Sub-$500 riflescope recommendation, 2021 edition

[BoilerUP]

If a fella wanted to spend no more than $500 on an optic for a range rifle, how would you spend his money?

Right now I'm looking squarely at the Bushnell Match Pro, but open to other suggestions.

 

[WeiserBucks]

Used SWFA

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

Bushnell Match Pro gets my vote. I've had mine out to 1047 with a cheap T/C Compass in 308 for lulz, but it mostly lived on my NRl22 rig.

 

[David C]

Used or new? That’s one of my first questions. And what kind of range? Need more details.

 

[alfmoonspace]

Spend about a hundred more and you will get a 3-15 new in the box in the PX section . Seriously, spend a tiny bit more to go much better scope.

 

[BoilerUP]

I’ve got a couple LRTSi 4.5-18s, previously owned some PST II 5-25s. I know about the DMR2 and FDE LRTS at closeout prices for sub-800 and how you can get a better optic used within budget.

That said, while every optic has compromises to hit price points, one gets a LOT more optic for $500 today than even five years ago.

I can certainly spend more, and nobody has ever regretted better optics...but for non-competition known distance range recreationally hitting steel or punching paper with a 22LR or 223 (likely what this would go on) I think my needs (and those of many other recreational shooters on a budget) would be met by something around this price point with additional funds applied elsewhere.

Perhaps I can redirect...

There's the Match Pro as well as the Athlon Argos BTR Gen 2 in the sub-$500 range...what other options are out there today for decent new optics priced around half a grand?

 

[steve123]

You can get Athlon Midas TAC's for just over $500 if you shop around, used for less. This is the #1 scope at that price.
Using the LRHS at $800 as an example of a good value, so is the TAC, it's one of those scopes that turned out really well with few faults. Probably the most used scope for NRL22.
I like the glass in it more than my Ares BTR 4.5-27's, which is odd but true??!! And it's superior to the Helos and the G2 Argos.

 

[krimet]

+1 for Athlon. I have a Midas TAC and a gen 1 Ares BTR. I see both come up in the PX fairly regularly at good prices.

 

[dski]

If you had another $100, I would say go Vortex Strike Eagle 5-25. If you have to stay under, look at the athlon.

 

[Doctorwho1138]

I have an Athlon but waiting on the Vortex Strike Eagle 5-25. Although I like my Athlon, I think the Strike Eagle is a better optic for 600 or so. The Athlon sits on my Ruger 10/22 and the Strike Eagle will sit on my Bergara B14r.

 

[beetroot]

I have just picked up a lightly used Strike Eagle 5-25 for a very good price and am very impressed with it for the price I paid.
I feel it holds it's own against the PST Gen2, although the PST is a better nicer over all the SE offers great value for money.

 

[JjMcJ]

I am just now building my first .22LR for NRL22 and other 22 events. I have been doing a lot of research and was seriously considering the Bushy Match Pro which hits a lot of the key things for me (parallax down to 25, Christmas tree reticle, etc.). Then I came across some information on the Crimson Trace Series that are being blown out at Midway. I picked up the Series 3 4-20x50 for $449. This is Japanese ED glass. They also have some other models in the Series 5, but they are higher. Anyway take a look, a good quality optic for less than $500.

Jeff

 

[CrabsandFootball]

I would find a new hobby Personally. Its a waste of time to dick around with cheap shit, and you will end up replacing it and losing even more money in the long run.

The absolute cheapest optic I would own/trust for long range is a Bushnell LRHS/LRTS. Can be found for $650-800 used.

Made in Japan, Europe or North America when it comes to glass.

 

[alfmoonspace]

Honestly the SWFA 3-15 is in that category.

 

[alfmoonspace]

But yeah, cheap is cheap. Those who don’t have the dough, save will always be the best answer.

 

[BoilerUP]

It wasn't all THAT long ago when the Vortex PST was *the* base level "If you're on a budget, get at least THIS" optic...and they ran $800+. They weren't optically perfect, but provided a feature set which made them a great entry point for for those who couldn't afford a NXS, Mark4, etc. with competition at the "entry level price point" from the Weaver EMDR 3-15x and Bushnell Elite Tactical 4200s.

Remember those?

I'd be damn disappointed if there wasn't something at LEAST as good today for less money.

 

[Ndbowhunter]

I would find a new hobby Personally. Its a waste of time to dick around with cheap shit, and you will end up replacing it and losing even more money in the long run.

The absolute cheapest optic I would own/trust for long range is a Bushnell LRHS/LRTS. Can be found for $650-800 used.

Made in Japan, Europe or North America when it comes to glass.

I’ve thrashed on a few swfa’s. Classic and HD and no hiccups

How about the classics? Like the 6x.. man i’ve Thrashed my longest owned 6x and it won’t hiccup.

Have heard of lrhs puking, and i’ve Done the same to an nxs..

 

[krimet]

For just a smidge more:

Product Description

Product Description | Camera Land NY

cameralandny.com

 

[supercorndogs]

I see Weaver 3-15 and Gen 1 Athlon ares in that range. There has been a mil/mil 4-20 Weaver tactical hanging on eBay for a while now sub 500.

 

[Ndbowhunter]

Which reticle? Had the 3-15 and the 2-10
They aren’t terrible,Probably a step above a vortex pst in terms of build (reticles kinda suck at low power if memory serves), but if ur running a budget and it’s strictly range only why would you jump past the swfa 10x?

Tons of travel, long reputation of tracking reliably, durable, plenty good enough glass for range use, and a good reticle.:

For 300$ or less a no brainer.

 

[supercorndogs]

The SWFA 10x is nothing special at 300 anymore.

 

[Ndbowhunter]

What’s better?

40 mils of erector travel. If memory serves its more then that but I don’t have one in front of me.

Focuses down to 10 yards.

Those specs alone set it at the top of the heap for “play toy use”.

Man is it fun to set it in some Burris xtr rings with the 40moa inserts... with a 20moa scope base and send hornady match 75gr steel s out past a mile and not even touch the reticle

get some rocks jutting out from water on oahe and some lines in the water catching lunch and the giggle factor is unreal. Good stiff dakota breeze holding 8-9 mils of wind..
Hell we had one past 2000 and getting more hits on a .5 mil target then you’d think possible with steel case and plenty of the misses were dangerous.

Break the shot clean and eat a sandwich, then watch the rooster tail. Effin good time. So funny to watch the bullet skip in an arc and not even close to straight away from ya.

 

[supercorndogs]

Well jeez. Most complain about being able to spot shots at 1k with 6mm 105s and mid tier glass. You are spotting shots past 2k with an SWFA fixed power and a 223. I think you are spinning tails, and I think shooting over open water like you mention is illegal and stupid. Just about anything that is 300 dollars today i would take over the SWFA fixed power. The glass sucks, the turrets suck, and the fact that they are fixed power sucks. They were ok 10 years ago when the picking was much slimmer. A major optics arms race has taken place since then and they decided not to participate. Now you can grab scopes that cost 1k during the same time frame for 3-500.

Ok, back to the O.P.

I don't know if anyone has some of those Nikon FX-1000 still, they were 325-400 new for a while. Athlon Argos, Bushnell Engage, a lot of the older Elite 6500 and 4200 scopes you can find around 300-500. Natchez had the Weaver EDMR for about 450 for a long time. I don't know if they still have some.

 

[johnnyvw]

Natchez doesn't have much anymore....

 

[Sutherlandsd]

strike eagle used or vets discount if you served.

 

[Ndbowhunter]

Well jeez. Most complain about being able to spot shots at 1k with 6mm 105s and mid tier glass. You are spotting shots past 2k with an SWFA fixed power and a 223. I think you are spinning tails, and I think shooting over open water like you mention is illegal and stupid.

If you say so bro.

Laffin.. thanks for that.


Got that list of good to go 300 dollar scopes? I’ll try one and see if we can get it to t1x and see wtf.. if only I know it’ll be fogged out, rattle like a kids toy or turn a 1/2” all day long gun at 50 into making shotgun pattern groups pretty fast.

Swfa SS suck. Take This 6x for instance. hasn’t bobbled yet and it’s seen a switched it to the kook shooter a minute ago. Before that it was getting pegged at max elevation making little mud rocksinto smaller ones on the 22lr. If you can put a 22lr on target with good reliability, makes the centerfire seem like child’s play.. it’s pretty hard to find a critter to send a bullet at 40mils plus.

So to see wtf.. I Packed into into the snow bank a few nights ago to see how it does in the cold. We hit 27 below at one point

Dropped it 4 foot on the deck a few times to clear the clogged compensator and clear the lenses of snow. Poa was poi on the cut end of a stick showing through the snow at 50 yards.

Yarded it off to replace with the dmr2i that midway was blowing out last week

Let’s see if the seals are any good. The girls little egg experiment thing is a good spot for it for the week.

Yeah the market place is full of. Good bomb proof scopes at sub 500$... laffin

i’ll Fvck off from this thread for a minute. Good reprieve from the dog days of winter and doom and gloom coming from the Biden bunch.

 

[supercorndogs]

Wth a 16" AR none the less, you would need 52+ mils with that horandy 75g to fly 2k......... Laughing. Ok, Chief you keep shooting that 22LR eagle eye. ITs not really here nor there, since you can't get an SWFA fixed power right now. And auctions for them are going 400+ because people drink coolaide. Best time to sell one, worst time to buy one.

 

[Luckyshot]

I can't complain about the SWFA 10x42 I had. For 300 dollars you get:
-a decent reticle with the mil-quad
-mil turrets that tracked
-wasn't heavy
-had parallax adjustment
-insane amount of internal adjustment
-30mm tube

However, I no longer have it. I needed an upgrade because I get more joy out of a "nice optic" than one that is just "good enough". Some things that really begin to bug you about your SWFA after use are:
-parallax was pretty finicky at 100 yards, and a pain to adjust if you have the dial on the objective
-mushy turrets
-NO ZERO STOP
-only 5mil per rotation is pretty annoying
-glass is nothing to write home about (bearing in mind that this fixed power will be way clearer than anything in this price range)
-fixed 10 power is not great for shooting at targets much smaller than 1 MOA

When I was first looking for a budget riflescope 5 or 6 years ago, this checked all the boxes that no other scope did for under 1000 bucks. In fact, I see few sub 1k scopes that I'd like to spin the turrets on even now. It served its purpose as a target/hunting scope and got me on a mile long shot where my piece of sh*t swfa was the only scope that could dial the full 27 mils needed.

TLDR: with only 500 bucks to spend on a scope. I would buy another 10x42 SWFA in an instant. I would get one with the parallax knob for $400 and spend the rest on good rings (Seekins). But if you stick with the hobby for long, you will upgrade eventually.

 

[BoilerUP]

I previously owned a SWFA 12x...nice value for the money, but like others here I no longer own it.

 

[Jabot]

What’s better?

40 mils of erector travel. If memory serves its more then that but I don’t have one in front of me.

Focuses down to 10 yards.

Those specs alone set it at the top of the heap for “play toy use”.

Man is it fun to set it in some Burris xtr rings with the 40moa inserts... with a 20moa scope base and send hornady match 75gr steel s out past a mile and not even touch the reticle

get some rocks jutting out from water on oahe and some lines in the water catching lunch and the giggle factor is unreal. Good stiff dakota breeze holding 8-9 mils of wind..
Hell we had one past 2000 and getting more hits on a .5 mil target then you’d think possible with steel case and plenty of the misses were dangerous.

Break the shot clean and eat a sandwich, then watch the rooster tail. Effin good time. So funny to watch the bullet skip in an arc and not even close to straight away from ya.

Your pretty funny, but I think u smoked your lunch

 

[BoilerUP]

Okay....looking around here's where I'm at for optics at the $500(ish) price point which are available now or will be this week.

Match Pro 6-24x for $450-500
Strike Eagle 5-25x for $500
Helos BTR Gen 2 4-20x for $500
Midas TAC 6-24x for $600
Midas TAC 5-25x for $650
Ares BTR Gen 2 4.5-27x for $650

Spend my money.

 

[pineoak]

I loved my LRHS and wouldve kept them if not for the thick hunting reticle lines, glass was amazing for the price but my knobs were very stiff

You never mentioned what caliber at what distances which makes it a bit harder

pst gen 2 $600 brand new would be my rec for inside of 600 yards mostly or .223

i love mine. Paired with Seekins rings its the value/quality sweet spot for me

Vortex Viper PST Gen II 3-15x44 EBR-2D MRAD (FFP) PST-3157

FREE SHIPPING on Vortex Viper PST 3-15x44 EBR-2D MRAD (FFP) PST-3157

www.eurooptic.com

$150 more if you need the magnification

if going out past 800 regulaly id get more magnification (.308 or further)

Vortex Viper PST Gen II 5-25x50 EBR-2C MRAD Scope PST-5258

Vortex Viper PST 5-25x50 EBR-2C MRAD Scope PST-5258 | Only at EuroOptic.com!

www.eurooptic.com

gen1 athlon argos btr 4-24 for a budget option- nice glass for price dont know if they track as i never tested the two i had
(Ive never used the gen 2)

im over the swfa optics, had the 3-15x pst2 at the range next to it and decided to sell the 10x and 12x right then and there

the swfa 3-15... overrated imo

3-9 is pretty nice though

 

[rnlzkbrs]

Why no one mentioned Arken Optics or Swampfox Optics?

 

[gr8fuldoug]

Element Helix 6-24x50

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

I was really impressed with the Match Pro when I was running it in testing. The only knock I can give it is the total elevation adjustment, but a 20moa rail will still give you all the adjustment most people will ever need for a budget optic. Hell, I got out to 1047 with a slow 308 and a split scope base using holdover for the last bit of elevation.

 

[Doctorwho1138]

Okay....looking around here's where I'm at for optics at the $500(ish) price point which are available now or will be this week.

Match Pro 6-24x for $450-500
Strike Eagle 5-25x for $500
Helos BTR Gen 2 4-20x for $500
Midas TAC 6-24x for $600
Midas TAC 5-25x for $650
Ares BTR Gen 2 4.5-27x for $650

Spend my money.

Just got my Strike Eagle for my 22. So far it passed the box test and seems like a nice scope for the money.