Best scope for clarity

[Craigmcwill]

Hi all,

I have just acquired my rifle license in the UK and am looking to start off right and buy one of the absolute best optics I can buy.

I would say I'd be 50/50 hunting deer and vermin or target shooting.

What I'm looking for is scopes with the absolute best clarity.

I was thinking a swarovski as the glass has really good reviews but any help would be really appreciated as I am nee to this.

Thanks guys

 

[W54/XM-388]

Can you get the Canadian Tangent Theta scopes in the UK?

 

[Craigmcwill]

Can you get the Canadian Tangent Theta scopes in the UK?

I am not sure buddy, ive not heard of them.
I'll have a look

 

[db2000]

I suggest starting by reading through some of the great comparisons on here. You can use the search function and key words
Hensoldt, Tangent Theta, Zero Compromise Optics (ZCO), NightForce, Schmidt Bender
Also watch some reviews on YouTube from the Dark Lord of Optics. He has reviews on here also. Very helpful and objective.
A lot will depend on which reticle you prefer. There’s less enthusiasm on this site for MOA and reticles sometimes preferred for hunting vs tree style, so Zeiss and Swarovski will have less discussion but produce excellent products.

 

[W54/XM-388]

Here is Ilya's YouTube channel that would be well worth spending a full weekend watching all his stuff before buying a scope that will cost you thousands:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ikoshkin

That being said, Tangent Theta scopes have some of the best glass available in "tactical" style scopes, as well as top notch mechanicals.

A lot of it is also going to come down to what reticle you are more comfortable with.

What distances are you going to shoot at?
Deer hunting may be very different than long range target shooting or vermin shooting.

Schmidt and Bender have some excellent SFP hunting scopes that while expensive for their new, top of the line stuff, will do excellent duty on foggy / dreary hunting days, and may make the difference between getting that deer and not.

 

[Craigmcwill]

Here is Ilya's YouTube channel that would be well worth spending a full weekend watching all his stuff before buying a scope that will cost you thousands:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ikoshkin

That being said, Tangent Theta scopes have some of the best glass available in "tactical" style scopes, as well as top notch mechanicals.

A lot of it is also going to come down to what reticle you are more comfortable with.

What distances are you going to shoot at?
Deer hunting may be very different than long range target shooting or vermin shooting.

Schmidt and Bender have some excellent SFP hunting scopes that while expensive for their new, top of the line stuff, will do excellent duty on foggy / dreary hunting days, and may make the difference between getting that deer and not.

Thankyou very much for your help,

I wouldnt be shooting at any deer over say 300 yards or so.

Do you think I'd be better with a dedicated hunting scope and then get a target scope?

Thanks again

 

[db2000]

Thankyou very much for your help,

I wouldnt be shooting at any deer over say 300 yards or so.

Do you think I'd be better with a dedicated hunting scope and then get a target scope?

Thanks again

You’ll get a lot of varying opinions on this. I prefer to use a first focal plane with tree style reticle for everything. I also try and stick to just similar reticles and practice as much as possible using them dialing and hold over with wind. Frankly, I don’t think it matters much which focal plane or reticle you prefer if you practice with it then you’re bound to take confident shots. Great glass is the key IMO. Makes the difference in poor conditions as mentioned previously.

 

[sheepdog697]

I havent looked through everything but between the high end Vortex, Leupold, Steiner, and Kahles. I definitely give clarity to the kahles.

 

[fdkay]

Hi all,

I have just acquired my rifle license in the UK and am looking to start off right and buy one of the absolute best optics I can buy.

I would say I'd be 50/50 hunting deer and vermin or target shooting.

What I'm looking for is scopes with the absolute best clarity.

I was thinking a swarovski as the glass has really good reviews but any help would be really appreciated as I am nee to this.

Thanks guys

Do you have a budget in mind?
Many folks come on here and say they want the best there is, until they see the price tag associated with it.
For example Hensoldt optics are held in high regard, as well as Tangent Theta, Zero Compromise and Schmidt and Bender.
However, you're talking about 4000+ US dollars for some of these. All of them are north of 3000 US.

Then you have the second tier occupied by the likes of Leupold, Vortex Razor Gen 2, Athlon Chronus, Tract Toric etc... Now you are talking 1700-2500 US dollars.

 

[W54/XM-388]

Thankyou very much for your help,

I wouldnt be shooting at any deer over say 300 yards or so.

Do you think I'd be better with a dedicated hunting scope and then get a target scope?

Thanks again

What kind of target shooting are you going to do and at what distances?

Generally speaking you could use one scope for both.
Usually you pick the scope that will excel at what you use it for most and be workable for what you will use it for a lesser amount of the time.

If your target shooting is not too far away, something like this will work well:

3-15x50mm Marksman

Tangent Theta 3-15x50mm, riflescope, 3-15,

armament.com

https://armament.com/content/ModelTT315M-WEB.pdf

The biggest issue is that if you are going to hunt 100 to 300 meters with your scope, you'll want to have something like a 3x on the low end to give you a good field of view. You could go with the 5x minimum but that will probably not be ideal for close hunting.

Now depending on your target shooting, 15x may not be enough and you may want to get one that has 25x or such at the top end.

That being said, if you get really serious about both hunting and target shooting, you may eventually see if you are able to have a dedicated setup for hunting and a dedicated setup for target shooting. Depending again a lot on what kind of target shooting you want to do.

 

[Craigmcwill]

Thankyou everyone for your inputs,

I'm now thinking more of a dedicated hunting scope and a target scope in the future as I predominately hunt just now.

What would be the recommendations for the best glass in a hunting scope?

Thanks

 

[Denys]

I would suggest you visit https://www.marchscopes.co.uk/

 

[RTH1800]

Lot of scope features besides clarity/glass issues. Most mid level or better optics have stunning glass today. I prefer S&B but from what I read there are better scopes out there. I don’t require them. YMMV.

 

[W54/XM-388]

Thankyou everyone for your inputs,

I'm now thinking more of a dedicated hunting scope and a target scope in the future as I predominately hunt just now.

What would be the recommendations for the best glass in a hunting scope?

Thanks

Go to this post and then read down on the thread from there:

Rifle Scopes - Glass quality in S&B models

Hi I was wandering if there is a difference In glass Between the 5-25x56 with dt lp turrets compared to the 5-25x56 with locking turrents or are they the same scope with just different turrets. If you look at a photo of them side by side they look different in size.

www.snipershide.com

 

[RobbinsHGray]

Thankyou very much for your help,

I wouldnt be shooting at any deer over say 300 yards or so.

Do you think I'd be better with a dedicated hunting scope and then get a target scope?

Thanks again

This is a simple question. If you have the money the answers is without question, yes.

 

[ZiaHunter]

For hunting my preference is SFP since most of the time I am dialed down to the lowest power with the reticle still easily readable. For the money the Swaro's are pretty hard to beat for a hunting scope due to their lightweight and being excellent in low light situations. For precision rifles prefer FFP in mils.