Quality scope - waste of money?

[Al Downie]

I'm interested in getting a new, fixed-mag scope for my sub-12ft/lb Air Ranger. And I don't mind paying proper money for one which is bright, sharp out to the edges, with a wide field of view and a good mildot (etc) reticle with plenty of aiming points (I'm shooting .22). But when I asked in a shop about a Leupold that was in a display case, the guy said "What??? For an AIR rifle??? No way - you don't need anything like that for an air rifle".

 

So I'm wondering why he would say that? People pay a lot more for a consistently accurate air rifle than many folk pay for centre-fire rifles, and accuracy is surely just as important when you're shooting a rabbit at 45yds as when you're killing a deer at 200yds?

 

Anyone using an expensive (£400+) scope on their air rifle ? Is it worth the extra cash?

[955i]

My take on it would be that you only have to spend the money once, so if you upgrade your gun you will already have a good scope for it.

 

Better to spend a bit extra and get what you want than buy cheap and then end up replacing it anyway.

[Lez325]

Buy a decent scope yes - but £400 No- at the ranges you'll be shooting at with a sub 12ft/lb rifle its hardly worth the expense in my opinion- the Hawke or AGS range offer some decent quality scopes at half that price

 

Les

[chris d]

hi mate, ive had simmons whitetail classics (3.5-10x50) on air rifles, 22 rimfire and 17 hmr , for the money very clear , good zoom that holds zero, and work reasonbly well in low light , more than good enough for lamping with . i would put one on my 243 no probs but ive got an 8x56 s&b onit. they dont have a mill dot reticule and no ilumination . but that said there a good scope for the money , just make sure its made in the phillapeans and not china though, hope this helps

[ttalbot09]

i dont reccomend looking at hawke or ags the quality is horrible blurred edges and parralaxes to wrong ranges as it says on the front parralax bit. i have a edgar bros 4-16x50 and its far far more clearer than every scope i looked at in price range up to £200. and trust me i had the whole shops scope range outside testing all of them (seriosly.)

and the edgar works really well in low light conditions. and bright colours... thats my thoughts anyway

[bicykillgaz]

i've got a limited budget when it comes to shooting and on my .22lr i've got a centrepoint precision optics powerclass 4-16X56 with sidewheel parallax and ir with mildot ret it cost me £195 and is extremely accurate extremely bright in all conditions i've used it in and in my opinion an extremely good scope and i looked at the usual suspects hawke, millet and other similar and got the centrepoint, if anything its too good to be on my .22lr but my point is you can get a decent scope without getting raped because of the name on it mine shoots half inch groups at 50m and could probably acheive better with a better shot behind it and no wind, there definately worth looking at they do different styles

[aaron airgunner]

i think theres a saying in FAC shooting. buy the scopr and spend whats left over on your rifle. if you think about it, a rimfire/centrefire rifle is just a tube with a firing pin and a magazine attached to a stock. precision PCP'S need shot regulating to keep all shots completely consistent, a high pressure air cylinder and not to mention the workings of the hammer and the trigger. my hawke reflex is a nice little scope and costs just £80 pound. for xmas im getting hawke map6 4-12x44. this scope when set at 6x will have a mildot for every 5 yrds wich will be endlessly useful. it costs less than my old scope!

[Wurzel]

I use an old Simmons Aetec 3.8-12x44 on my mk1 Logun Pro k which i picked up for £100 secondhand and its a fantastic scope ... i believe they were around the £300 mark when new, a mate of mine uses a new MTC Viper 3-12x44 and to be honest mine has better glass but his has all the latest gadgets like sidewheel parralax etc etc but when dusk falls he has to switch on his illuminated reticle long before i have to call it a day

 

The flip side to this is many years ago i bought a Nikko 6x42 gold crown scope for about £25 new and this little scope has been on all my springers and gas ram rifles as well as some of my PCP's and it is still as good today as when i first bought it the optics are surprisingly bright and clear and if you looked through it without knowing what scope it was you'd swear it was a £100 + scope

 

wurzel

[bruno22rf]

Exspensive scopes are high priced for a reason-either (in the case of the german scopes) the high quality optics are needed to avoid distortion when shooting out to perhaps 300+metres-you also need top notch clarity to scan for quarry at such ranges.The higher priced airgun type scopes are expensive because of a mixture of better glass and smaller production runs-i would say that £100 should buy you something plenty good enough for a PCP -add maybe £20-330 if you use a springer.