Looking for an inexpensive target scope that is about 5-25 or 6-24, x50 or x56 objective, between 10-25yd minimum parallax is fine, and ideally less than $500, hard stop is at $700. Haven't shopped in this arena for a while, need some advice.
EDIT: After the below, based on price alone, going with the SH4. On a different note - does anyone know of a 30 or 40MOA rail for the Kidd 10/22 - it doesn't use standard 10/22 bases given that it has a different hole pattern. Kidd only makes up to 20MOA and my search yielded nothing.
Based on the use described below, it looks like my best options are:
1. Arken SH4 gen2 6-24 (on sale for $325 shipped for 4 more days, about 108MOA total elevation adjustment)
2. Arken EP5 5-25 (out of stock, otherwise about $565, about 110MOA total elevation adjustment)
3. Athlon Ares ETR 4.5-30 (about 110MOA total elevation adjustment)
4. Athlon Ares BTR Gen2 4.5-27 (about 80MOA total elevation adjustment)
5. Athlon Midas Tac HD 6-24x50 (about 85MOA total elevation adjustment)
6. Can you find a Leupold vx-3i 8.5-25 FFP for under $700 anymore?
I'm going to get the SH4 gen2 before the sale ends simply b/c it's cheaper and there seems to be enough people here and elsewhere saying it's good enough for the price unless others can say that their EP5 or Athlon options really are "noticibly better". Also, between the 3 Athlon options, does anyone have experience with 2 or all 3 of them to explain what the differences are? Are all of these clear at the upper ends of their magnification range or are any realistically capped at 20-22x max power? - let's call clear enough being able to see font 30-36 size text somewhere between 50 and 100yd.
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USE / PREFERENCES:
Will be used on a 22lr rifle shooting at around 1070-1080fps between 25/50yd out to 300yd typically but would love to try 350 or 400yds on steel if possible. Won't be using this optic forever, just need something to hold me over until I save for "premium glass". I understand and expect there to be some chromatic abberation and other issues at this price point and can live with it. Not strictly limited to matches, a lot of this will also just be for plinking around at miscellaneous targets from paper to small steels to golf ball sized objects, etc. Based on a ballistic calculator for 1070fps, it looks like I'm going to have about 98MOA of drop at 300yd, so 49 MOA (from 98/2 = 49) internal adjustment upwards + 20 MOA base + ~10MOA of hold over at around 25x = ~79 MOA minimum internal adjustment.
I do feel that better / clearer glass helps with 22LR shooting on paper a lot or at small targets in the distance so I will pay if it's noticibly better but worst case I just use my spotting scope when plinking. A small eye box really irks me and I would be willing to pay more for another scope if it's really bad on the SH4gen2. Prefer a Christmas tree type reticle with an open center and small dot, although a MIL/MOA dot reticle with intuitive subtensions (ex SWFA SS reticle) is fine too. Slight preference for MOA with 1/4 MOA clicks for slightly finer adjustments, but MIL vs MOA here is a very low priority consideration that will come last. Don't care about illumination at this price point. Zero stops nice but not needed.
EDIT: After the below, based on price alone, going with the SH4. On a different note - does anyone know of a 30 or 40MOA rail for the Kidd 10/22 - it doesn't use standard 10/22 bases given that it has a different hole pattern. Kidd only makes up to 20MOA and my search yielded nothing.
Based on the use described below, it looks like my best options are:
1. Arken SH4 gen2 6-24 (on sale for $325 shipped for 4 more days, about 108MOA total elevation adjustment)
2. Arken EP5 5-25 (out of stock, otherwise about $565, about 110MOA total elevation adjustment)
3. Athlon Ares ETR 4.5-30 (about 110MOA total elevation adjustment)
4. Athlon Ares BTR Gen2 4.5-27 (about 80MOA total elevation adjustment)
5. Athlon Midas Tac HD 6-24x50 (about 85MOA total elevation adjustment)
6. Can you find a Leupold vx-3i 8.5-25 FFP for under $700 anymore?
I'm going to get the SH4 gen2 before the sale ends simply b/c it's cheaper and there seems to be enough people here and elsewhere saying it's good enough for the price unless others can say that their EP5 or Athlon options really are "noticibly better". Also, between the 3 Athlon options, does anyone have experience with 2 or all 3 of them to explain what the differences are? Are all of these clear at the upper ends of their magnification range or are any realistically capped at 20-22x max power? - let's call clear enough being able to see font 30-36 size text somewhere between 50 and 100yd.
--------------------------------
USE / PREFERENCES:
Will be used on a 22lr rifle shooting at around 1070-1080fps between 25/50yd out to 300yd typically but would love to try 350 or 400yds on steel if possible. Won't be using this optic forever, just need something to hold me over until I save for "premium glass". I understand and expect there to be some chromatic abberation and other issues at this price point and can live with it. Not strictly limited to matches, a lot of this will also just be for plinking around at miscellaneous targets from paper to small steels to golf ball sized objects, etc. Based on a ballistic calculator for 1070fps, it looks like I'm going to have about 98MOA of drop at 300yd, so 49 MOA (from 98/2 = 49) internal adjustment upwards + 20 MOA base + ~10MOA of hold over at around 25x = ~79 MOA minimum internal adjustment.
I do feel that better / clearer glass helps with 22LR shooting on paper a lot or at small targets in the distance so I will pay if it's noticibly better but worst case I just use my spotting scope when plinking. A small eye box really irks me and I would be willing to pay more for another scope if it's really bad on the SH4gen2. Prefer a Christmas tree type reticle with an open center and small dot, although a MIL/MOA dot reticle with intuitive subtensions (ex SWFA SS reticle) is fine too. Slight preference for MOA with 1/4 MOA clicks for slightly finer adjustments, but MIL vs MOA here is a very low priority consideration that will come last. Don't care about illumination at this price point. Zero stops nice but not needed.
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