Rifle Scopes Explain scope construction to me.

[AMMOWASTER]

Why are the wider range scopes exponentially more money?

When you are looking at any brand they are broken into families by their magnification ratio ie 3 (3-9), 4 (3-12), 6 (3-18), and now the bastards at S&B have a 9 (3-27) which is just a awesome range.

Is it that much harder to have a big range? I really like the wide range and have been looking at a couple scopes that have a 6x range but damn they start getting spendy


Also if anyone could tell me the proper term to refer to range as I am sure I messed it up that would be nice

 

[Jerry R]

There are far many more reasons for this than can possibly be explained in just a matter of a few words. Just a small example is that there are no moving lenses in the image erecting system and typically less overall components throughout the entire optic. Fixed power scopes are typically less complicated and painstaking to assemble which also reduces overall cost.

A comparable question would read something like, "why are fixed power optics so much less expensive than a variable powered optic?"

You can call it a zoom range or magnification range and most of us will know what you mean.

 

[AMMOWASTER]

Thanks for the reply. It makes perfect sense to me that the fixed power scopes are less as they have less parts.

I was just trying to figure out if there were a bunch more parts in the scopes with a bigger range or finer machining. The idiot in me figures the parts have to be similar so I was just wondering why it is so much more.

Kind of like a 5 speed or 6 speed tranny

 

[lifebreath]

As the magnification range increases, the precision needed in alignment of optics, grinding of lenses, etc, to achieve the same optical performance increases dramatically. My mathematical gut tells me that any optical errors due to lack of precision increase non-linearly as the magnification ratio increases, and that difficulties lie in achieving desired results especially at the extremes of the range. Second, I would guess that demand and desire for such increased range would allow greater price (larger margin).