Yesterday afternoon I mounted the Cabela's Powder Horn 3-10x40mm scope on a stainless steel Green Mountain Barrel 50 caliber that sits in a T/C Renegade stock. I did not bore sight it, since normally they are very close.

I put the target out at 25 yards in the snow and shot from a bench rest. My intent was to ruff sight in the scope. But also to punish the scope and see what happens. If it is going to break, do it now!





My load was not a normal load to me, but to some of you probably an every day load. 110 grains of 3f Triple Seven I believe is a max load in this rifle. It might even be a little more then normal. I later was shooting black powder with 100 grains of 2f and that was a much more comfortable load. The 110 grains of Triple Seven 3f had a lot of recoil. Especially with a 300 grain XTP on top of it. But I wanted the scope to break. I wanted to stress it.


Observations of the scope.

The scope is very long. And I am not a fan of long scopes. But on this rifle it made no difference as the rear sight is removed. I like to leave the rear sights ON. (or I end up loosing parts). The length is listed at 12.2 I like them around 11 inches at max. But again, this was not going to be a problem.

The FOV at 100 yards is good. 31.5-9.4 and the scope is listed at 3.75 eye relief. I can not swear to it, but I believe I have more then that. Excellent eye relief in this scope. Never once did it come near me with the max loads being fired.

Again I am impressed with the excellent clarity of the glass. Face it, for a $49.00 scope what should you expect. But this one I could easily focus it, and the movement from one power setting to the next was flawless. It also held track when moving through the different power settings. Some scopes will move off the POA a little. This one held true.

The scope seemed to eat up the recoil with ease. I originally was shooting low. And so I removed the lens covers/caps and looked at the dials. Very sophisticated looking dials with lots of numbers and calibrations on them. Now if I just knew how to use all that. But I studied the top dial to raise the POI and really it did not tell me if I should go clockwise or counter clock wise with the dial.

So I made my first adjustment and went the wrong way of course. I then readjusted and discovered it was going to take a lot of adjustment to move that POI up the target.

And so I made smaller adjustments and slowly moved up the target. When I got too high, I made my to the right adjustment and it worked great. Although being at 25 yards it takes a lot of adjustment to move one in. Normally 4 but maybe it was me, I sure seemed to turn that adjustment a lot to move an inch.

Anyway I got it hitting the top of the bull.. which is where I wanted it. Also the Powder Horn held nice and true with that monster 110 grains of Triple Seven.

So the over all observations are, long scope, great glass, adjustments seem slow, seems to be solidly built so far, love the cross hairs in it. And I think it will be working real good.

I then took the target down and loaded up 100 grains of Black Powder and held dead on paint cans at 86 yards. I really can not say where the rifle is hitting back there. I need to actually shoot at a target back there. But I do want to sight this one in at 100 yards and then see if the BDC is close this spring in the hay fields.

Sounds like it will turn out to be a pretty good scope for you. I really like the idea of that long eye relief your getting out of it. Might have to look into one of those myself. Glad to hear its taking a good charge and holding up so far.

Mine will be here the ninth hope it is as good, thanks for the good info Dave

So far John I am happy with the scope. I want to shoot it a lot more real soon. And if it holds good, I am going to purchase a couple more. Maybe next time I will shoot some large conical bullets. Those can normally shake me apart. Should test the scope too.

Cayugad, I'm not a fan of long scopes either. Maybe that's why I like ProDiamonds so much.

But your initial assessment of the Powder Horn got to me and, like Johnmorris, I have one on the way. (Burning those Cabala's points.) I'm not even sure what gun I'm going to put it on yet.

Well I sat and looked at all the rifles that could wear it. And then I felt.. something that can shoot long range. And that stainless steel GMB just took my fancy. A very nice look too.

I've bough some CHEAP scopes over the years, and none have gone bad, most I've been pretty surprised with on there clarity and toughness. As for adjustments this past fall I helped my buddy sight in a Nikon Pro Staff on his 30-06 as it was the first time we could use a rifle during our hunting season, I had to move the adjustments 80 clicks to the right and 67 clicks up to get it on, but once we had it on, it was on.
Back to Inexensive scopes, I've never had a bad one from tasco to bushnell and some of them were $29 and Im still using them and they all have been abused and used. My friends crack me up when they say OH I Bumoed my scope I better check it to be sure it's still on.....if a bump messes up your scope you better throw it out..I've bumped em, droped em and banged em and they still hold zero.
Put that sucker to the test Dave, so far it looks like she'll be true.
(BP)

I've had pretty much the same experience with cheaper scopes. I've read so many times in hunting magazines how you need to spend as much on the scope as the rifle. And then I hear stories of people with $500 Leupolds going bad..... Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never had a scope go bad on me. I have 2 Simmons ProDiamonds ($40 each) an old Bushnell 3 x 9 (around $50 back in the 1990's when I bought it) a TruGlo ($70) and a really old and REALLY cheap Tasco 4x (no idea how much it cost, but couldn't have been more than $35). None of them have gone south on me yet. And trust me, I've tried. I've bumped & dropped them, hunted in pouring rain/sleet/snow, shot heavy muzzy loads, etc.

I'm not saying these cheaper scopes are perfect, I'm just saying that they have held up for me and have gotten the job done. Now if I was competition shooting at 600 or 1000 yards, then I'm sure I would spend more money..... but for hunting and target shooting at 150 yards and under, they do the job.

The Powder Horn is a good scope with good glass; i've mounted a few and zeroed the rifles. Scope glass has improved greatly over the past 40 years. A 4X Simmons has better glass than some expensive scopes i bought in the 60s and 70s.

My guns get bounced around uncased in my old hunting truck. In the past 12 years i've gone through a bunch of muzzleloader scopes: The 4X Simmons and the 4X Nikon Pro Staff held up better than the Bushnells and Tascos but they all eventually died.

I never thought of the guns that are in trucks. Getting bounced around. I have not hauled a rifle other then in a padded case on the seat of the truck in years.