[Dead Dog]

Oops, I have no idea how this ended up in News/Activism. My appologies.

[xsrdx]

You'll get lots of opinions here, from a variety of perspectives. Personally I prefer Leupold glass, VariXIII, for their optical clarity, repeatability, and durability.

Mil Dot reticles take some practice to use properly, but once learned the process is easy to employ. For hunting, its probably just as practical - and often quicker- to drag along a good laser rangefinder. The rangefinding reticle is a good backup, however, in case you have problems with the laser.

Check out the Leupold VariXIII and Tactical series scopes, for a 338 the 3.5-10x or 4.5-14x make sense.

Shepard, Nightforce and Trijicon also make an excellent line of quality rangefinding scopes, some with illuminated reticles for low light hunting, and of course Swarovski and Zeiss glass is considered top notch.

[Dead Dog]

bump

[SBprone]

Long range shooting makes special demands on a scope. A conventional 1" scope may have just barely enough elevation range for that much drop, and that is why the long range scopes by Leupold and others use the 30mm tube. Also, if your scope on your rifle with your mounts isn't pretty well centered before you start making adjustments then you may have less range of adjustment than the specs on your scope would indicate.

Bottom line, setting up a scoped rifle for long range shooting is a very exacting nitpicky job that often requires the services of a gunsmith specializing in target rifles.

[Centurion2000]

You can find a Tasco 8-32X42mm will full mil dot reticle for about 130.00. That should be cheap enough that you can get one and if you dont like it go back to another type.

I've been pretty happy with some of my 'higher end' tasco scopes and they are a LOT less expensive than Leupold.

It could use a decent sun shade though

[Shooter 2.5]

All my fine tuned rifles have Leopold scopes on them. As far as having a mil-dot scope on anything, I don't think they're worth the trouble. You may be wasting your money in getting something you don't use. To give you an idea what I'm writing about, go to www.shooterready.com. It has a tutorial on using a mil-dot scope. Mil-dots are used for figuring out the range when there is a known object that you can measure off of. By the time you use the math, your quarry will be long gone.

[in the Arena]

In addition to the great comments on scope selection don't forget to pay attention to bases and rings.

To reach out past 1000 yards...well within the .338 range...depending on which scope you select, you may need a tapered base setup.

Badger Ordnance makes an excellent setup for the 700 but will cost in the area of $250...it will give you a 20MOA taper.

Check with Premier Reticles, they used to have the best prices on the Badger rings and base, good prices on Leupold items also. Premier will also refit your Leupold scope with a different reticle if you change your mind down the road...

A mil-dot reticle is great to practice with but if you are stricly hunting I find the Leupold Duplex faster and easier to use...it uses the power ring and bracketing of the target in the reticle to approximate range...after saying that I must confess that I use the mil-dot...it's slower but more accurate.

Premier Reticles

Badger Ordnance

Leupold

[Jefferson Adams]

I have a Springfield Armory 3rd Gen Illuminated Retical ranging scope on my Stoner SR-25. It's an awesome thing :)

[Jefferson Adams]

Go HERE to see how the Springfield reticle works. It's similar to a Sheppard, in that it's a series of progressively smaller "rectangles" (Sheppard uses circles). You raise the gun up the line until you find the one that fits your targe, giving you automatic ranging.

[Squantos]

Burris has one that is very good and if you can learn how to use it, the standard eliptical mil-dot's on a leaupold is best. I believe the term for my burris on my .300 win mag mauser is called a RAC which I have used with very good success. I have used mine since mid-80's on the .300 but they have one for the .338 also. I have hunted from Alaska to New Mexico with my custom mauser which Beretta shamelessly copied and called a MATO. I use Warne Maxima bases and QD lever rings as I have iron sights left on my rifle if I had ever dropped or broken the scope during a hunt I could press on and harvest my food.

Click on the RAC link above and look for yourself. Solid reliable and Burris is second to none for durability, wear, accuracy and that all important .......price !

I have a dakota longbow rifle in .338 lapua that has the 16X fixed Leaupold ultra with mil-dots and use it for extream range coyotes and such. If you understand or can learn the use of a mildot then that would be a solid type of ranging system to look into. Key with any mildot/RAC scope is find a load either custom or factory and stick to it. If you swap around your wasting your time with a RAC system of any type in your scope.

Hope I helped, stay safe, enjoy your game you harvest.

[Mad Dawgg]

Hey all while we are on the subject of Rifles I wonder if any of you could help me with some info...

I recently got myself a Ruger 10/22 Rifle and I want some better clips than those stupid Barrel jobs that fit up into the gun, I recently got 4 of the plastic "banana" clips that hold ten (made by Eagle I belive) but I would like to find something that is made of metal or maybe "composite" based, I don't care about capacity (I know there is some stupid ban on the old 25 shell banana style clips) anyone got any ideas?

[Atlas Sneezed]

If you want the best scope, check out US Optics. They are better than the Europeans, expensive, and superior to Leupold and other big Amreican brands, which use Japanese lenses made from Chinese glass. If you want a scope that is trusted by the USMC, and which is so rugged it can withstand being used as a club on concrete, US Optics is for you.

100% made in USA. There may be a wait of a few months for your scope.

For learning about reticles and ranging, read "The Ultimate Sniper."

[austinite]

Get a real scope !

Rigel Optics

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I got a ATN with a illuminated reticle an bullet drop to 600 yards for 200 bucks. That was a special deal, but they have them for every price range between 250 and your whole paycheck.