Buying your First Rifle Scope: Most shooting and hunting enthusiasts now have at least one rifle scope in their arsenal. While some still use open sights and aperture sights, tagging a trophy 200 yards out with a 10x rifle scope through a duplex reticle will be much more efficient. This article will go over what types of riflescopes are available, how to pick the best rifle scope for your air gun, rifle, and what you can expect to pay.
Buying your First Rifle Scope – Types of Rifle Scopes
Laser scopes
Laser scopes put a laser on their targets and although they have a shorter range, it has been increasing as technology allows it. However, it does not compensate for bullet drop, windage, and the distance between the beam and the axis of the barrel. Laser sights are often used with hand guns, they offer quick aiming and accuracy whether you are shooting from the hip or from the shoulder.
Night Vision and Thermal Sights
Because of the technology involved, night vision and thermal sights have been improving exponentially and are great tools that come at a cost.
Fixed rifle scopes
Although fewer in the selection, fixed rifle scopes are also a popular choice. They tend to be on the lower price spectrum when compared to their variable counterparts and tend to be lower in weight and have fewer moving parts.
Variable rifle scopes
Variable rifle scopes are the most common scopes you will come across. They will have a power ring to adjust the magnification from the smaller to a larger spectrum. When properly mounted and sighted in, a variable rifle scope will be ideal for the shooting range and hunting anything from squirrels to the big game. However, there is a lot to look for when buying the right scope. As we continue with this article, you will learn about how to make a decision when buying a new rifle scope.
Parts of a Rifle Scope
Tube Length and Diameter
The tube length is important to know when mounting your rifle scope to your rifle. In conjunction with your mounting set, you should install the scope so that the back of the eyepiece is aligned with the back of the trigger. The standard American tube diameter is 1”, which mean that it will use a 1” ring to mount onto your rifle. European and Japanese scopes are usually 30mm and will have to use 30mm rings. More info on the mounting your scope page.
Power Ring
Power rings are used to adjust the magnification on variable scope.>
Ocular Lens
The ocular lens is the lens in which you will see out of.
Exit Pupil
A common term in optics is the exit pupil. The exit pupil is the circular light that is seen through the ocular lens. High magnification will provide a smaller exit pupil whereas a lower magnification will provide a larger exit pupil.
Eyepiece
The eyepiece holds the ocular lens, it is the smaller of the two bells of a rifle scope.
Elevation Adjustment
Elevation adjustment is one of the two turret adjustments on a standard rifle scope. This adjustment can also be known as the vertical adjustment because it adjusts your scope up and down when sighting in. Read more about sights in here.
Windage Adjustment
Windage adjustment is one of the two turret adjustments on a standard rifle scope. This adjustment can also be known as the horizontal adjustment because it adjusts your scope left and right when sighting in. Read more about sights in here.
Objective Bell
The objective bell holds the objective lens and is the side farthest away from the eyepiece.
Objective Lens
The objective lens is the lens farthest away from the ocular lens and can range in sizes but we typically see a 40mm on a medium variable rifle scope.
Magnification and Objective Lens
When shopping for your rifle scope you may come across a scope with the name:
Leupold VX-3 3.5-10x40mm
One can guess that Leupold would be the manufacturer, a very fine one at that. The letters and/or words that follow are the model. The set of numbers after the model would be the magnification. In this case, it is 3.5-10x. This means that the scope can be adjusted to see 3.5 times to 10 times further than the naked eye. The last set of numbers, in this case, 40mm, is the diameter of the objective lens. The larger the lens the more light it transmits, you should also take note of this number when buying rings to mount your scope.
One factor in deciding which rifle scope to buy is to ask yourself what you will be primarily using it for. If you are varmint hunting, we recommend a 4-12x scope. If you are hunting in dense woods, you won’t need more than 2-7x magnification. In open country, shooting at targets up to 200 yards away with a 3-9x or 2.5-10x scope would be sufficient. Anything beyond 200 yards in open country, we recommend a 4-12x or 6-18x rifle scope. Magnification and objective lens size is very important to accuracy; however, many people overlook other details that will improve your marksmanship and maximize your scopes potential.
Eye Relief
The larger the exit pupil, the more eye relief you will have. Eye relief is the allowable distance your eye is from the ocular lens. Eye relief can be up to 5” but usually averages 3-4”. It is recommended for eyeglass wearers to use rifle scopes with longer eye relief.
Parallax
The effect whereby the position of an object appears when it is viewed at a different angle.
When looking at a deer through a reticle, the reticle won’t line up if you view it from an angle. Most scopes are parallax free at 100 yards. Most scopes with larger magnifications, usually 11x and above, have parallax adjustments because parallax worsens at higher magnifications.
When we see a deer in our reticle, we may believe that it is through one layer of our lens but when in actuality it is through two superimposed layers.
Scope Lenses and Coatings
Coatings on a lens surface reduce light loss and glare due to reflection. Lens coating is not cheap and can mean the price difference between a cheaper rifle scope and a quality one. Many brands will have different names for these four categories of coatings, but the only difference will be the quality of the coating.
Field of View (FOV)
Field of view is measured in either feet or meters at 100 yards or 100 meters, respectively. For example:
Magnification: 3-10x
FOV (ft/100yd): 29.8/11
This means that you can expect to see 29.8 feet left and right at 3x magnification and 11 feet at 10x magnification.
Turret Adjustments MOA (minute of angle)
You will see a number next to the MOA spec, typically ranging anywhere from 60 to 120. This is the range the turrets can be “clicked” in order for the point of impact to be adjusted vertically and horizontally.
Adjustments are made in Minutes of Angle aka MOA. Most scopes are adjusted in ¼ inch increments, and some are made at ½ increments. On a ¼ adjustment turret, each click of the windage or elevation turret will move your point of impact a ¼ inch at 100 yards, or ½ inch at 200 yards, or 1/8 inch at 50 yards.
An extreme example would be that a turret with a ¼ elevation and adjustment range of MOA 60 can move up or down 15 inches at 100 yards, 30 inches at 200 yards, and 7.5 inches at 50 yards. A windage turret with an MOA of 60 will be able to move the same distance vertically. This is useful information when sighting in your scope. (link to sight in your scope)
Reticles
Numerous reticles are available to you and they vary from scope to scope and brand to brand. Reticles give you a solid placement point on your target by using different colours and designs. Along with the standard black reticles, there are illuminated green, red and blue reticles. Some have target dots, some have posted; the style of the reticle is purely personal preference. Here are a few of the most common reticles available.
Sealed, Waterproof, and Fogproof
Waterproof scopes are sealed with O-rings to prevent moisture, dust, and debris from compromising the inside of the rifle scope. Fog proofing is done by filling the scope with nitrogen or argon gas to prevent internal fogging when the humidity is high. This can be also known as nitrogen-purging with some brands. Waterproof and fog-proof scopes are recommended for all hunting situations but especially when they are put into use in high humidity areas or areas around water.
Price
If your main intention is to shoot a .22 calibre rifle 40 yards at the shooting range, buying a cheaper rifle scope might not be a bad idea. Anything more than that, an investment in a solid scope will pay dividends. Starting at the $150 price point, you can expect better-constructed parts, better lenses, parallax adjustments, non-plastic turrets, so forth and so on. These improvements typically get noticeably better until the $700 price point. In this price range, you can expect to get what you pay for. Through our experience, returns begin to diminish after $800 as we get into more specialized scopes. While we do stock scopes that cost upwards of $1000, we don’t recommend this for your first rifle scope as it will actually be harder to improve your marksmanship.