Rifle Scopes Best Scope under $650 for me?

[fskjester]

I want to hunt deer. I want to be able to shoot 1000m as our range nearby is possibly putting one in. It could be a year though. So if it gets me comfortably to 500m for now and may be a push for 1000m? I can throw the scope on my AR and buy a Nightforce once I can afford that in a year or two.

It's mounted on a Remington 700 sps tactical aac-sd .308

I'm leaning between a SWFA SS 10x42 or possible a used Vortex Viper PST or HST.

I'm open to a used scope my concern is if something goes wrong in the scope I have no warranty. Is this a valid concern or do most scopes in that price range last a long time and I'm being paranoid?

 

[broylz]

I would th ink about the swfa ss 3-9x. It's ffp and fully adjustable. 9x may be stretching precision at 1k but I'm sure you can make good combat hits at 1k with it.

Add 50 to your budget and I would consider the 3-15x ffp.

The vortex hs-t line seems to be a good budget scope from reviews but I've never handled one.

Right now I deer hunt with a 6-25x and it's a bit much so keep th e low end of magnification in mind too if it will be a dual purpose hunting gun.

 

[SomeOtherGuy]

I'm leaning between a SWFA SS 10x42 or possible a used Vortex Viper PST or HST.

I'm open to a used scope my concern is if something goes wrong in the scope I have no warranty. Is this a valid concern or do most scopes in that price range last a long time and I'm being paranoid?

Those would be fine choices. I'd also second the suggestion of the SWFA SS 3-9x42, an excellent basic scope.

Many scope makers have any-owner lifetime warranties. They vary in how fully they honor them. Here's a quick rundown:

Any-owner warranty, AND company is known to be good about warranty service:
Vortex
SWFA (for SS scopes)
Leupold
Burris (warranty is all non-electronic scopes, quality of warranty service has improved in just the last few years)
Nightforce

Any-owner warranty, no personal experience and haven't seen reviews of their warranty service:
Sightron
Zeiss (not sure if all Zeiss scopes or only certain models; US-made Conquest had/have transferable warranty)

Any-owner warranty, but reputation for service is not the best:
Bushnell (see two other active threads on this)

First-owner-only warranty:
Weaver
Nikon

I've left off companies that I know nothing about. If I've left off a significant company in the under-$1k range, it's by accident.