Bushnell Elite 3200, 3-9x40 with firefly recticle.

I have been useing a Leupold VX-2/3x9x40 on my encore for the past several years. Been a great scope and has withstood lousy weather and some bumps in and out of stands. Buy the best optics that you can afford. There are alot of quality optics out there that you will give years of use, there are alot out there that wont make it past poppin off a primer. Nikon, Bushnell, and Leupold make some quality stuff at affordable prices. Also consider, where and what you will be hunting, that can make a difference between variable power and fixed. LOL

I am very happy with Trijicon Accupoint 3-9x40. You can use it with both eyes open and it makes it easy to hit moving target. Also it does not need batteries for illumination.
It is not cheap, but $520.00 was a good investment for me. I used compact ACOG before and know that Trijicon has quality products.

Last year i bought a new .50 Encore for M/L season. Put a 4X Simmonsshotgun scope on it as a temporary measure until my FX III 6X42 Leupold came in from Cabela's. Since then i have killed three deer and 7 or8 hogs with that gun. One deer was at over 160 yards and a hog was at 175 yards. The Leupold is still in the box-waiting.

I think a simple 3X or 4X fixed power scope is one of the most underutilized "really good things" out there. Will do the job for better than 90% of all hunting tasks.

"I think a simple 3X or 4X fixed power scope is one of the most underutilized "really good things" out there. Will do the job for better than 90% of all hunting tasks."

i think that you are exactly right. Several of my guns have 2.5X and 4X scopes on them. All three of my muzzleloaders have 4X scopes and all of them are goodin low light.

Actually a 4X scope is fine for most shooting we encounter around my hunting grounds, BUT if I were hunting out west where some of the shots were 150+ yards I could sure see the advantage of the better optics. When I am looking across an open field at the buck of a life time with my one shot muzzleloader, that 7X or 9X would be a great comfort to me about them.

I think the new BDC scopes are a waste of money. I had one years ago and never used the ability of it. Sold it and got a bottom lineLeupold. That Leupold was a great scope. I think if I remember the BDC scope was a Redfield, and maybe it was not a true BDC. There was a lot of fooling around you had to do. And I hunted for years with a 30-06 with a simple 4X Bushnell Banner and never knew I was out scoped. But with the new technological advantages of the optics today, they would be a real plus on the long distance stuff.

cayugad

Yes!

Now - I do like a ballistic reticule, originally the "mil dot" and the multi lined Ballistic reticule, but you, yourself, are the person that has to shoot the gun and compute the dots or lines at a given distance.

I am also intrigued with the Cabela's Alaskan Guide with a Range Finder reticule and of course the Shepard Scope - big dollars!

A couple months ago I bought an A1-Optics 3-14x50 to go on my Savage muzzleloader and I love it. It probably does not have quite the optical quality of the Leopolds, Nikons, and Bushnell Elites, but it is quite a bit clearer than the 3x9 Simmons that came on the rifle. The price delivered was just a tad over 100 bucks as I remember.

Really shows objects up in late evening with dim light and when you turn on the illuminated reticule you can stull see those crosshairs clearly as well. Picture of the gun with the scope on this thread: http://dougva.proboards34.com/index....230&page=1

I bought mine through E-Bay, but if you type in the name on Google I am sure you could find a supplier. Only downer I have found is the field of focus is a bit more critical than with some scopes I have used.

Chuck41 that is a real nice looking rifle and setup. Also some good shooting there. It should be all you need.