When looking for rifle or pistol scope there are a few things to consider since there are a vast number offered by numerous companies on the market today. These tips may offer points that may not have been considered before.
Price: One of the factors in helping you determine which scope you are going to purchase is the price. You must determine what your limit price is going to be that you can afford to pay, but remember cheaper is not always better in a scope.
Purpose: This is a very important factor because not all scopes are made equally and have the same features. You must put some thought into what it is you are going to be using the scope for like type of game, distance, night or day, etc.
Durability: This is also another important factor because you do not want to purchase a scope that is easily broken or can not stand up to the elements. The price you pay for a scope can have a major impact on the durability of a scope because the cheaper you go, the less durable it will be in a lot of cases.
Magnification and Power: This basically breaks down into how far and well do you want to be able to see and still be able to effectively hit your target. If you are going to be shooting game at long distances then you will need a scope that has more powerful optics. If you are going after game that you will be able to get close to, you may not need a powerful scope.
Reticles: These are fine lines or fibers in the eyepiece of a scope. There are a variety of reticles such as fine crosshair, duplex crosshair, German style, target dot, mil-dot, circle, modern range finding, s/d type, etc. There are two main types of reticles, wire and etched. When backlit through the ocular, a wire reticle will reflect incoming light and not present a fully opaque (black) reticule with high-contrast. An etched reticle will stay fully opaque (black) if backlit. The more complex reticles can offer some features like target ranging, help compensate for bullet drop, and help compensate for windage required due to crosswinds.
Adjustments: A basic cheaper scope may not have a variety of adjustments to choose from, opposed to a more complex and expensive scope may offer many more adjustment features. You want to chose a scope that is smooth, easy to understand, and be able to make the required adjustments quickly, especially when hunting fast moving game. Some adjustments may include focus control, elevation or vertical control, zero-stop elevation control, windage or horizontal control, magnification control, illumination control, and parallax compensation control.
Low Light Capabilities: When hunting, you will be limited in your hunting as the light begins to disappear. You must determine if you want a scope that has low light capabilities or even night vision.
Optical Parameters: Again, all scopes are not created equally and each one may have a different set of optical parameters. Some of those parameters are magnification, objective lens diameter (The diameter of the objective lens determines how much light can be gathered to form an image), field of view, exit pupil (Telescopic sights concentrate the light gathered by the objective into a beam, the exit pupil, whose diameter is the objective diameter divided by the magnifying power. For maximum effective light-gathering and brightest image, the exit pupil should equal the diameter of the fully dilated iris of the human eye), and eye relief (The distance from the rear eyepiece lens to the exit pupil or eye point, basically the distance the observer must position his or her eye behind the eyepiece in order to see an unvignetted image).
Accessories: These are just some things that may offer some added benefits and protection for your scope. Some features may include Lens hoods for mounting on the objective and/or ocular to reduce/eliminate image quality impairing stray light, Lens hoods that extend the full length of a gun barrel to improve image quality by blocking out shot strings induced mirage ("heat waves" or aberrations resulting from a hot gun barrel), Covers to protect the objective and/or ocular external lens surface against foul weather and damage. There are slide-over, bikini and flip-open type covers without or with transparent covering material, Optical filters like Grey, Yellow and Polarising filters to optimize image quality in various lighting conditions, Kill Flash or honeycomb filters to eliminate light reflections from the objective, Eye-safe laser filters to protect operators against being wounded/blinded by laser light sources. These filters are often an internal part in the assembly of lens elements, and transit and protection pouches and cases.
Mounts: It is very important to ensure that you chose the right mounting system for the firearm you are going to be placing a scope. Things you might consider are the scope base, scope rings, scope mounting rails, rail interface systems, etc. You may want to do some research to determine what the best system will be for your firearm. You should also consider the recoil of the firearm to which you are going to mount a scope and ensure that it is secured properly to prevent damage or loss of accuracy.
These are just a few things you might want to take into consideration when purchasing a scope for your specific firearm. Good sources of information are experienced hunters, manufacturers, manuals, etc. Please feel free to share information about some of the important things you look for in a scope, so all of us can benefit.
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