Rifle Scopes Help me pick a scope for my .223 bolt gun.

[Magstang1]

I currently have a Tikka Tac 20" .223 bolt that needs some glass. I'm shooting paper from 100-600 yards.

My prospectives are:

Vortex PST 4-16x50 ~ $600 used $700 new
SWFA 3-15x42 ~ $700 new
SWFA 10x42 ~$300 new
Vortex Viper HS 4-16x44 (Midway Scope) $550 new

I prefer MOA and uncapped turrets. I could live with a capped windage turret as long as there is enough reticle to hold the wind. I really don't want to mix MOA and Mils. The thought of going straight 10x and saving a few dollars doesn't sound bad but it's not available in MOA.

My .308 wears a NF 3-15x50 Npr1. Fantastic glass and I love the reticle. If money was no option I would just buy another one. Right now I just can't justify the cost. The Vortex PST is probably as close as I'm going to get in features and quality without shelling out the big bucks. Maybe it's time for me to follow the crowd and go Mils?

Opinions?

 

[BoilerUP]

I have two of the Vortex Viper HS-T 4-16x44 MRADs, including one on a 22" 223AI. I've shot them as far as 1100yd, and while they're no HDMR (or better) I didn't feel "under-glassed".

Very nice scope for the money if you can "settle" for SFP, and I'm sure the MOA version (if its out yet) is also a good option.

 

[Deadshot2]

My .308 wears a NF 3-15x50 Npr1. Fantastic glass and I love the reticle. If money was no option I would just buy another one.

I have two bolt guns I shoot all the time. One .223 and a .308 Custom. I have a Ken Farrel rail on one and a NightForce rail on the other. I just swap my NightForce 12-42X56 NXS back and forth. Have zero settings for each rifle. Torquing the cross bolts with a torque wrench has yielded repeatable zero's on each, using those settings.

Since I'm the only one shooting the rifles, and a change doesn't take any time, I get the best of both worlds, save money but use good glass on both.

For a "Just in case I have to grab a rifle from the safe and use it scenario" I have a good backup piece of glass made by Meopta. I keep it on whatever rifle the NF is not on.

 

[Crosshair]

Those are all solid choices. If you really want moa/moa, another to consider is the excellent Sightron SIII: Sightron 3.5-10x44 SIII 30mm Riflescope

 

[CSTactical]

For the a lower cost scopes I would say the Vortex VHS would be a great way to go!
VHS-4308 2013 Viper HS-T 4-16x44 w/ VMR-1 MRAD Reticle; Mil-hash Style Reticle
VHS-4309 2013 Viper HS-T 4-16x44 VMR-1 MOA Reticle; Mil-Hash Style Reticle

We will meet or beat anyone's price by the way.

Mike @ CSTACTICAL

 

[Magstang1]

So what is the difference between the Vortex HS and the PST? Magnification range is the same. Objective is 44 vs 50, which doesn't concern me. It looks like the biggest difference is the PST is illuminated.

Am I missing anything? Is the PST worth another hundred or so?

I'm a vortex fan. I have a regular viper on a rimfire and am quite pleased.

 

[Shini]

They have different reticle options and the PST has the option of FFP where as the HS and HS-T are only SFP. The HS has a capped windage turret and the HS-T has an uncapped turret like the PST.

I have a 4-16 Viper PST on my .223 and I think it has been great value for money.

 

[Magstang1]

I'm leaning more toward the SFP option. It's probably a non issue for me considering my scope lives mostly at higher magnification ranges for paper punching. If I was ranging or using lower mag ranges I would consider FFP.

I'm not sure how you use your .223 but do you feel underglassed? Considering this is solely a range gun I was briefly considering the 6-24.

I shoot at 200 quite a bit and it's nice to be able to see my holes without a spotter. I can see .17 holes at 200 with a 6-20. Overkill, I know, but OCD is a bitch.

 

[Deadshot2]

I shoot at 200 quite a bit and it's nice to be able to see my holes without a spotter. I can see .17 holes at 200 with a 6-20. Overkill, I know, but OCD is a bitch.

I shoot .223 at 300 yards a lot and seeing the holes with a 12-42X56 NightForce is easy. If you're going to use it solely as a range gun just get the most magnification you can afford with exposed turret knobs. A lot of he other features that are needed for a tactical application are pretty much moot with a range gun (like field of view, FFP, etc. I haven't set up my spotting scope for ranges under 300 for a couple years now unless I'm using one of my other rifles with a "smaller" scope.

 

[Magstang1]

Well, maybe I'll just go 6-24 then. I always seem to favor more magnification. I guess my reasoning is you can always turn it down if you want to. I was just trying to be a little more reasonable with this one. I didn't want it to look like I had the Hubble bolted on top of a little .223.

 

[Smooth_87]

6-24 x 50 pst would be my choice

 

[Deadshot2]

Well, maybe I'll just go 6-24 then. I always seem to favor more magnification. I guess my reasoning is you can always turn it down if you want to. I was just trying to be a little more reasonable with this one. I didn't want it to look like I had the Hubble bolted on top of a little .223
.

Funny. Made me remember a guy who came to the range one day with a Celestron Cassegrain Scope he used as a spotting scope. Damn thing was so large and magnification so high, he had to set it up on an adjacent concrete shooting table to get a stable "picture". Got to admit that his .223 holes, at 300 yards, looked like 30 cal holes from only 2 feet away.

 

[Magstang1]

My original plan was to get another Nightforce with an Npr1 reticle to match my .308, but I was trying to avoid lighting my wallet on fire with this purchase.

I know what I want. I just don't want to pay for it. A 5.5-22 NF would be ideal, but I may need a divorce lawyer.

 

[Magstang1]

After an insane amount of deliberation and comparing, I've noticed a few things. The thickness of the reticle varies quite a bit on the scopes I'm looking at.

Vortex HS-T: .15 MOA
Vortex PST SFP 4-16: .1 MOA
Vortex PST FFP 4-16: .21 MOA
Vortex PST SFP 6-24: .06 MOA
Vortex PST FFP 6-24: .18 MOA
Nightforce NPR1: .062 MOA

i do like the fact that my other Nightforce with the NPR1 is very fine. These are just paper punching bench guns so FFP is not a necessity either.

I think I'm down to either a SFP 6-24 PST, or wait for a deal on a NF to come along.