Hey guys, this is my first post here. I've been lurking around on this forum and a few others now for a few days with an eye towards improving my proficiency with my rifles. I have a .25-06 and a .22, both with very basic scopes on them (Walmart type 3-9x40).
My thoughts are that if I decide to get in to this stuff, I want to focus on guns that I own and do the best that I can with them. I'm interested in increasing my abilities and pushing the ability of my rifles, but I am not interested in switching guns for the sake of range.
I want to focus on the .22 because I won't be spending nearly as much money on ammo with it and because I should be able to learn about wind and range adjustments at much lower distances.
With that in mind, here are the things I'm looking for in a scope in order of importance to me:
1. I really want a MIL reticle with MIL turret adjustments (am I even saying that right?). I don't really have a clear grasp of how everything works with them, but from what I've read over the last few days it sounds like an elegant solution to many things and I want it.
2. It needs to have a lot of elevation adjustment. Somewhere I was reading that if I have a 50 yard zero I'll need somewhere around 137 up MOA to get out to 400 yards. I don't know how that converts to MIL (but I want to learn!). I know very few people ever try to shoot at 400 yards with a .22, but I want to have the option I guess, and I don't want to have to go changing things around later if I get to that point. I suppose I may need to have a base with the back end shimmed up. I've also heard of a vgmount that is supposed to be able to be used to provide more adjustment?
3. I'll probably be practicing on my own the majority of the time so i want to have a pretty high magnification so I can use it in place of a spotting scope. This would also prevent me from having to buy a spotting scope and therefore increases the amount of money I can spend on the scope.
4. I would really like to have a pretty low magnification as well so that I can take it off the gun rack and eliminate a varmits around the farm if necessary. 3x to at least 15x? I would imagine that if I obtain this option I will be pushing my comfort level in terms of dollars pretty hard? This also relates to #2 because ideally when I finished practicing I would re-adjust the scope so it's ready to shoot at 25 yards and then put the gun away instead of removing shims or whatever else may be involved.
5. If it were a FFP scope with a zero stop and had all of the above features, it would be pretty much perfect.
This scope would spend much of its time on the .22 and then when I wanted to go reach out and touch something while hunting I would probably move it over to the .25-06 and sight it in there.
I don't know much about scope prices and what's available, but I figure if I just satisfy numbers 1, 2 and 3 then I would probably be looking at $300 to $500 for the scope. I may be able to satisfy number 4 as well if I go up to the $700 to $800 range. I would imagine that number 5 cannot be satisfied without going well over $1000. Am I anywhere close to right on these prices? I'm hoping that my estimates are too high. Is this a crazy way of approaching things? Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.
My thoughts are that if I decide to get in to this stuff, I want to focus on guns that I own and do the best that I can with them. I'm interested in increasing my abilities and pushing the ability of my rifles, but I am not interested in switching guns for the sake of range.
I want to focus on the .22 because I won't be spending nearly as much money on ammo with it and because I should be able to learn about wind and range adjustments at much lower distances.
With that in mind, here are the things I'm looking for in a scope in order of importance to me:
1. I really want a MIL reticle with MIL turret adjustments (am I even saying that right?). I don't really have a clear grasp of how everything works with them, but from what I've read over the last few days it sounds like an elegant solution to many things and I want it.
2. It needs to have a lot of elevation adjustment. Somewhere I was reading that if I have a 50 yard zero I'll need somewhere around 137 up MOA to get out to 400 yards. I don't know how that converts to MIL (but I want to learn!). I know very few people ever try to shoot at 400 yards with a .22, but I want to have the option I guess, and I don't want to have to go changing things around later if I get to that point. I suppose I may need to have a base with the back end shimmed up. I've also heard of a vgmount that is supposed to be able to be used to provide more adjustment?
3. I'll probably be practicing on my own the majority of the time so i want to have a pretty high magnification so I can use it in place of a spotting scope. This would also prevent me from having to buy a spotting scope and therefore increases the amount of money I can spend on the scope.
4. I would really like to have a pretty low magnification as well so that I can take it off the gun rack and eliminate a varmits around the farm if necessary. 3x to at least 15x? I would imagine that if I obtain this option I will be pushing my comfort level in terms of dollars pretty hard? This also relates to #2 because ideally when I finished practicing I would re-adjust the scope so it's ready to shoot at 25 yards and then put the gun away instead of removing shims or whatever else may be involved.
5. If it were a FFP scope with a zero stop and had all of the above features, it would be pretty much perfect.
This scope would spend much of its time on the .22 and then when I wanted to go reach out and touch something while hunting I would probably move it over to the .25-06 and sight it in there.
I don't know much about scope prices and what's available, but I figure if I just satisfy numbers 1, 2 and 3 then I would probably be looking at $300 to $500 for the scope. I may be able to satisfy number 4 as well if I go up to the $700 to $800 range. I would imagine that number 5 cannot be satisfied without going well over $1000. Am I anywhere close to right on these prices? I'm hoping that my estimates are too high. Is this a crazy way of approaching things? Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.