Rifle scope suggestions

[onemanout]

I just bought a Remington 700, .30-06. I'm looking for an excellent scope for a reasonable price. Reasonable is less than $700. Any suggestions?

 

[cwillour]

We start with the basics:

What type of shooting do you expect to do? (target, hunting, plinking, 600yd+ target, 600yd+ steel plates, etc)

What are you expectations for the scope? (hold-over points, dial for distance/windage, magnification range, etc)

If you really want to dial it in quickly, give a shoutout to Vette @ A&A Optics (site supporter.) He has walked plenty of folks into the best-fit scope for them and even steered quite a few towards scopes from other vendors when it fit the customer's needs.

 

[42769vette]

We start with the basics:

What type of shooting do you expect to do? (target, hunting, plinking, 600yd+ target, 600yd+ steel plates, etc)

What are you expectations for the scope? (hold-over points, dial for distance/windage, magnification range, etc)

If you really want to dial it in quickly, give a shoutout to Vette @ A&A Optics (site supporter.) He has walked plenty of folks into the best-fit scope for them and even steered quite a few towards scopes from other vendors when it fit the customer's needs.

Exactly. The scope I recomend for a target rifle is completly diffrent than the scope I recomend for a hunting rifle. They both have specific, and different needs.

 

[onemanout]

I plan on target shooting. Hunting is down the road though.

 

[42769vette]

what ranges? Do you want illlumination?

Depending on the answer to that question I carry these and they would be a good fit,

PST 4-16 second focal plane in mil or moa. The price is 699.

Vortex Optics - Viper PST 4-16x50 EBR-1 MOA

Viper HST 4-16x44 It comes in MOA and MIL, but only the mil version has been released. It is in stock priced at 559
Vortex Optics - Viper HS-T 4-16x44 VMR-1 (MOA)

The Viper HST is new to the lineup. I think it will fill a very nice nitch in the optics market.

 

[cwillour]

I plan on target shooting. Hunting is down the road though.

Range? There is a big difference between a 200-400yd target/hunting scope and what I might want for 800-1000yd target shooting.

Without more information, my first inclination would be a 3-4x lower end combined with a 15-16x top end magnification in a SFP scope w/ a mil/mil or moa/moa setup. The 3-4x gives you a low enough magnification range for practical fieldwork (i.e. finding the target) while the 15-16x top end can do well for informal target shooting. If you go to a dedicated target shooting setup, the rifle will likely be impractical for hunting use anyway.

The suggestion using a second focal plane scope (SFP) is simply because most of the FFP scopes that come to mind start at $800+ (I did add a pair of FFP to the list below, though.) The matching reticle/turrets is mostly to simplify the work in matching your visual feedback to your scope adjustments.

A couple of specific models:

SWFA SS 3-15x42 Tactical Rifle Scope (FFP)

Vortex Optics - Viper HS-T 4-16x44 VMR-1 (MOA)

Vortex Optics - Viper PST 4-16x50 EBR-1 MOA

Another one I would consider as it offers both FFP & illumination at the loss of some top-end magnification:

Vortex Optics - Viper PST 2.5-10x32 FFP EBR-1 MOA

Or if you can stretch your budget to $850, I might look at:

Vortex Optics - Viper HS LR 4-16x50 FFP XLR

Yeah, I've become a Vortex fanboy, but only because I have had a hard time finding another line that can match their value, customer service reputation, and reticle/turret configuration options.