I just bought a Kimber Montana in 308 Winchester for hunting here in the Northeast.I can't make up my my mind about which scope to buy for my rifle.At first, I was thinking about a Leupold Ultralight 3x9, since this is a light rifle.I also was thinking about maybe a Trijicon Accupoint 3x9,but I don't know that much about the Trijicons.Does anyone here have any experiance with either of these scopes?Any suggestions or opinions would be appreciated.

I'm leaning towards the Trijicon.The Leupold has a 33mm objective and the Trijicon has a 40mm objective.I wonder how good the glass is on the Trijicon?

Hello dirtbikerider44,
You can not go wrong with the Leupold, but the Trijicon products are very high on quality. Lot of military optical items are mfg. by Trijicon and make some very sophisticated items for both military and LE.
For sportiing use, Leupold would be by choice and remember, there is no such thing as a used Leupold, warranty is passed on to each user. Just a suggestion and would not worry all that much about the weight of the scope for a moderately heavy rifle is not all that much of a negative. If you were climbing mtns chasing sheep, goats, etc. then might be a consideration, but in the East?? Good Luck.

dirtbikerider44,

I don't think you will be able to tell the difference in weight on the regular Leupie scopes like the VXII3-9x40 and the VXIII 3.5-10 x 40 they bothe feel really light to me and very minor difference in weight will not be noticable. Nikon's 3-9x40 Monarch feels pretty light as well. There are alot of good scopes on the market and I personally would go w/ many of them before the Trij scope. I guess the Trij scope would have to be an aquired taste. You may also want to consider resale value.

Good Luck

Reloader

Looked at Trijicons site on their hunting scopes.

Two things that turned me off imediately are the fact that they are "Water Resistant" not Water Proof and the fact that they have tritium for ilumination. Tritium is great for ilumination but it has a shelf life meaning many years down the road it loses its glow. It doesn't appear to be very stout to me, I guess it's just that window in the top of it that turns me off.

I can see one of these on an AR but, not on a hunting rifle.

Like I said, it would have to be an aquired taste.

Good Luck

Reloader

I would also recommend considering the Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40. We have a special price on them for a limited time. Outstanding scopes.

After giving it further thought,I think I'm going to buy a Zeiss Conquest 3x9x40 w/German #4 reticule.Thank you fellows for your advice.

That is a good choice, you won't be disappointed with the Zeiss.
- mike

Be aware that eye placement is much more critical with the Zeiss than with the Leupold. This can be problematic if your stock does not fit you perfectly or if you're forced to shoot from an awkward position. The Zeiss is also heavier.

Here is my rule of thumb:

The human eye will resolve 1" at 100 yards unaided. This allows you to resolve a 10" circle (same angle of resolution) at 1000 yards. Given how large big game kill zones are (about 10" on a elk for example.) this resolution is more than adequate. Reason many professional hunters use non-optical sights.

Now as your eyes get older the resolution decreases. Compensation can be had by adding magnification in an optical sight. A 2x scope will probably bring you back to normal if quality optics. Now if you need greater resolution at long range add more power. A 20x scope will allow a senior citizen to resolve 2" at 1000 yards, but at a price of reduced field of view.

For the average big game hunter the 1-5x variable in quality optics will allow you to shoot reliably to 500 yards or so without any trouble. Many pundits favor these scopes because of thier light weight, wide field of view, excellent light transmission and large pupil.

All optical systems are a compromise. Larger numbers in power, tube size, or objective size always come at a price/performance trade off except in the most expensive scopes where this is mitigated.

Lastly, I would say that scope choice is opten driven by what the user/purchaser likes. Don't be motivated by marketing hype. On the other hand optical quality is often directly proportional to price.

So you pays your money and you makes your choice!

Good luck!

Some other thoughts to consider:

At what level of brightness and contrast can the human eye resolve 1" @ 100 yds? Given that most game animals have pigmentation designed to hide them, the level of contrast between them and their background is likely to be much, much less, thus drastically reducing the resolving power of the unaided eye. Also, most game animals are active at dawn and dusk, when diminished brightness severely reduces the resolving power of the unaided eye.

Second, besides increasing resolving power and brightness, a huge additional benefit of optical sights is that they put the reticle in the same focus as the target, allowing a much smaller angular size of the reticle compared to the front sight. Tight aperture peep sights improve this, at a tremendous expense of brightness.

Most professional hunters I've heard of that prefer open sights do so for two reasons, neither related to the eye's resolving power: they are more reliable, and they are quicker to aim at short ranges under the stress of dispatching wounded dangerous game.

quote:

Originally posted by dirtbikerider44:
After giving it further thought,I think I'm going to buy a Zeiss Conquest 3x9x40 w/German #4 reticule.Thank you fellows for your advice.

Excellent choice and I hope you bought it from Jon. He gives great service and great pricing.

The eye relief on that scope is a constant 4" and it has a bigger eyebox than a typical Leupold, so it will be easier to get a sight picture, IMO and IME.

quote:

Originally posted by BigJakeJ1s:
Some other thoughts to consider:

At what level of brightness and contrast can the human eye resolve 1" @ 100 yds?

The short answer is that it depends on the individual eye and the conditions of illumination and color contrast at the target.

An interesting test is to place various colors of bottle caps on fence posts at 100 yards and then see if you can find them with your eyes. My experience is that children can see them easily, when they fade into obscurity with my 50 year old eyes. A good 5x scope set on 2 or 3 power brings them right back.