Please list the best varmint scope for around 5-6hundred would like up 20 power and it is going on a busmaster varminter

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Nikon 5.5x20 for around 400-450.  Great scope, I have a lot of leupolds and other high end scope, but the Nikon has better optics than most of them.

Weaver Grand Slam @ SWFA

12-60x56 custom shop tasco

This is how I set up my Varminter. It is a Leupold var x II 6-18x40. Best shot to date was a head shot on a woodchuck at 250yrds. www.natchezss.com has them for $399 and you get a $30 voucher for anything they sell. So only $369. Or if you have $500 to spend you could go with a different leupold.      [img]http://mywebpages.comcast.net/siggman/bushmaster[/img]

Bushnell Elite 4200s, Nikon Monarchs, Leupold Vari-XIIIs and Weaver Grand Slams are all excellent scopes in roughly that price range, with the first two supposedly having better light transmission.  In order of price it goes Leupold, Bushnell, Nikon and Weaver.  I have a Bushnell 4200 and it is an excellent scope with great brightness and clarity, but any of these four would be good.

The Leupold VX2, unlike the four scopes above, does not have fully multicoated glass.  You would be better off getting the Weaver Grand Slam which is actually cheaper.

6x24x40 mil dot Bushnell Elite 4200. Handsdown winner at approx $400 mail order! Awesome scope. Target knobs, 1/8 MOA adjustments, target turrets, titanium construction, comes with sunshade and lens covers, and has an awesome warranty.

Only downside to the Elite 4200 6-24 is that it has some limitations in over all travel from one extreme to another.

I highly suspect that it's the way the 1/8MOA turrets come into play because this scope has a total elevation/windage travel through it's extremes that is 1/2 that of comparable scopes in the line.


What's this mean?    It means that if you intend to shoot out to ranges beyond 500 yards with the 6-24x you MAY run into a limitation of how much useable elevation is available.    After sighting in you may wind up eating up some of your useable elevation and only wind up with 12-15MOA left for longer ranges.    12-15MOA is usually enough to get out to 500 yards with most 223Rem but it might not be enough to zero for 600 yards.


If you weren't intending to shoot out beyond 400 yards the 6-24 Elite 4200 should work pretty well.     It's a bit of a pain though reaching WAY UP to the front of that objective to adjust the focus/parallax ring, but I'm spoiled after using a Leupold Long Range for most of my long range shooting and the side focus knob has me spoiled for life.


Here's a picture of my slightly older B&L Elite 4000 6-24 mounted on my AR10, a 17 inch long scope without sunshade, talk about a long SOB.
[img]http://home.bak.rr.com/varmintcong/ar10/AR10A4od.jpg[/img]


It is a clear scope though, 1/8 MOA adjustments allow for quite a high degree of precision.

But I find it's "target knobs" downright hokey.   They are held in place by a rather loose fitting single screw down through the centerline axis of the knob, I find the screw tends to shoot loose and if not for the cap covers I am certain the scew would back out and fall out if I tried to leave the caps off and use the target knobs by themselves for any length of time.     Compare to some other target knobs out there like on Leupolds or others where they fasten VERY nicely and serve to work just fine for extended periods of time without covers protecting them.


One of these days I'll take pictures of the knobs to show what urks me about them.   But I got my 6-24x Elite 4000 for like 200 bucks new so I can't complain too much.

Uglygun is right about the 6x24 Elite having enough elevation adjustment to just get a .223 on @ 500yards. If this is a concern, the 4x16x50 has MUCHO adjustment range. I have one on my .243 M700 and it can be corrected for some extreme ranges! It also has 1/8 MOA adjustments.

As far as the target turrets go, I disagree. Never had a single problem with them and they are a nice low profile design.

I do have the Elite 4000 though, it's the predacessor to the Elite 4200.   Many features are the same, may have been a change to the 4200 series.

I have to say, the Elite 3200 10x mil-dot that I have is a nice scope and it shares the same "through the top" single screw to hold the turret knobs on and it does not share the same problems.     Could be something they addressed, I know my 6-24 though will shake it's single screw loose.



Edited to add...

I wish companies would start making their scopes so that the reticles are more or less bottomed out, set them so that when mounted properly they have maybe 3-4MOA of downward elevation to try to establish a 100 yard zero.   Then leave the remainind 40-60MOA of travel as upwards travel, this is what one of the scopes geared towards 50BMG long range shooting has it's reticle set for in the Leupold MK IV line and it truely allows for long range shooting without resorting to tapered bases and such.


Seriously, since when the hell have most of us needed anything more than maybe 10MOA of downwards elevation?   In it's extreme?


Then there's the negative effects of how your windage quickly disappears as you reach the maximum of it's travel, bottom that reticle out against the upper end of travel and you'll have only 2-3 clicks of windage left if you're lucky.

I know, for real long range shooting it's ideal to have the tapered base and put MOA back into your scope and get that reticle closer to center so you once again gain back some windage or even close to maximum useable windage.    But having a wider diversity of scopes out there which are geared more towards this type of shooting would be nice.

The 300WinMag is gonna be getting a Nightforce 5.5-22 on it, 120MOA between extremes so hopefully I'll get around 60MOA useable elevation once it's mounted and zero'd.    With a 20MOA base I could get 80MOA useable elevation plus additional windage.    But what if they could go in and just set it so the reticle was offset to be geared for long range rather than short/med range.

I think one of the reasons for mechanically centering the adjustments from the factory is that  light transmission is somewhat better than at the extremes. That's what I've been told somewhere along the way... It would be nice to have some serious up elevation capability for LR applications though.

Uglygun, you must be shootin a loooong way!

I'm used to shooting at squirrels at 400+ yards, haven't hit them at 500-550+ yards yet but I have come seriously close kicking dirt in their faces and putting bullets under their bellies.    I've hit them at just over 400 ranged yards, out at 500 yards the 223Rem is getting tossed around pretty bad by wind and at unknown distances getting a proper elevation adjustment on your dials is critical.    My Leupold 6.5-20x Long Range has the elevation capability to hit at 600-700 yards from my 100 yard zero, darned decent.


But I just got a 300WinMag and after zeroing it, there's only enough elevation left in the 10x Bushnell scope on it for 700 yards(think mounts are whacky, should have had enough for 800, new bases and rings should tell me when I remount and retest).    Not good enough, I want good enough for 1k yard line and beyond.    Shot my first groups from the rifle 2 weeks ago at 500 yards and put 4 out of 5 shots into a group right about 4 inches just 4 inches left of the 2 inch diameter bull I used for an aiming point.   Not bad for the first time I'd ever used that rifle at such distance and working from a 100 yard zero, used my Mildot Master and trajectory tables for first round hits.



Shooting out to 500 yards really is actually kinda easy it seems now.   The 700+ yard game is what's gonna get interesting once I get loads and a scope capable of working out that far.    It helps that I have a 1k yard range about 1 hours drive from me.

   According to the Leupold web site the VX II and VX III both have the same Multicoat 4 on their lenses. No difference in the coatings I can tell according to their specs.

The VXII is mulicoated, the VX3 is FULLY multicoated.

This means that only the two outer lens surfaces are multicoated on the VXII, but all lens surfaces are multicoated on the VXIII

This scope coating terminology is a tricky business, and can be misleading to the uninitiated.

Just got the 2003 Fall Midsouth Shooter Supply Catalog.  They are carrying a mount made by Mamba that gives an extra 25 MOA elevation by angling down the objective end of your scope 25 MOA.  Personally unfamiliar with this, but if you don't have sufficient long range elevation, you might want to look at it.  For Weaver rails.

I'm getting 223 hits at these ranges as well, in CALM conditions. It is tricky if there is any wind! I chrono my load, run the particulars on shoot!v2.5 at 10 yard increments, and use the target knobs and laser to get good field hits. Awesome system! The 1/8 MOA adjustments are great for this. FWIW, I use a base zero of 250 yards.

Shoot straight, hoser

Thanks nylon. I knew there had to be some kind of difference because of price. I've been shooting for over thirty years but am new to scopes. Mostly handgun experience. By the way www.natchezss.com has the 6.5-20x40mm VX III for 534 to 699 depending on recticle and such but they give you a 75 to 100 dollar voucher for anything they sell. Dosent sound like a bad price from what I have seen.