chiefks

I bought a 243 from savage, bull barrel and accu trigger and love it. Use it for rifle hunting whitetails and coyotes. I am really leaning towards the savage because of the accu trigger, bull barrel (greater accuracy) and its about half the cost of the Ruger. I am away from home for a few more months. Which means I can't purchase the gun from my local sporting goods store. This means I have to go to one of the following places : Academy, Dicks, Bass Pro, Cabelas. I've also been told that a cheaper scope would work fine because these guns don't kick. So I am leaning towards a bushnell in a 4x12x40 power. Which store should I make the purchase from and why?It will allow me to target shoot at longer ranges and still hunt small game like squirrels or prarrie dogs. What do you guys think.

Chief

Paul L Mohr

The cheaper scopes don't have much to do with mechanical operation, it has more to do with optics and lenses. A more expensive scope will look better. It will probably also have better quality control.

In most cases if they were bad they probably would have failed on a .22 just the same as they would have on a 30-06. And what if you bump it by accident? You want to destroy a scope, put it on a spring powered Air Rifle. Those things are HARSH on scopes. If get a scope rated for an air gun you should be fine mechanically if you get a good one out of the box.

4-12 is a nice size scope for a 17, what model are you thinking of getting and in what price range? Bushnells are not bad for the money, even some of the lower end ones. I wouldn't get some cheap BSA, Trashco (tasco) or a simmons 8 point. Those scopes are not too impressive to me.

A really popular scope with rimfire crowd and the HMRs especially is Mueler, I may have spelled that wrong. Some of the better Barska scopes are popular as well. I had a cheaper one though that was a POS, I wasn't impressed at all.

Paul

chiefks

My 243 deer rifle has a bushnell 3x9x38, I think, wide angle scope. I think it is a Banner model but can't remeber for certain. I just remember it cost around $100 at the time. I might step up to the elite serires.
Will see what happens this comeing up week. I've also considering takeing the scope off my 243 and putting it on the 12, then putting a good leupold 4x12x40 on my 243

Chief

Paul L Mohr

If you can swing an Elite get one. I would suggest a bushnell Elite before the Leopold VXI scopes. Read some of the posts in the Optics forum, the Elites are pretty popular, as well as the Nikon scopes.

Banners aren't bad for the money either, I have one on my slug gun right now. However if you are thinking 12 power and possibly adjustable objective on a 17HMR I would save up the money and get the Elite scope instead. I think you will be very happy with it. They have very good optics for the money, which is nice when you are talking higher power scopes.

Paul

stalkingbear

I ain't much on bushnell after several bad experiences with warranty/customer service. Chief-look at weaver V16,it's won matches for me in rimfire class,goes from 4x-16x,adjustable objective,very reliable,and not much over $200. Try www.rifle_scopes.com for good prices.