Hey Guy's - Not sure if this is the right place for this question, but I figured you all would know. Here goes:

What is the difference between a Shotgun scope and a rifle scope? I have a Leupold 4x that I was going to mount on a shotgun and I am wondering if there is some special requirement for a shotgun.

Thanks for your help!

JDA-CO

Generally, they are low power scopes and parallex is set for 50 yards or so. I have found they make good cheap big bore scopes.

quote:

Originally posted by Art S.:
parallex is set for 50 yards or so

I think this is the big difference. Riflescopes have their parallax set at something like 150 or 200 yards and shotgun scopes are set at some closer distance(50-100 yards).

I believe that some of Leupold's fixed power riflescopes are set at a closer distance(100 yards IIRC).

Not knowing any different, might eye relief come into play as well?

Shotgun scopes are usually lower power, larger field of view, longer eye relief and parallax set from 50-100yds..AND lower price...and used for deer, pig, elk, turkey, etc., close range shooting.

In todays world with the much more accurate and longer range saboted slugs, most of the lower powered "rifle" scope work just as well or better.

You might also take a look at the scopes designed for the recoil of springer air guns like RWS. My RWS48 ate most "rifle" scopes for breakfast, lunch AND dinner with a couple of snacks in between...even the high dollar ones.

The only ones to survive rifle, shotgun and springer air guns, for any length of time, are the Bushnell Banners...relatively cheap, good optics etc.

Whenever I need a new scope I usually start with a Banner, put it on my RWS, shoot it for a season of ground squirrels in the fiels close around and if it survives it goes on a rifle.

I have a 4-12 Banner on my 620 HellBoy right now while I'm testing/working up loads, that started on the RWS, and has been used on a succession of large bore, heavy recoiling rifles including my 12 GaFH.

The "double shuffle" recoil, no matter how low, just kicks the heck out of the glass supporting mechanism. The scope recoil inertia in the reaward direction gets violently stopped and reversed to forward when the compression piston hits the end of it's stroke and it all happens in a milli-second.

Just something to think about.

Luck

Thanks for your replies gents - Bottom line: It's ok to use a rifle scope on the shotgun???

Perfecto!

I'd feel better using a shotgun scope on a rifle than a rifle scope on a shotgun.

As foobar pointed out, some shotguns will destroy the reticules in some rifle scopes post haste.

The major difference which might be inconvenient in using a shotgun scope on a rifle is that most shotgun scopes are parallax adjusted at the factory to 75 yards (not 50 yards in most instances). Rifle scopes without adjustable parallax rings or knobs are generally adjusted at the factory for at least 125 yards.

Some rifle scopes have shooter adjustable parallax and with most of those they will adjust down to about 50 yards, if the shooter wishes. On the other hand, I don't know of any shotgun scopes which have shooter-adjustable parallax.