The term sniper scope has escaped military use and entered the civilian precision shooting world to describe a specific type of optic: high magnification, first focal plane, MRAD or MOA reticle, zero stop turrets, and enough glass quality to work at 800 to 1,000 yards. That combination of features has a non-negotiable checklist. First focal … Read more
Whitetail deer are the most widely hunted big game animal in North America, and understanding how whitetail hunting actually happens clarifies exactly what a scope needs to do. Over 80 percent of whitetail deer are shot inside 200 yards. Most of those shots happen in the first 30 to 45 minutes of daylight or the … Read more
Long range shooting is a discipline with specific equipment requirements that differ from hunting or close-range shooting. At 600 yards a .308 Win has dropped 170 inches from a 100-yard zero. At 1,000 yards that number exceeds 400 inches. Elevation input must be precise, repeatable, and verifiable. A scope that tracks one-tenth of an inch … Read more
Most hunting shots happen in the worst possible light. The buck steps out at 6:02 AM in the bottom of a dark hollow. The bull elk materializes in the timber at last light on day four of the hunt. The mule deer appears on a shaded canyon wall at noon when the sun angle cuts … Read more
The .223 Remington is one of the flattest shooting cartridges available in a sporting rifle. A 55 grain bullet leaves the muzzle at around 3,240 feet per second. At 300 yards it has dropped less than 8 inches from a 100 yard zero. That trajectory makes it a genuine long range varmint cartridge and a … Read more
A pistol scope has one requirement that no standard rifle scope can meet: true long eye relief. Standard rifle scopes require the shooter’s eye to be within 3 to 4 inches of the ocular lens. At arm’s length with a handgun, the shooter’s eye is 12 to 20 inches from the scope. A standard scope … Read more
Scoping a muzzleloader requires thinking about three factors that centerfire hunters never need to prioritize simultaneously. The first is recoil. A modern inline muzzleloader loaded with 150 grains of powder and a 250 grain sabot generates recoil comparable to a heavy magnum rifle cartridge. The scope must handle that impulse and retain zero across a … Read more
Rimfire rifles are the most owned category of firearm in North America, and most of them never get a quality scope. A sub-par scope on a rimfire rifle is a double waste. The rifle itself is accurate enough to expose a scope’s weaknesses at 50 and 100 yards. At those distances parallax error, poor glass … Read more
The 3-9×40 is the most successful rifle scope format in North American hunting history, and its longevity is earned rather than accidental. It covers close range brush shots at 3x with a field of view wide enough to find a moving animal. It reaches to 9x for field shots at 300 yards with adequate magnification … Read more
The Savage 220 is a bolt action slug gun that changed expectations for what a shotgun-based deer rifle can do. It delivers sub-2-inch groups at 100 yards out of the box with quality sabot slugs, and its detachable box magazine and AccuTrigger put it closer in performance to a budget centerfire bolt action than to … Read more