This question comes up again and again. It usually goes something like this: "I want to start shooting PRS/NRL/plates far away/etc. I just bought a {insert you favourite brand} rifle and enough reloading supplies for my great grandchildren to grow up unconcerned about ammo. I want to get a scope. What should I get?"
When facing this question, I always avoid answering it right off the bat and spend some time trying to figure out two things:
-is this person new to shooting or just new to precision rifle?
-what is the real budget?
Both questions are important and related to each other. If they are new to shooting, chances are they think they can get a good precision scope for a couple of hundred bucks having bought, hook line and sinker, the basic argument made by all the budget bullshit brands on Amazon (Monstrum, Shmonstrum, Feyachi, NcStar, etc) that they are just as good as the well known brands except for less money. They are not. Every once in a while they make a good one and the euphoric owner of that rare specimen spends every waking moment proclaiming on every online forum that his Huyachi Special is so good, he sold all eighty of his Schmidt and Benders that he has been using since kindergarten. On one hand, I do not discount that there are a few of these that are actually decent out there. On the other hand, I know that many of these glowing reviews are not exactly honest. I have been approached most of these brands more than once. They offer free product and additional money per review (or per views) if I say nice things about them. I always tell them to go pound sand, sometimes I even do it politely. However, some very basic arithmetic suggests that I could make a decent living by sneaking in a few bullshit reviews and pushing brands that have high affiliate commissions. I find it to be more than a little unethical, but that opinion is not shared by the rank and file of the internet influencers out there. If you pay attention, you can easily figure out who these guys are. They are not the only type of an influencer that's for sale, but I'll cover the other ones in some future article. To be fair, I am probably for sale too, I just happen to be really expensive and no sane optics company is likely to be willing to pay that much. If one ever pops up that is willing to write me a check that big, I will probably refuse to have anything to do with them because they are obviously insane.
But, I digress...
When faced with the question of which scope to start with, the most important and difficult thing to figure out is whether this whole precision shooting business is a fad for whoever I am talking to or whether they are likely to stick with it. I am not going to recommend crap either way, but I will recommend something different if I do not think they will stick with it.
The difficult part, is that when they send me a link to the latest and greatest Monstrum paperweight and I tell them it is a steaming pile of manure and buying crap ends up costing more in the long term, they simply do not believe me. Half the time, they just want someone to confirm their preconceived notion and they will keep asking different people the same question until they get the answer they want. The other half of the time, they ask a perfectly honest question, but often have a hard time spending that much money.
For those people, the standard answer for quite a few years now has been one of SWFA's fixed power riflescopes (10x42 or 12x42 would be my pick) and that answer has not changed. Not yet. Several chinese made scopes are trying to challenge that (Vortex Venom, Arken SH4, Element Helix FFP) and, honestly, they are fairly convincing, but there are a couple of problems.
First of all, they still do not quite have the track record. I like all three of these designs from what I have seen so far and I started tracking all sorts of anecdotal evidence on how consistent they are. So far so good, but I do run into some evidence of spotty QC with Arken. Hopefully, it is just growing pains, but that's why I track these things. I do not know Arken OEM particularly well, which makes things more complicated for me. I know who builds Helix for Element, so it is easier for me to have faith in the mechanics of that scope. Either way, the way I look at these for now, they are great backup scopes or rimfire scopes for someone who already has something nicer and has some experience in terms of what works and what doesn't.
If you are new at this, you should not be taking chances and experimenting. There will be plenty of things to go wrong and one of the main things you are looking for in your first precision optic is that it does not become something that trips you up. Now, nothing in this world is truly guaranteed, so we are playing percentages here.
The second factor is that as inexpensive as these latest offerings from Vortex, Arken and Element are, they are still typically in the $450-$500 range. Fixed power SWFA SS Classic is $300. We all very desensitized by how much fancy riflescopes cost, but if you are new at this and shopping on a budget, the difference between the two is a decent set of rings and a few accessories. It is easy for me to say: "just spend extra few hundred dollars" when it is not my money being spent.
Given all that, what should you be looking for in your first precision scope? Honestly, if you have the budget for it, you should be stepping up to the $1500-$2000 range and picking up something along the lines of Vortex Razor Gen2 4.5-27x56, Element Nexus 5-20x50, Delta Stryker 4.5-30x56, Tract Toric UHD 4.5-30x56, Athlon Cronus 4.5-29x56, etc. These are high quality full featured Japanese-made scopes with good reputation for durability. Equally importantly, they come from companies that will support you if something goes wrong. That is a lot of money though.
Now that they have been out for a bit, I am becoming more comfortable with higher end mostly chinese scopes in the $1000 range. They look to be holding up quite well. These scopes like Athlon Ares ETR 4.5-30x56 and Meopta Optika6 5-30x56, Delta Javelin 4.5-30x56, etc. These are still not cheap, but notably less.
If you really are on a budget or if you are just testing the waters trying to figure out if this hobby is for you, you should be shopping on the used market. That way if you change your mind you can sell the optic and mostly be even. Or just buy that SWFA Classic for $300. It does not have all the bells and whistles, but it stays zeroed and tracks true. If you have to sell it, you'll be out no more than $40.
All my standard recommendations are compiled here:, by price range: https://opticsthoughts.com/?page_id=623
If you can think of a category I missed, please let me know.
Not bad, but a little more width would help. The tripod is Field Optics Research's Dome Top Hunter 32.
Rather amazingly, the balance on this thing is just right as is.
