Scopes sure have become convoluted!

I want a duplex or pain crosshair, High magnification say > 16X, Variable X OK, not illuminated, Exposed elevation turret in MOA, and possibly a zero stop?

Mostly I am finding lots of useless and unfamiliar features like crazy cross hairs, lighted up, "mil rad", ??? Scopes now seem to be packed with gadget bloat.

It will go on a M-700 in 223. Any suggestions?

I like a plain duplex crosshair and target turrets for long range accurate bullet placement. Have several Burris Black Diamond and Zeiss HD5 scopes like this. All the clutter in multi crosshair reticles just leads to educated guessing in my opinion. I like to click to the exact range and hold dead on. I like a top power of 24-25 for most of my long range and varmint scopes. Really depends on how much you want to spend as to how much quality you can attain. My pick would be Swarovski or Kahles but haven't got there yet. Really like the Zeiss though. Turrets lock easy; just push down to lock and pull up to rotate.

God Bless, Louis

I sure agree with what the OP says. I don’t need or want all the extra reticle stuff, multi dots, illumination.......l

Some of them are really complex, but I must say, I really enjoy the mil-dot reticle in my Nightforce. It is illuminated as well, but I hardly ever use it. On the other hand, it doesn't detract at all when it is switched off.

Mill dots really make holding off for wind much easier.

Where I shoot it is in bright sunlight and open grasslands. Illumination is pointless. I shoot high power, we use minutes, not another system like mil rad. I don't want to learn another system. I range with a seperate device. I am used to spinning the elevation turret.

The Leupold VX-3i LRP 8.5-25x50mm looks close but the ridiculous cross hairs are a deal breaker for me.

Can anyone explain what you are supposed to do with all the reticle hash, barbed wire, grid patterns and such??? It seems to me the turrets are used to set distance and windage. Counting hash marks is like archery sights that use pins. I know from experience that counting pins does not work in the field.

The Weaver T-series looks good to me. They are discontinued. I can only find the fixed 48X available. The lower magnifications would be my first choice. Will the fixed 48X be frustrating to use in the field?

quote:

Originally posted by Scota4570:
Where I shoot it is in bright sunlight and open grasslands. Illumination is pointless. I shoot high power, we use minutes, not another system like mil rad. I don't want to learn another system. I range with a seperate device. I am used to spinning the elevation turret.

The Leupold VX-3i LRP 8.5-25x50mm looks close but the ridiculous cross hairs are a deal breaker for me.

Can anyone explain what you are supposed to do with all the reticle hash, barbed wire, grid patterns and such??? It seems to me the turrets are used to set distance and windage. Counting hash marks is like archery sights that use pins. I know from experience that counting pins does not work in the field.

I live in Africa. So also usually good light. The only time I have ever used the illuminated reticle is for problem animal control at night, but I only did that a couple of times.

However, most guys I know adjust for elevation and hold off for windage, as adjusting for wind is pretty slow.

We typically use minutes as well, and the scope's adjustments are in minutes, but the metric system is very ingrained here for all types of manufacturing measurements and most of our ranges are metric (in other words meters instead of yards), and for a metric thinker, Milliradians are very easy to get the hang off. They are 100mm at 100m, or 1m at 1000m.

I definitely don't want grid patterns or anything like that. Just a cross-hair with some method of gauging how far along any cross-hair you are. Duplex does this pretty well if you don't need to aim off too far.

being a prairie dog shooting addict i find the variable scope to be invaluable you find the dog on low power an then zip up the power to shoot

I agree with the OP and have a recommendation. On my Browning X-Bolt in 223 (the "walking varmint rifle"), I have this: Vortex Viper HS. I went through the same decision process as you and got an excellent deal on the scope; don't pay what Midway currently sells it for. It hovers in the $350 range when on sale. To me, that's an ideal magnification range for a varmint rifle. Anything higher than that is a touch hard to see due to the magnification of mirage, dirt in the air, etc. It's a plain-Jane duplex reticle, BUT it's a very fine duplex. I think it's perfect for its intended purpose. It also doesn't look out of place on a normal hunting rifle (no tactical turrets, weird knobs, or massive main tubes).

Sightron SIII has all different reticles available