What Scope???

Talk about the AR15 style rifles chambered in 450 Bushmaster.

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What Scope???

Postby winman1550 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 12:05 am

What scope do you have on your 450? What power and what height rings and what make, on flat top rifle with no front sight?

As always, thank you in advance,

Greg
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Re: What Scope???

Postby Hoot » Mon Dec 05, 2016 6:11 am

Scope recommendations usually require a little more more information.
What range are you most likely to use it? Not possibly, but most likely. What game are you going to be engaging? I live in Minnesota and mainly hunt the dense north woods. A 1-5 or 2-7 with good light gathering qualities is fine for that. For a little more flexibility and a lot more selection, a 3-9 seems to be the rule from what I read here. I myself have 2 scopes since I reload. One for testing loads and one for hunting. As you might guess, the one for bench testing reloads has higher, read much higher magnification, than what I would ever consider using to hunt. In that scenario, I'm trying to test the matchup of my reloads and my rifle, not my 62 year old eyes, So, I use a 24x scope and a real benchrest front rest and rear bag. None of that goes along with me into the deer stand. There, I use an older 30mm Tasco Euro-Class 3-12x52 with a plain jane crosshair. It has great light gathering at dawn and dusk and is built like a tank. It has competition though, I'm tempted to put my Redfield Revolution 3-9x40 on. Its diminutive size belies its phenomenal, full field view through the eyepiece. As for rings, I go as low as possible, just short of the scope's objective touching the barrel. This encourages a good shooting stance with the all important cheek weld, as opposed to a heads up spray and pray. I have used autoloaders almost my entire life for deer hunting yet have only needed a second shot once. To each his own...

Scopes opinions are like any other opinion. They're as numerous as questions.

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Re: What Scope???

Postby Jim in Houston » Mon Dec 05, 2016 11:11 am

I find that a 3-9x is good for any use I would conceivably make of the 450BM, which is generally with a factory 250gr FTX out to 300 yards. I have hunted with it out to 200.

Many people think that you need a relatively expensive scope that will withstand the recoil of the 450 (which is not really that bad), but I have had good success with a pretty cheap model along the lines of the TASCO, which Hoot mentions. However, since I am now using it for hunting, I have gone with a better quality Leupold VXR.

Of equal concern to me is the type of reticule. I use holdover / under to compensate for ranges above and below my sight in range (200 yards for hunting), so a ballistic reticule with a few, easily seen range marks is good for estimates every 50 yards out to 300.

I have the illluminated FireDot on my scope, and if you are likely to be hunting in low light, you may want full illumination in whatever scope you choose.

There is a recent thread on scopes, where several people have given their preferences, so a little searching around would be helpful.
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Re: What Scope???

Postby plant_one » Mon Dec 05, 2016 11:22 am

for a flat top AR you're gonna want at the least XHigh rings. Otherwise you're probably gonna be very uncomfortable getting a cheek weld and still getting into the line of sight through the scope.

i like the Nikon P-Series rings - lots of value for your $$ there and cheaper than buying a set of high rings and a ½" Riser set.
http://a.co/2Nafwtq

or something like a Burris PEPR style mount
http://a.co/4Fc8d25

as far as a scope - one thing ive always considered when scope shopping and why my preference is something in the 4-12 or 4-16 type range.

you can always use a 4-12x scope on 4x power, but you can never use a 1-4x (or a 2-7x, whatever) scope on 12x power.

i'm a fan of the Vortex Diamondback lineup as a good value grade scope. Nice clean glass and they seem to hold true when you're clicking around up and down for elevation adjustments. Branding aside, i strongly suggest you start shopping in the at least $200 price point for current model scopes. Generally speaking much under that price point and the glass starts to get dark and the quality of the internals falls off quite quickly.

Whatever you do stay away from the budget brand scopes (BARFSKA, Centerpoint, BSA, NCSTAR, modern tasco, current production SIMMONS, etc) that offer a lot of features at a low % of the cost of their competitors scopes. Not only do these tend to be heavier, but the quality of the internals & glass is usually questionable at best, and there's almost no QC on some of these scopes. I'm not suggesting that these companies dont get lucky and produce a good item once in a while, but your chances of getting a piece of pure sh!t are much higher when you slide under the $100 price point.

head over to a big box store if you have one close (cabela's, bass pro, etc) and ask one of the folk working the optics counter to let you look through a few scopes outside in the light of day with their viewing stock. Dont just look through them inside under retail lights. Get em out into the real world and then go from there :) when you do this, just for giggles have them bring something like a VXIII out there with you. just for comparison.

just my $0.02 USD on optics.
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Re: What Scope???

Postby dantheman » Mon Dec 05, 2016 5:10 pm

I bought a Hawke Endurance 30 1.5-6x44 . It has an illuminated 30-30 reticle.

Just got it in the mail today from Optics Planet. I called them up and named the cheapest Ebay price that I could find and they matched the price. It's built like a tank and is as heavy as one.

Optics seem nice so far.

Dan
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Re: What Scope???

Postby Yotehunter243 » Wed Dec 07, 2016 11:06 am

I have a Vortex Viper PST 2.5X10-44 on one. In my opinion the 2.5x10 or 3x9 is hard to beat for hunting.
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