I was thinking of buying a buhhnell 4200 4-16x40 for my 22-250. I see midway has Sightron 6.5-25x50AO scopes on sale this month for $299.95. Should I stay with my first chose or consider the Sightron.

It's kinda hard to answer that one. It depends completely on what you'll be hunting and in what weather.

Western New York is hardly the Wyoming high plains, so I'm going to guess/suppose we're talking ground hog hunting here, with perhaps some predator calling.

In summer, with any shooting at all, you'll have so many heat waves (from both ground and barrel) that any power over 10X will be almost useless. The lowered light transmission of higher powers will make dawn/dusk predator hunting difficult at higher powers, too.

I own a Pentax 6.5-24X for my primary prairie dog gun, but can seldom use more than 12X due to heat waves. If I had it to do again, I'd go with a 4-16X for that gun, or even a 4-12X.

More magnification doesn't help if the clarity of the view is poor. Experience has taught me to tend to the lower powers for maximum clarity. Even if the target is smaller, if it's crystal sharp behind the crosshair, I'll hit it!

First, you probably can't effectively use much more magnification than 16X, so the additional power of the Sightron is of little value. Second, and more importantly, the 50 mm objective will force you to mount the scope so high above the bore to clear the barrel that you will not be able to place your cheek properly and firmly on the comb of the rifle (unless you have a custom stock with a very high comb), making the sight picture slow to acquire and difficult to hold. Whatever magnification you choose, stay with no larger than a 40mm to 42mm objective lens.

I would prefer leupold over either and B&L over Sightron.

As far as not being able to use power over 16 or 18X that's horseshit!

We shoot routinely for who can group best at 400 yards and unless your eyes are a helluva lot better than mine 20/25 you need more glass than 18x.

Will it cause more problems during the heat of the day yes. For prairie dogging they go back inthe ground during the height of the day. I also shoot more than 1 rifle.

Its your choice, but, for a varmiter rifle more than 20x can be used. But I am only familiar with the leupold.

No way!

I actually use a 6-30x58 with a 35mm tube. I find that the additional power allows me to make better hits at 600-800 yards.

The bigger objective adds additional light to replace that lost in the magnification function of a long scope.

However, the key thing in my opinion is not the rated power of the scope, but the resolution at that power. It doesn't do that much good to have a lot of magnification if all you are getting is a really close look at a smudge. Typically many scopes start to loose resolution when powers get over about 15x. I also have found that high resolution optics allows you to shoot right through mirage in many cases. Color fidelity is another important consideration.

Here is a picture of that rig in action. I use a 100 grain 6.5 Sierra HP at about 3200 fps.



[ 03-08-2003, 03:10: Message edited by: DMCI* ]

DMCI*,I'm very jealous!Not one %$^&*#$ house in sight,,,,,,Shoot,shoot,,,Then do a few for me! Really miss the wide open spaces I grew up on

It's really funny, I nailed a nice big PD at about 175 yards and my shooting partner was appalled:

"Don't do that again!"

"Why not I asked?"

"Because it's unsportsman like!" he said.

This northeastern Montana Prairie is something to behold! We had to let the pronghorns get out of the way mid-morning so we could continue shooting.

Interestingly, shooting out to about 500 is not a problem. At 600-700 yards, wind becomes a problem and when its variable, you can see the fall of shot landing inches on either side of the PDs, while they just stand there and look unconcerned. They are so humorous, it sometimes cracks you up to the point you forget to shoot.

[ 03-08-2003, 20:09: Message edited by: DMCI* ]

What kind of shooting seat is that and do they make it for lefties? Looks Sweet !

Ruger#1

Yesterday I received my Midway order...two Sightrons, one 6.5-25x50 and one 3-12x mil dot. The 6.5-20x is going on a heavy barreled AR15 with an elevated flat top so the 50 mm objective doesn't bother me. The 3-12x is going on a Steyr 308 tactical. Both will be used to shoot prairie dogs this spring. I now have 6 Sightron scopes. 2, 4-16x and 2, 6-24x in additon to the ones that came yesterday. One of the 6-24x is on a Volquartsen in 22 mag. The AO lets you go all the way down to 12 yards, great for rimfires. With p'dogs I say you can never have too much magnification. I like to be able to see them when I shoot. I used one of the 4-16x on and Encore in 243, long shot in Rosebud last year was 540 yards. I really like the Sightrons, I think they are the best for the money. I sold my Burris and Leupold scopes after getting my first two Sightrons last year, so I could buy more Sightrons. Hope this helps.

I have a Leupold 6.5X20X50 on a Rem 22-250. No complaints, no problems. Buy what you want, but get as much quality as you can afford,