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Scout mounted optics

905 views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  Bindernut 
#1 ·
Currently I have a TruGlo Gobble Stopper on my Mosin Nagant. The reason I put that on there is because I have a scout style mount right on top of the rear sight mount and I needed something that would have long eye relief. Recently I have been looking around and learning about pistol scopes. The reason I am looking to change is the Gobble stopper has 5 MOA at 50 yards and I am wanting more precision.
Do you guys think I can gain more precision by switching to a pistol scope? I have also read that the field of view in a pistol scope is quite limited. Is that true? Can you guys recommend any pistol scopes that would be good to use on a rifle?
I have seen some NCstar pistol scopes for 80 dollars but haven't seen the moa advertised.

Perhaps I could post a condensed version of this is in the pistol forum.
 
#2 · (Edited)
There are a few intermediate eye relief scopes out there specifically for scout rifle setups, but before those came around Mr. Cooper used a low-magnification pistol scope to get the longer eye relief needed. No reason why one wouldn't work on your Mosin.
I used a 1.5x on a Ruger 10/22 scout I put together a few years back.

The 5MOA that TruGlo has listed is how large the dot is, not the field of view. A 5MOA dot will basically cover 5" @ 100yds...or 2.5" @ 50yds.
With pretty much all of the standard scope reticles you don't have a big dot but finer crosshairs. I'll guess something on the lines of 0.25-0.5MOA, meaning the intersection of the crosshairs will cover about 1/4" to 1/2" @ 100yds depending upon magnification and how heavy the crosshairs are.
You typically don't see a MOA figure listed for any telescopic sight except for dot reticles because a crosshair reticle is inherently finer that the average dot sight.

The big thing you need to match up is your field of view. The larger the magnification factor, the smaller your field of view.

Also keep in mind the intended use of a long or intermediate eye relief scope as used on a scout mount. Use it just like a receiver sight iron-sight setup or a standard rear-mounted scope or other optic...both eyes open. The off-side eye does the coarse work of putting the rifle up in the general vicinity of the target and the strong-side eye does the fine placement of the crosshairs or dot on target.
 
#3 ·
A 5MOA dot will basically cover 5" @ 100yds...or 2.5" @ 50yds.
So the bullet hits anywhere within those 5" right?

Just out of curiosity, do they make scopes with a finer cross hair? If so I am assuming that would be overkill for normal hunting/target shooting applications.

And thank you for the response.
 
#4 ·
I found that I shot my Mosin better with the original sights, however, look for the Leupold M series pistol scopes. I tried a nc star, it failed under the recoil from the Mosin and shifted point of aim for each shot; it was replaced under warranty, so I have no complaint about the scope. Leupold has several magnifications (2x.3x,4x ect...) and a "normal" cross hair. Look on some of the auction sites for an idea of price.
 
#5 · (Edited)
So the bullet hits anywhere within those 5" right?

Just out of curiosity, do they make scopes with a finer cross hair? If so I am assuming that would be overkill for normal hunting/target shooting applications.

And thank you for the response.
On your 5MOA red dot, it's hard to determine a precise point of aim because you're covering up a 5" circle at 100yds...you don't really know exactly where the bullet is going to land due to the precision of that particular reticle. For a 25-50yd turkey gun, that's a decent compromise in a big dot for fast target acquisition but at that range the precision will still be acceptable. For a 100-200yd rifle application, that's a darn big dot so precision aiming will fall off considerably.
And then it also depends on how well your rifle will group too...clamped in a vise/machine-rest with no sighting error.

As for a finer cross-hair scope...
There are some fine crosshair rifle scopes out there but most of the pistol/long or intermediate eye relief scopes that I've seen or used all have the standard duplex reticle. This is a fairly heavy crosshair except for in the center where the two lines meet...without knowing which models you're looking at I'll venture a guess this is what those NCStars that you're looking at have.
A handgun scope usually won't have a very fine crosshair reticle either due to the extra recoil that they might encounter on a handgun as compared to a rifle's recoil.
I'm also sort of guesstimating how much target area those scope reticles cover too since I'm stuck in town for a few days and I don't think the neighbors would appreciate me pointing a scoped rifle or handgun down the street to get a more accurate 100yd measurement. :D
I can tell you that a 2x Burris handgun scope scope with a duplex reticle, the center of he crosshairs will cover a bit less than 1/8" when sighting across my basement (30') at my bore-sighting grid.
 
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