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Rifle Scopes Scope: Bolt vs semi auto use

Pester

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Nov 20, 2012
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Northern CA
Hey folks,
I was at the local gun shop last weekend and I over heard a customer telling the sales guy that there is a big difference between a scope built to take the demands of a semi auto (his example was a typical 223/308 AR or other semi auto) due to the cycling of the next round and that a scope built for a bolt gun. The sales guy said that he felt that most current well made scopes would handle either.

My understanding, and I could sure be wrong here, was that a good scope would work on either. Are there scopes built specifically for a semi auto? And, if there are, are they just built with heavier materials?

Thanks....
 
Modern scopes made today in the $300 and up range are made to high enough quality specs usually to be used on anything realistic, with maybe the exception of certain air guns with weird harmonics and reverse recoil. For instance, several are .50 bmg and 338 lp rated and are actually tested for x number of rounds before the scope design is released to market. The guy at the gun stores concerns may have been semi-valid in 1987, but things have come leaps and bounds even in the last 8 years. Stick with American, Japanese, Philippines, and Euro made scopes and it shouldn't ever be a worry, auto/bolt or otherwise.