Tips For Selecting The Best Hunting Scopes For Your Application

Many rifles and shotguns have hunting scopes or other sighting devices, so it’s not unconventional for it to seem like something’s missing when you see one that doesn’t have a scope. It is becoming increasingly prominent for handguns to have them, as well. The major reason is that they make hitting a distant target easier, even if the weapon has an iron sight built in. By looking into a magnifying scope or using a red dot laser sight, it is easier to see your target and get a more accurate shot.

Every hunting scope has a sizing system known as a number range, it gives the scope’s range of magnification and objective lens diameter. For example, the 1st numbers of a 3-9x 40 hunting scope mean that it is a variable scope capable of showing objects three times closer than they would look to be with the unaided eye, but does go up to 9 times the unaided. The key here is how low the magnification, not how high because the higher magnification, the less light you can get through the eyepiece.

The last number is the objective lens diameter, measured in metric mm, and usually they are 40 to 45 millimeters, although some of the extravagant models go up to 75 millimeters, even though it is not needed. The greater the number of the objective lens, the more light comes through your eyepiece. A subtle balance of magnification and objective lens size provides the largest amount of detail, which is required for exact shots.

The magnification range you pick depends on how much enlargement you require. Remember that the detail gets better when you use a smaller magnification, but you also need to think about whether you will be shooting at smaller targets from long distances. For example, you may choose a 3-9x 40 gun scope for deer hunting, but you might require a 6-20x or an 8-25x variable rifle optic for pheasant or squirrel hunting because your targets will be far away.

The objective lenses of gun scopes can also be variable or adjustable. External parallax adjustments can change the diameter of variable objective hunting scopes, which will make a difference on scopes that go over 10X magnification. You will not generally find them on scopes below that magnification.

Gun scope lenses generally are water resistant and fog-proof. They are coated with one or more layers of coating to help decrease loss of light and glare. Generally speaking, the more layers of this coating you have, the sharper the contrast and the better the object’s image will be. Hunting scope lenses which are fully multi-coated are typically seen as the best because they will allow better light transmission and give a sharper contrast.

Another term you will hear while you are looking at hunting scope optics is Field Of View, or FOV. This term refers to how many feet left to right you can see when you are peering into the optic. Normally the FOV at a 100 yard measurement using 3x magnification will be about 30 feet. As the magnification goes down, the Field of View increases. At 9 times magnification, the Field of View would only be about 14 feet.

You need to understand a rifle scopes specifications when you want to choose the top overall scope for the kind of hunting you will be doing. Its specifications will make a big difference in the precision of your shots.