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Looking for A Scope

2K views 25 replies 13 participants last post by  howlnmad 
#1 ·
Ok... I have tried Centerpoints...Firefield, and Bushnell Banners. 89-105.00 They all seem to have issues when it comes to the higher magnifications... Now before you say i'm being cheap (whick i am) I read the reviews and people rant and rave about how clear the scopes are and how they are so wonderful.... then i get those same scopes and notice that the centerpoint is downright awful at higher magnifications (4-16).. the bushnell banner and firefield are not as cloudy/hazy at higher ranges.... but they have an a god awful glare... the eye relief on all of them is suspect at higher magnifications....

I have a nikon 3-9x40 that does absolutely wonderful with minimizing glare... glare is almost non existent. The sight picture is very clear all times of day.. dusk to dawn... but the magnification isn't quite enough... I need something in the 4-16 range.

are my only options a 350.00+ scope ?? If i have to spend the money i will... but my thinking was if i didn't have to then why spend it.

Any suggestions... other than the 4.5-14 Nikon for $350 and up???
 
#7 ·
I read the reviews and people rant and rave about how clear the scopes are and how they are so wonderful.... then i get those same scopes and notice that the centerpoint is downright awful at higher magnifications (4-16).. the bushnell banner and firefield are not as cloudy/hazy at higher ranges.... but they have an a god awful glare... the eye relief on all of them is suspect at higher magnifications....
You mean to tell us that consumers have no idea what they are talking about? Say it isn't so!
 
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#16 ·
LOL...

I've seen youtube reviews on some of the centerpoint scopes and when I message the people with my findings vs their findings... most of them tell me... oh yeah, I just don't use the higher magnifications... It's crazy, but most of the reviews on the lower end scopes have been lies!! or very misleading. Reading the reviews on youtube or amazon... you would think there isnt a need for higher end scopes because everyone is saying the scopes are crystal clear at all magnification ranges etc.
 
#8 ·
The last scope that I bought was a SightMark from Optics Planet. http://www.opticsplanet.com/yukon-s...-riflescope.html?_iv_code=XK-RS-STT50-SM13011
I am not a long distance shooter but at 200 to 300 yards this one seems to be very clear. It was bought primarily for my grandson who is legally blind and it does help him quite a bit. I am sure there are better ones out there but for $220 it served the purpose very nicely.
 
#19 ·
I think I am just going to stick with Nikon... They are the only scope reviews I have read where nothing is said bad about them... everyone else... vortex, centerpoint, sightmark, bushnell banners, etc all seem to have several favorable reviews... but there are just enough reviews complaining about the glass and optics at higher magnification to scare me off.

My 9 year old shooter kept asking me why is the picture so blurry, when I remounted the nikon she said "it so clear" she just wished the target was closer..... but she said if she had her pick she would rather the picture be clear as opposed to than closer but blury...

so that settles it... 4.5-14 or 4-16 Nikons from here on out.
 
#9 ·
Is this for hunting or target shooting? If so, to what distance?
Hunting w/ a 4X limits your field of view for closer hunts.
For a non-ar type quick shooting target scope out to about 400-600 yards (pending eyes), the Vortex Crossfire II 6-18X44 w/ adjustablt AO (parallax) works well. But have to watch eye relief as lots of the Vortex scopes have short tubes and the rifle two piece base frequently doesn't accomodate eye relief. You have to go w/ a full length base to bring the scope closer to you.
 
#15 ·
Target and hunting...the targeting comes in to play when my children and i are practicing technique etc. We are shooting up to 100 yards but our targets are no bigger than 2 - 4 inches around. It's on an Marauder air rifle (PCP). If i like the scope well enough i will purchase more to go on my 30-06, 22lr's, 270 etc.on my larger caliber rifles i really wont need anything stronger than a 3-9 as the game and targets will be much larger.
 
#10 ·
my dads got a nikon...loves it, my brother uses Vortex scopes, and those are nice. with that said I run a mixture of Bushnells, Tascos, and Simons, of those my Bushnells are my favorite. I can see a prairie dog blink at 400 yards with my 18x Bushnell AR scope on my AR, and i just got a 12x bushnell banner on my 270, and it works great for me, and those are probably my 2 most fired rifles.
 
#12 ·
I have two 8-32x44 Mueller Target dot scopes that I have mounted on .22 Target rifles. I paid 225 for one and picked up the other one used for 175. I'm well pleased with both.
 
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#13 ·
#21 ·
Ok... I have tried Centerpoints...Firefield, and Bushnell Banners. 89-105.00 They all seem to have issues when it comes to the higher magnifications... Now before you say i'm being cheap (whick i am) I read the reviews and people rant and rave about how clear the scopes are and how they are so wonderful.... then i get those same scopes and notice that the centerpoint is downright awful at higher magnifications (4-16).. the bushnell banner and firefield are not as cloudy/hazy at higher ranges.... but they have an a god awful glare... the eye relief on all of them is suspect at higher magnifications....

I have a nikon 3-9x40 that does absolutely wonderful with minimizing glare... glare is almost non existent. The sight picture is very clear all times of day.. dusk to dawn... but the magnification isn't quite enough... I need something in the 4-16 range.

are my only options a 350.00+ scope ?? If i have to spend the money i will... but my thinking was if i didn't have to then why spend it.

Any suggestions... other than the 4.5-14 Nikon for $350 and up???
It may be that you've used your Nikon scope to set your performance standards and using that standard to judge scopes that cost as little as 1/3 the cost of the Nikon. The favorable reviews you read are from people who have bought scopes at entry level prices and are pleased with them.

I bought my first scope in 1970, a Bushnell which was the lowest priced scope I could find. The cross hairs moved every time I fired the 270 Winchester I put it on. I swore off Bushnell forever but hasten to say that they are making better scopes today. I replaced the Bushnell with a Weaver 3x9. Weaver was making good scopes in those days and that scope is still on my 270. Weaver quality went down when they decided to compete based on price rather than quality.

I moved to Redfield which was still making good scopes. The .308 rifle I put it on is still wearing it. Then Redfield started to compete based on price. My second Redfield was a real piece of junk that required more shims and washers than I had on hand to get it properly aligned with the bore. I shipped it to Redfield for repair and it was returned, Redfield had gone out of business. At that point I started buying Leupold and have done so until this day. Now Leupold is selling cheaper scopes as well as higher quality ones. I stick with the higher quality.

Today I have a number of scopes, the 2 discussed above, a Lyman Alaskan 2 1/2x and the rest are Leupold. I wouldn't attempt to compare any of them with your Nikon. I put the scopes I have on rifles as I acquired the rifles, was satisfied with their performance and now view my individual rifles/scopes as packages. When I want to shoot I select the package that will work for the type of shooting I'm about to do. I don't even think about what scope I'm using.

This is a long post but I hope it makes a point, buy the best scope you can afford to work for the way you will use your rifle. If it works for you, be happy. If you buy other rifles in the future, think of rifles/scopes as packages. However, you might consider rifles and scopes sold as packages don't have the best scopes. Rifles/scopes sold together at great prices are not going to have the best scopes.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I think your right, the first scope i had was on a savage 110 trophy 30-06. It was packaged with a Nikon prostaff... I bought a second nikon for a 270 I had... When my kids began shooting i bought 22lr for them... But they actually took a liking to shooting and wanted to do it everyday... so I got them high powered pcp air rifles... I tried the nikon on it and loved it... But when we went hunting we found that the 3-9x wasn't quite strong enough... So when I saw the stronger power nikons were 300 and up... I looked at Centerpoint and other lower priced scopes but quickly found out that they doesn't look the same at higher power... The 3-9x Centerpoints and Redfields were fine... But anything higher than that produced hazy optics l, terrible eye relief, etc.. And your right, most of the reviews that rave about the clarity of those lower priced scopes are probably from people that don't have anything to compare it to.... That being said, when my daughter started complaining about the scopes something had to give.. So i have been looking at used scopes for now...just picked up a nikon 4.5-14 buckmaster and love it
 
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