. If you intend to use the .416 Rigby for buffalo, your shot are not going to be long, so magnification is not as important as field of view and speed in aquiring the target. I think the 1.5-5 or the 1.75-6 is a good compromise. There is nothing like European glass, but you had better make sure the scope has enough eye relief. I'm having a .416 Rigby done by Duane Wiebe and I'm topping it with a one inch Leupold 1.75-6. I wanted the scope low so I selected a smaller objective and Smithson intregal bases and rings. This makes the scope low and in stress you are just going to point the rifle and shoot. A low scope points more naturally for me. The other advantage is that if you shoot with open sights the rifle can be fitted to you ao the open sights are easy to use and the scope is still low enough that you don't have to use an entirely different mount for your rifle. If it makes you feel better, Ernst Sholz(the PH that shoots the buffalo on Dangerous Game) shoots a .460 Weatherby with a 1.5-5 Leupold and he has killed more buffalo than we will ever kill.

I too have had a Kahles 1.1-4X on my .416 Rigby with over 450 rounds through the rifle with no problems.

The 30mm tube gives you a wide field of view and light gathering, (if needed).

I use the German 4 plex reticle. I like the openess of this reticle for a D.G. scope.

The eye releif is more than the older Swarovskis and I cannot address it to the newer model.

A great scope for the money and I can recommend it from my experience.

All the best in your quest.

Cheers,

Sam

Thanx for all the info, the eye relief for the Swarovski is 90mm and the Leupold 1.75-6 x 32 is 112mm. That 22mm will sure make quite a difference. As far as optics, light gathering ability and robustness is the Leupold on a par with the Swarovski?

...I would consider a Nickel as a good option - check them out:

http://www.nickel-ag.com/en/products/scopes/15630.aspx

I am having a Searcy 450/400J made up at the moment that will have a detachable SCHMIDT&BENDER 1.4-4 MAG EYE RELIEF MOD scope. While not a 416R, this scope would be ideal IMO.
OZHUNTER

Ghundwan: Scholz's .460 has a lot more recoil than the .416 you're talking about. Plus he shoots a lot more. The Leup will hold up fine.

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
I am having a Searcy 450/400J made up at the moment that will have a detachable SCHMIDT&BENDER 1.4-4 MAG EYE RELIEF MOD scope. While not a 416R, this scope would be ideal IMO.
OZHUNTER

Ozhunter,

Can you tell me the differance in eye relief between the "MAG EYE RELIEF MOD" and the "standard"?

Since you're doing plains game as well as DG I would go with the 1.5-6. I like the leopold with the extra eye relief on the LPS series of scopes. Eye relief is of course important with a .416. Of course a cool scar on the forehead is a lot like a trophy on the wall...it always leads to a good story.

Eric,
From what I can see from my standard S&B's to the MAG mod, there seems to be about 10 to 15mm extra and about 5 to 10mm more than my three Zeiss scopes and about 15mm more than two of the Swarovski's that I own.
A friend and I use to get knocked around by the standard model S&Bs on our 375 and 9.3 so we both changed to the MAG models which we find are great.
ozhunter.

Eric,
On the SCHMIDT& BENDER website it states 80mm for standard fixed and 95mm for the new models now.
The Leopold 2.5x8 has eye relief of; 2.5power = 135mm and at 8x = 94mm.
OZHUNTER.

Ozhunter,

Thanks.

I looked at one in 1.1-4x24 today with this reticle:


The field of vision when down at 1.1 is very good (36 yards at 100 yards), and perfect for shooting with both eyes open at close distance. Although it's not cheap at US$1450,-...