05-15-2020, 02:48 PM
tdbru Wrote:Mel,
i feel Klem and KSWhitetails hit the nail on the head. cheap and good doesn't exist. if you want a lot of magnification especially. i'm working with a Leupold Competition 45x scope. adjustments are repeatable. i thought 45X would be fabulous, but, you see EVERY breath of mirage, to the point of distraction. when the bullseye is dancing all around you kind of go, "hmmm, i wonder where i should aim?" i take a portable fan with me to the range to fight mirage off the barrel heat. unless it's a cool day, too much magnification picks up a lot of mirage. of course that also means that you can see even puffs of wind through the angling of the mirage, so it helps with reading the wind. but some days it looked like the target was doing the jitterbug. when the conditions are good, 45x is awesome. when the conditions are not good, less magnification might help, actually. as KSW was mentioning, it is expensive to make a very good high magnification rifle scope. not only that, if you go for a zoom scope, the cost goes up greatly because that moving of lens' inside the tube to change magnification has to be done with absolute (1/4 wavelength or better i would guess) precision. to do that precisely isn't going to be cheap. the Leupold competition scope was one of the most affordable really high magnification high precision scopes because, i suspect, it isn't a zoom model. a whole lot less moving parts that have to be in precision. at one time Leupold offered them in 3 different power settings. if i recall it was 35x, 40x, and 45x. now they only have the 45x. until i learn how to shoot through mirage better, that 45x makes it really tough for me to aim on a day where it's much warmer than 65F and the target is at or over 600 yards away. and a small target. like a 1/2 MOA or smaller target. for the value i think you can't go wrong with the Leupold Competition series scope if you really want high magnification. but. you'll need to learn to shoot through strong mirage if you're aiming at small targets a long way away on a hot day. and if you're trying to do that you'll likely need to put it on an MOA rail of some sort. probably in the 30 moa range i would guess. but you probably already know that. i was going to say on a hot day you might actually do better with something in the 16x range rather than 45x. but there might be some folks that are quite adept at shooting through mirage and for them, perhaps the greater magnification would help. the magnification helps to aim small. now the mirage is still there on a hot day with, say, even a 4x scope, but you just don't see its' affects so much, which makes it often easier to aim through the mirage. a high quality zoom riflescope in the 6x to 24x or 5x to 25x zoom range with clear optics, repeatable turrets, and rugged internals isn't in the $1000.00 price range. 2.5x to 4x of that perhaps. on the other hand, if you can find a used Leupold Competition 35x for a reasonable price, pick it up. Leupold gives them a lifetime warranty. and if i recall correctly it's a token price to have one checked out & refurbished if required. i am finding out what others have already said, that high magnification on a hot day makes it difficult to deal with the image movement due to mirage.
-tdbru
i ran into this the other day with my atn
[video=youtube;8ZGEAP4CtKI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZGEAP4CtKI[/video]