Rifle Scopes Swarovski Habicht 3-12x50 HELP

[tribalgunner60]

Hello Everybody,

I am brand new to the sport of long-range (mostly a bow hunter kinda guy) and I am overwhelmed with all the information I've Googled, Binged, and Yahoo'd but thank goodness I was recommended to this forum by a friend. First of all, I really appreciate everything I've found here but so far I haven't found anything on my scope (Swarovski Habicht 3-12x50). Long story short, I picked up a Weatherby Accumark V in .300 Win Mag as a little post-deployment gift for myself. I wasn't in the market for something that large of a caliber but a guy at work was selling and I figured it would of been un-American of me to not take her of his hands. Anyways, after some asking around, I was told by a reputable source from the local shop to sight the rifle at 200 yards and leave it. What I didn't understand was why he mentioned that the scope was only good to 300-350 yards max and anything more that that I would have to hold over the target.

As of now I have some Hornady and Winchester 150 grain to help sight her in. So here's where I need help. In the long run, I would like to take full advantage of that rifle and her capabilities but don't know where/how to start. I was planning on keeping that scope on her and shooting the 150's just so I can sight her in 200 yards as suggested. What are other suggestions would you guys suggest? What optics/reticle should I focus my research on if I decide to sell the scope to match the rifle?

Thank you,
Tribalgunner60

 

[Crosshair]

The Swaro Habicht series are legendary hunting scopes. For average hunting scenarios it is an absolutely stellar piece of glass, and is now discontinued. I've got a 4-12x50 on a .300 Weatherby and it has performed flawlessly.

If you are wanting to shoot accurately past 350+ yards, you will need to dial your turrets. That scope isn't really designed to be dialed repeatedly up and down; best used to sight in at 200 yards (or your preference) and forget it. That is a fine hunting rifle as well, matched very well to the fine euro glass.

If you are planning on hunting with it, I'd leave it as is, it will be great. If you are wanting to get into long range shooting "much", you'd be better off with a scope designed to be dialed up and down continually, and a mil or moa based reticle with match mil or moa turrets.

Same for the rifle. Hunting profile barrels heat up fast and will usually string subsequent shots as the barrel changes thermally. The .300 is an excellent do everything caliber, but long range bullets in .30 cal ought to be 175 gr and up to maximize the ballistic coefficient. You could try verious weight match bullets and see what the rifle likes.

If you plan to sell the scope, I'd assume it would be worth over $800 (maybe more, I don't know), as the Habicht are somewhat sought after as they aren't made anymore.

There are some great long range variable tactical scopes out there starting at around $700 and up. It all depends on what you will be mainly using the rifle for. If real-world hunting, leave as is, IMO.

 

[tribalgunner60]

Thank you very much for the information. I'm going to take your advice and sight her in at 200, maybe 250. Should I stay with my Hornady 150 grains since I'm not planning on shooting long range yet? Or should I go for a higher grain count? Also, it was suggested to sell the scope and purchase one meant for long range. Do you have any preference on what scope would be good for hunting and long range shooting that would fall under the budget of what I sell my Swar for? If anything, I'll be using this for hunting and then dabble in long range.

 

[Crosshair]

Thank you very much for the information. I'm going to take your advice and sight her in at 200, maybe 250. Should I stay with my Hornady 150 grains since I'm not planning on shooting long range yet? Or should I go for a higher grain count? Also, it was suggested to sell the scope and purchase one meant for long range. Do you have any preference on what scope would be good for hunting and long range shooting that would fall under the budget of what I sell my Swar for? If anything, I'll be using this for hunting and then dabble in long range.

A fairly new offering from Nightforce looks to be an excellent "crossover" scope and is getting great initial reviews. It's the 4-14x56 SHV with the awesome MOAR reticle and moa clicks. Can be had illuminated or non. For hunting it is really nice to have screw on caps to cover the turrets from getting bumped, and they pop them off for tactical type shooting. Most reports of the glass puts them basically on par with the NXS series, but coming in under $1k. It's hard to top Nightforce reliability and consistency.

There are a few others like Burris MTAC that have screw on turrets covers, the 4.5-14x42 would be a decent cheaper alternative and is mil/mil.

 

[EasternNChunter]

I used to have your scope and actually sold it when I bought my first "long range" scope. I bought a NF to use as a hunting/long range shooting scope. There was an obvious downgrade in glass quality going from Swarovski to NF and especially in low light when the big boys like to show up. So know going forward, you probably can't find a "long range" scope with turrets that will also have the same high quality glass as your scope. NF makes great scopes but I wanted to upgrade so I sold it and picked up a used Steiner 5-25x56 on here from a fellow Hide member. If tried hard and were patient, you could probably get $900 for your scope depending on condition. I would look at Vortex scopes. They make great scopes at reasonable prices and have some of the best customer service out there. The glass won't be Swarovski but again, for the money I think they are hard to beat. You can get good deals on scopes in the Optics For Sale section of this board. I will disagree with the above poster on one thing. I hunt with scopes with turrets and have never had an issue with my turrets getting "bumped." In fact, I don't want a hunting scope without turrets anymore. I started as a hunter and have only been doing this "long range" thing for about 4-5 years now. I used to give one of my buddies who had Leupolds with turrets a hard time about the very same thing that I am doing now. Its a process. Once you start trying things and begin to understand them and get more comfortable with them, you will probably transition more into it. Its exciting starting out and hitting steel for the first time at 500, 600, 700, 1000 etc. I would look into reloading or finding someone that will do it for you as you will be able to "develop" or customize loads to your rifle to make it shoot better groups than most factory loads. It will also save you money if you shoot enough. I used to use a 300 win mag for all of my long range shooting and LOVED (still do) Hornady 208 grain AMAXs. They are great bullets for long range shooting. Your 300 should shoot the 150 grains pretty good. They will be super fast (maybe 3200 fps). Try the 180 grain bullets as well if your buying factory ammo (Black Hills is great). I use Hornady AMAX for both hunting and long range shooting. I dropped a doe at 802 yards with an AMAX. H1000 is a great powder to try if you or someone else does any reloading for your rifle. My buddy is also getting great results with Reloader 22 in his 300 win mag. Its a little faster and some of his chronographed speeds with 208 AMAXs are hard to believe, especially with a 22" barrel. PM me if I can be any more help. I love 300 win mags.

 

[EasternNChunter]

Hello Everybody,

I am brand new to the sport of long-range (mostly a bow hunter kinda guy) and I am overwhelmed with all the information I've Googled, Binged, and Yahoo'd but thank goodness I was recommended to this forum by a friend. First of all, I really appreciate everything I've found here but so far I haven't found anything on my scope (Swarovski Habicht 3-12x50). Long story short, I picked up a Weatherby Accumark V in .300 Win Mag as a little post-deployment gift for myself. I wasn't in the market for something that large of a caliber but a guy at work was selling and I figured it would of been un-American of me to not take her of his hands. Anyways, after some asking around, I was told by a reputable source from the local shop to sight the rifle at 200 yards and leave it. What I didn't understand was why he mentioned that the scope was only good to 300-350 yards max and anything more that that I would have to hold over the target.

As of now I have some Hornady and Winchester 150 grain to help sight her in. So here's where I need help. In the long run, I would like to take full advantage of that rifle and her capabilities but don't know where/how to start. I was planning on keeping that scope on her and shooting the 150's just so I can sight her in 200 yards as suggested. What are other suggestions would you guys suggest? What optics/reticle should I focus my research on if I decide to sell the scope to match the rifle?

Thank you,
Tribalgunner60

My Swarovski Habicht's reticle had drop outs/hashes and I actually used the bottom hash to hit steel at 600 yards one day with my 300 win mag. I don't remember if that was with 208 AMAXs or 180 grain Barnes TTSX which I no longer shoot. What reticle do you have?

 

[Opticsspecialist]

My Swarovski Habicht's reticle had drop outs/hashes and I actually used the bottom hash to hit steel at 600 yards one day with my 300 win mag. I don't remember if that was with 208 AMAXs or 180 grain Barnes TTSX which I no longer shoot. What reticle do you have?

I'm assuming he has the plex reticle. you probably have the TDS reticle, which was and still is a great reticle. what the guy you were talking to meant was with that rifle, you can push some distance, so sighting in at 200 yards is more advantageous that 100. because the scope lacks adjustable turrets or a ballistic reticle, you'll have to hold over on longer shots. the good news is if you zero at 200, that caliber has been pretty flat in my experience, so you should be able to shoot 400 yards without much trouble, just holding high on the animal. those scopes are great for hunting, but if you want something for "long distance shooting" I would probably consider something with the features that compliment long range shooting.

 

[tribalgunner60]

Thank you all so much for the replies and to answer the question I have a duplex reticle. Okay, here's an update...in short, I have no idea what I'm doing and I apologize for sounding like a jackhole. So I went to the local gun store and had them boresight my scope (50yrds). I went to the range today and at 50, it shot high and left (150 grain/Winchester). I made some adjustments and it grouped around 3 inches above center. When I stepped it back to 100 yrds, it shot way off target (about 7-8 inches above center). When I tried to dial the turret down, I noticed it stopped after 10 clicks, so I stopped and turned it back up another 5. From there, I shot another 3 shot group and it ended up the same as before (7-8 inches above center). After that, I put the .300 away due to all the cautions I've heard about when it comes to throwing too many rounds through it and the fact that it only had 40 rds shot prior to my purchase. My overall plan is to sight in at 250 yrds and leave it. My next plan is leave the weapon as is, without cleaning the barrel, and trying again next week at 100. So with that, what happened? Why did my group rise that much?

 

[tribalgunner60]

I used to have your scope and actually sold it when I bought my first "long range" scope. I bought a NF to use as a hunting/long range shooting scope. There was an obvious downgrade in glass quality going from Swarovski to NF and especially in low light when the big boys like to show up. So know going forward, you probably can't find a "long range" scope with turrets that will also have the same high quality glass as your scope. NF makes great scopes but I wanted to upgrade so I sold it and picked up a used Steiner 5-25x56 on here from a fellow Hide member. If tried hard and were patient, you could probably get $900 for your scope depending on condition. I would look at Vortex scopes. They make great scopes at reasonable prices and have some of the best customer service out there. The glass won't be Swarovski but again, for the money I think they are hard to beat. You can get good deals on scopes in the Optics For Sale section of this board. I will disagree with the above poster on one thing. I hunt with scopes with turrets and have never had an issue with my turrets getting "bumped." In fact, I don't want a hunting scope without turrets anymore. I started as a hunter and have only been doing this "long range" thing for about 4-5 years now. I used to give one of my buddies who had Leupolds with turrets a hard time about the very same thing that I am doing now. Its a process. Once you start trying things and begin to understand them and get more comfortable with them, you will probably transition more into it. Its exciting starting out and hitting steel for the first time at 500, 600, 700, 1000 etc. I would look into reloading or finding someone that will do it for you as you will be able to "develop" or customize loads to your rifle to make it shoot better groups than most factory loads. It will also save you money if you shoot enough. I used to use a 300 win mag for all of my long range shooting and LOVED (still do) Hornady 208 grain AMAXs. They are great bullets for long range shooting. Your 300 should shoot the 150 grains pretty good. They will be super fast (maybe 3200 fps). Try the 180 grain bullets as well if your buying factory ammo (Black Hills is great). I use Hornady AMAX for both hunting and long range shooting. I dropped a doe at 802 yards with an AMAX. H1000 is a great powder to try if you or someone else does any reloading for your rifle. My buddy is also getting great results with Reloader 22 in his 300 win mag. Its a little faster and some of his chronographed speeds with 208 AMAXs are hard to believe, especially with a 22" barrel. PM me if I can be any more help. I love 300 win mags.

What's PM? Private Message? How do I do that?