Hey all,

I was wanting to get peoples opinions on what scope or sight that they like to use on their AR rifles or any rifle to hunt coyotes with. I just recently picked up a new Delton rifle kit and will be building it here in the next few weeks and and need suggestions on optics.

Thanks in advance as always

What range (mostly/likely) are you planning on shooting at ?


Maybe this is a better question -What range can you put 10 out of 10 rounds in an 5" circle ?

You might consider how you intend to hunt coyotes as a factor. If you're driving around the ranch glassing for them, you may want something upwards of 12x on the top end. If you're calling them in close, you may want to consider something with very little magnification or even using iron sights?

I use Burris 4.5-14x's on my .223 bolt guns when I'm hunting from the truck or snowmobile, a Leupold VX-R 1.25-4x (but haven't used it enough to form an opinion) or irons on my ARs when I'm calling them in.

As others have mentioned, a little more info about how you hunt and how far you can ethically take a shot on a coyote is important (including how well that rifle that you haven't put together will shoot, i.e. is it accurate enough to be used at that range?).

Personally, I'm a high magnification type of guy. I would rather shoot at 20yrds with a 6x scope than shoot at 500yrds with a 9x scope, so I tolerate being "over scoped" at close range. I also keep a shotgun at my side most of the time while calling, or have a partner on a rifle while I run the street sweeper and the call.

A good old 3-9x glass is hard to beat for most coyote hunters that are calling and won't shoot over 200yrds. I don't use one that small, but it's hard to go wrong. I usually recommend a 50mm or larger objective, and a 30mm tube to improve light transmission, since so much of coyote hunting is done at dusk and dawn. If you plan on taking longer shots, then look at 4-16x, 6-18x, 5-20x 5.5-22x, 6-24x scopes. It's REALLY not that hard to shoot game close up in a 4x or 6x bottom end scope, but it's pretty rough to shoot a coyote at 600yrds out of a 7x top end scope.