Where I live the stores do not carry a good selection of scopes so I have always bought them off off the internet. So I do nothave the luxury of looking through them before I purchase them. A friend told me Leupold and that is what I have bought in the past.

So now looking at scopes and trying to compare them what specs should I be looking at?

Is a bigger field of view better?
Eye relief, twilight factor....

What specs are most important?

I greatly appreciate any help

Well, specs tell you only a few things about the scope. And they don't tell you how good the optical quality will appear to you. But they can tell you some stuff.

For me, I pay the most attention to eye relief. Not only how much but also how constant it is. One of the reasons I like Conquests so much---besides the optical quality and etched reticles---is the constant eye relief. A scope that has 3.1-4.5" of eye relief may not be much fun to use because the greatly varying eye relief will require a readjustment of head position as the magnification changes.

You also have to check the numbers carefully too. The New Nikon Monarchs claim constant eye relief (the 30mm tube Monarch Golds actually deliver), but the footnote says that's within 1/2". Admittedly this is much better than most all other scopes, but it's not truly constant. That 1/2" can be quite a lot.

LWD

seems as everybody's eyes are a bit different. i'm afraid that there just isn't anything like looking through the glass. my best advice to you is to drive somewhere where they have some stock and just look through several different brands. You may find that your eyes like nikon better than leupold, or burris better than bushnell etc. never know until you try.

I think you're pretty safe with Leupold scopes though over the years I've gravitated toward the higher end Leupold scopes, i.e., VX III and Mark 4 models.

A bigger field of view is better especially if shooting at a running target.

As long as the eye relief is enough that recoil doesn't cause the scope to hit your eyebrow, it's sufficient.

More twilight factor is good though for daytime shooting pretty much all the good brand scopes will have enough.

Besides good sight picture, I think the very most important factors are durability and factory support. I've had Leupold scopes on some handguns with quite heavy recoil and when needed, repairs were promptly done at no charge by Leupold. Leupold's warranty is lifetime even if you didn't buy the scope new.

In my opinion, you'll do well to simply keep ordering a Leupold when the need arises. If for some reason you order one and don't like it you can get a much higher percentage of the price you paid back in resale than with any other make. Used Leupolds are also very liquid, in part due to their "forever" warranty policy.

quote:

you'll do well to simply keep ordering a Leupold

As much as I bash Leupold, this isn't bad advice at all. Leupold makes a very sold, consistent product.

LWD

quote:

As much as I bash Leupold

The only thing I could bash Leupold for is price.

I do HATE their standard windage adjusting rear mount though.

I look at a rifle scope as being a gun sight and I do not look at a rifle scope as being an observation piece. I save the high end optics for binos and spotters.

I've had good luck with Gold Ring Leupold scopes on sporter weight hunting rifles in that they are generally well balanced in their size, weight, simplicity, field of view, eye relief, optical clarity, and durability. In addition, the Leupold service is good. I'm not much into the extreme end Leupold scopes, but in a general purpose hunting scope, the current VX-II offers much value for the dollar in my opinion.

Best

I've bought a few scopes, Sightron, Pentax, without looking through them just to see based on reviews here and other places. I wasn't dissapointed at all. But a Swift lost it's zero for me at just the wrong time, a hard lesson about cheaper scopes.

Using your Leupold method has very little risk and is not a bad way to go if you can't look through the scopes to compare. When I did a live comparison I switched to the Zeiss Conquest as my primary scope choice because they look and work better for me.

There isn't really a good substitue for live comparison in low light conditions but if you aren't afraid of a little risk you can find much better bargains than on Leupold, but there are good reasons for that as well.

I have 27 rifles and have seems like tryed just about every scope there is including leupold. ALL of my guns but one now wear zeiss, the one is new and haven't picked up a zeiss scope for it yet. Zeiss has a lifetime transferable warranty, in short, buy a zeiss or swarovski and you'll never look at other scopes again with zeiss being the best buy in my opinion for the money.
I have their scopes on everything from 44 mag to 416 rigby,458 lott, 375 H&H and 7mm stw and never had one fail me yet or loose zero. I don't care what a person buys, but someone,somewhere ,sometime is going to get a lemon in what he buys. Zeiss has yet to let me down.