AR10 Scope?

[ssramage]

The final parts to assemble my AR10 build should be coming in this week. Last major purchase will need to be the optics. Primary purpose of this gun will be hunting with possibly some occasional intermediate distance target shooting (300 yds out to possibly 500 yds).

Budget is $500 (used or new).

What would be your choice in optics for this application?

 

[opps]

This has decent review: http://www.primaryarms.com/primary-...s-5-56-5-45-308-reticle-pa1-8x24sfp-acss-5-56

 

[greg vess]

Nikon M-308 I think is the best choice for that dollar amount. Often people overlook Nikon but if you look at all the areas they provide very competitive products in they are making choice glass to do so. tTheir glass is perfection. Couple that with a well built tube and internals you get a very competitive product that hang with scopes that are almost twice the price. The M series scope has parallax adj., BDC reticle, very positive turret clicks and return to zero perfectly. People often overlook Nikon as a generic product but if you stop and think of all the glass they are super competitive in like cameras, spotting scopes, binoculars, camcorders you name it and they are at the top of the heap in it. There glass is made to superior specs whatever they use it in and they use a lot of quality glass. That's how they offer such great product at a really overly competitive price. Their scopes have just great glass, just great glass that does it. IMHO probably the best glass at that price you can get. Arguably!

 

[jpm2953]

Leupold VX3i Within budget and a solid scope.

 

[greg vess]

It would be different if you said your budget was 1,000 to 1,500 but at your price point I put my money in Nikon. Vortex make a good product as well and their warranty is second to none. However, feature wise I like the Nikon in that price range better.

 

[ssramage]

Leupold VX3i Within budget and a solid scope.

I actually just put this scope on my R700 .25-06 and have been impressed with it. Do you think the same 3.5-10x40 would work well on an AR platform?

What mounts do you guys recommend?

 

[jpm2953]

I actually just put this scope on my R700 .25-06 and have been impressed with it. Do you think the same 3.5-10x40 would work well on an AR platform?

What mounts do you guys recommend?

shoot yeah it will. I have the same one on my AR10. Well, I have the 4.5-14x40....The thing I like about the Leupold over the Nikon is they are more compact and lighter for the same magnification. Nothing against the nikons, I ran those on all my rifles for years but I have slowly transitioned everything over to Leupolds....

As far as mounts, The leupold or vortex 1 piece mount are nice.

 

[_Raining]

I don't see much of Leupold and Nikon in the long range community. Common budget optics you will see are Primary Arms, Athlon, Vortex, Sightron, SWFA Fixed scopes.

There are guys who shoot to 1000 yards with Iron sights and guys who shoot rimfire at 50 yards with 60 power scopes so which magnification range to use is personal preference.

The type of hunting you will be doing matters, shooting from a tree stand means the scope weight isn't much of a concern. Most scopes will get the job done for point blank range hunting since you zero the rifle and then don't touch the turrets but if you are shooting distance and want first round hits then you need to be able to trust your turrets will move exactly as the markings show.

Are you looking for FFP or SFP, a busy reticle for holdovers or a simple duplex?

 

[ssramage]

I don't see much of Leupold and Nikon in the long range community. Common budget optics you will see are Primary Arms, Athlon, Vortex, Sightron, SWFA Fixed scopes.

There are guys who shoot to 1000 yards with Iron sights and guys who shoot rimfire at 50 yards with 60 power scopes so which magnification range to use is personal preference.

The type of hunting you will be doing matters, shooting from a tree stand means the scope weight isn't much of a concern. Most scopes will get the job done for point blank range hunting since you zero the rifle and then don't touch the turrets but if you are shooting distance and want first round hits then you need to be able to trust your turrets will move exactly as the markings show.

Are you looking for FFP or SFP, a busy reticle for holdovers or a simple duplex?

No idea on FFP vs SFP. I do prefer a simple reticle though. The busier reticles tend to blur on me...

 

[_Raining]

FFP means that the reticle will be accurate on any magnification (You can have a simple reticle with hashes, it doesn't have to be a Christmas tree of clutter). The down side to this is that it is usually more expensive and the reticle thickness grows as you increase the magnification. Usually long range shooters for tactical type competitions will use FFP scopes in the 5-25x range. Some extreme long range shooters will use SFP scopes because they will get something along the lines of 8-40 power and a FFP reticle at 40 power might be to thick and obscure the target (1200+ yards). If a SFP scope has any hash marks, they will only be accurate at one specific magnification but the reticle will stay the same width through the magnification range. Assuming your hunting range is something like 50 to 300 than the point blank setup will work with pretty much any scope (zero for ~200 and the rifle will hit slightly high at 100 and slightly low at 300). The differences in scopes will usually come down to weight and what you want to do for your fun 300-500 distance shooting. Some of the low end hunting scopes can have issues like POI shift as you change magnification (probably not enough to create an issue at 50-300 yards) as well as not be consistent with the turret clicks, you may dial 9 MOA but the scope may only go 8.75 one time and 9.25 the next.

I assume since you are using an AR10 that weight isn't a huge concern, I would probably go for a used Vortex Viper HST/HS LR used for ~500 or save up some more and try to get a Vortex Viper PST Gen 1 used for ~750. The snipers hide is a good place for buying used scopes and the good part about Vortex is the transferable no questions asked warranty, so if you buy a used Vortex and the lenses are scratched or the turrets are messed up you can just send it in and they will fix it. I have seen people post about Primary Arms on r/longrange as well as one guy who really likes Sightrons. There seems to be a pretty big disconnect between the hunting community and the long range community as far as what scope brands to use, not really sure why that is. I guess hunters just want it to be clear and light and long range/competition shooters want the turrets to be true and the reticle to match the turrets (My first "long range" scope was a Leupold Mil Dot reticle with MOA turrets in SFP, I was not a smart man then).