Best of the "cheap" scopes

[Jcon268]

Just thought I'd get some opinions from people here about what the best options for cheaper scopes are. For cheaper we'll say sub $1k. Doesn't matter where it's made only measuring the value you get for your money.
Where is the point of diminishing returns?
It looks like Vortex has become the most popular, probably in part because of their no questions asked warranty. They also seems to have good turrets and glass for the money.
Any others?

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[bsa1917hunter]

I know everybody loves their Vortex scopes, but I've personally seen more than a few fail. From not tracking right, to having horrible glass and one that you could see the internal wall when you moved your head from left to right. The guy that brought that one to me said, "I paid $900.00 for this scope, it looks funny on the inside". I didn't believe him, until I looked into it myself. I said, "send the damn thing back and get your money back if you can". I've also seen and had Leupolds fail on me. So much in fact that I don't buy them anymore. My bosses' fancy Leupold VX6 super scope has tracking issues and I believe it is approaching $2,000.00 in price. But since you are asking about sub $1,000.00 rifle scopes, I'd look into the Nightforce SHV. You can find some of those for less than your price point. That or the SWFA SS line of rifle scopes. They are very good. The fixed powers track well and are only $300.00. The glass on some of the SWFA SS scopes are not excellent, until you step up into the higher priced variables with HD in their name. Still, you can buy a damn good SS for less than a grand. The glass on those are supposed to be on par with Nighforce. Tracking is as good too. Anyway, you can not beat SWFA's warranty..... OP, you don't say what power range you are looking for or what your use will be. Are you wanting a scope you can dial and reach way out there with, or are you looking for a good hunting scope that you can set and forget? If the latter, I'd choose a good ol Burris FFII 3-9x40 with ballistic plex reticle. Those are tough as nails and they are on top of many of my hunting rifles. Are you looking for a good scope for your AR? Threads like these need more infor from the OP IMHO.... I have Burris AR scopes on all of my AR's that are sub $400.00 and work very well. Those are the Burris AR556 and AR762 4.5-14x42. They hold zero very well, return to zero perfectly, and track good enough for me.... A little more info as to what you are looking for and maybe we could suggest just the perfect scope for you...

 

[Nosferatu]

Athalon seems to bring some good value for the money.

"Best" is a personal point of view.

 

[Jcon268]

I know everybody loves their Vortex scopes, but I've personally seen more than a few fail. From not tracking right, to having horrible glass and one that you could see the internal wall when you moved your head from left to right. The guy that brought that one to me said, "I paid $900.00 for this scope, it looks funny on the inside". I didn't believe him, until I looked into it myself. I said, "send the damn thing back and get your money back if you can". I've also seen and had Leupolds fail on me. So much in fact that I don't buy them anymore. My bosses' fancy Leupold VX6 super scope has tracking issues and I believe it is approaching $2,000.00 in price. But since you are asking about sub $1,000.00 rifle scopes, I'd look into the Nightforce SHV. You can find some of those for less than your price point. That or the SWFA SS line of rifle scopes. They are very good. The fixed powers track well and are only $300.00. The glass on some of the SWFA SS scopes are not excellent, until you step up into the higher priced variables with HD in their name. Still, you can buy a damn good SS for less than a grand. The glass on those are supposed to be on par with Nighforce. Tracking is as good too. Anyway, you can not beat SWFA's warranty..... OP, you don't say what power range you are looking for or what your use will be. Are you wanting a scope you can dial and reach way out there with, or are you looking for a good hunting scope that you can set and forget? If the latter, I'd choose a good ol Burris FFII 3-9x40 with ballistic plex reticle. Those are tough as nails and they are on top of many of my hunting rifles. Are you looking for a good scope for your AR? Threads like these need more infor from the OP IMHO.... I have Burris AR scopes on all of my AR's that are sub $400.00 and work very well. Those are the Burris AR556 and AR762 4.5-14x42. They hold zero very well, return to zero perfectly, and track good enough for me.... A little more info as to what you are looking for and maybe we could suggest just the perfect scope for you...

Looking for a range of 4-20x50 or so. Probably a 30mm tube just because you won't usually find 34mm sub $1k.
I've heard the same things you've heard regarding both Vortex and Leupold. Now again a Vortex or Leupold fan would say "oh but their warranty will take care of that." Maybe that is true but there are issues that sometimes occur that aren't so obvious as the issue you just mentioned. I think I would lose some confidence at that point that my scope was built right.
SWFA does get a lot of praise but I probably don't want to deal with a fixed power scope although I think they offer some variable powers under $1k. I want to hit at 100 yards and 700 or 800 yards just as easy. The Nightforce SHV looks to be the best deal out on the market at this point but I haven't seen any with a FFP under $1k. Not that FFP matters to everyone but I think if I want to hit out far, it's going to help.

 

[Hueco]

I'm very new to scopes, but very experienced with lenses. None of the scopes I've touched hold a candle to a Canon 300 f/2.8L. I've only rented that one but own the 400 f/5.6L...you wan't clarity, I'll show you clarity ;-).

I put a Nikon Prostaff 3-9x40 on my rimfire and am decently happy with it. Though, I've yet to really try to take the rifle out past 100 yards and think that maybe 9x won't be enough for that range.

I put a Vortex Diamondback Tactical 6-24x50 on my .308, mostly because I'm just starting out learning long range shooting and didn't know what to look for in a scope. I'm sure I'll swap it out later.

I'm meeting up with a member here to buy his Vortex Strikefire for a rimfire that I want to use for speed events, but I'm not at all sure this is the direction that I want to go.

Seems to me the gun industry could take a page out of the photography industry's playbook and offer scope rentals. I wonder why no such thing exists? The hardest thing to stomach about this decision is the thoughts of paying full retail only to change your mind after you've mounted and fired with the thing and can't return it.

 

[kisfish]

tag for later

 

[Jcon268]

Athalon seems to bring some good value for the money.

"Best" is a personal point of view.

Yeah I have an Athlon Ares that has pretty clear glass, a nice reticle and seems to track well. Is it the perfect scope? No. The turrets are only ok and they don't lock. The glass clarity wouldn't be as good as some of the Japanese glass scopes out there but you don't really notice until you get to the highest magnifications which is like 25x+
For what they cost, I'd have to say they must be one of the top contenders out there. Some people just get caught up in where it was made and look right past how well it functions as a scope in general.

 

[Aero Denezol]

+1 for SWFA SS. You get a better scope for the same money with fixed power... Less clutter and better light transmission. Also no messing with First Focal Plane vs. Second Focal Plane - the math is always the same with fixed power.

Also, I also had a cheap Weaver once that I thought was very good.

Never owned a Vortex, but my understanding is they have a different price points, with Chinese scopes at the bottom, followed by Philippines made scopes, which are thought to be pretty good for the money. The best and most expensive Vortex are the Japanese models. There is a lot of options with Vortex, it's like shopping for a car. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong here..

 

[Jcon268]

+1 for SWFA SS. You get a better scope for the same money with fixed power... Less clutter and better light transmission. Also no messing with First Focal Plane vs. Second Focal Plane - the math is always the same with fixed power.

Also, I also had a cheap Weaver once that I thought was very good.

Never owned a Vortex, but my understanding is they have a different price points, with Chinese scopes at the bottom, followed by Philippines made scopes, which are thought to be pretty good for the money. The best and most expensive Vortex are the Japanese models. There is a lot of options with Vortex, it's like shopping for a car. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong here..

How would you say SWFA compares to similarly price Leupold scopes? Any experience? Some people have knocked on Leupold for not doing anything innovative over the last decade+ whereas other scope mfgs have been trying to upgrade the features to meet demands. Then again, some people like to keep it simple. I'd take bomb proof construction and consistent manufacturing over some of the features I've seen driving up the prices, personally.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

i like vortex

 

[bsa1917hunter]

Looking for a range of 4-20x50 or so. Probably a 30mm tube just because you won't usually find 34mm sub $1k.
I've heard the same things you've heard regarding both Vortex and Leupold. Now again a Vortex or Leupold fan would say "oh but their warranty will take care of that." Maybe that is true but there are issues that sometimes occur that aren't so obvious as the issue you just mentioned. I think I would lose some confidence at that point that my scope was built right.
SWFA does get a lot of praise but I probably don't want to deal with a fixed power scope although I think they offer some variable powers under $1k. I want to hit at 100 yards and 700 or 800 yards just as easy. The Nightforce SHV looks to be the best deal out on the market at this point but I haven't seen any with a FFP under $1k. Not that FFP matters to everyone but I think if I want to hit out far, it's going to help.

You sound like you have a good handle on this one. I wouldn't let SFP or FFP influence your decision one way or the other. I have many SFP Nightforce rifles scopes and have used them out to almost 1,000 yards. Some of my favorite rifle scopes, such as my Nighforce NXS 5.5-22x56 were bought used for just a hair over $1,000.00, so there's always that option as well. I've been shooting medium range steel at 400-450 yards and the SFP is no handicap there. I actually like the fact that the reticle doesn't grow in size on some of my targets I shoot at. I can consistently hit my 2" diameter plate at 400 yards while using my SFP Nightforce rifle scopes (SHV and NXS)... One of the SHV's that really impresses me is the 5-20x56. I love that scope so much that I believe I have 3 of them now. No handicaps that I see, except that FFP works better for ranging stuff and MIL/MIL is the cats meow if speed and accuracy is your game. For me, I like precision and don't mind ranging the target and dialing up and adjusting slightly if I have to.

 

[Jcon268]

You sound like you have a good handle on this one. I wouldn't let SFP or FFP influence your decision one way or the other. I have many SFP Nightforce rifles scopes and have used them out to almost 1,000 yards. Some of my favorite rifle scopes, such as my Nighforce NXS 5.5-22x56 were bought used for just a hair over $1,000.00, so there's always that option as well. I've been shooting medium range steel at 400-450 yards and the SFP is no handicap there. I actually like the fact that the reticle doesn't grow in size on some of my targets I shoot at. I can consistently hit my 2" diameter plate at 400 yards while using my SFP Nightforce rifle scopes (SHV and NXS)... One of the SHV's that really impresses me is the 5-20x56. I love that scope so much that I believe I have 3 of them now. No handicaps that I see, except that FFP works better for ranging stuff and MIL/MIL is the cats meow if speed and accuracy is your game. For me, I like precision and don't mind ranging the target and dialing up and adjusting slightly if I have to.
View attachment 653329

While I don't think FFP is necessary it does inspire a bit of confidence at longer ranges when you can use the subtensions and everything is going to be correct at all powers. The only scopes I'd likely use with SFP are the lower power optics like 1-4x and 1-6x. Even then, I use a Primary Arms 1-6x FFP scope and it's pretty awesome. This is just me and my opinion though.

 

[Aero Denezol]

How would you say SWFA compares to similarly price Leupold scopes? Any experience? Some people have knocked on Leupold for not doing anything innovative over the last decade+ whereas other scope mfgs have been trying to upgrade the features to meet demands. Then again, some people like to keep it simple. I'd take bomb proof construction and consistent manufacturing over some of the features I've seen driving up the prices, personally.

I did look at a lot of Leupold scopes under $1000 when I was scope shopping. At that price point there are more and better features available from other manufacturers. I really wanted zero reset turrets, for example.

I know the high-end Leupold stuff is as good as anything else, but we are limiting this convo to < $1000.

 

[Kruel J]

Leupold. I bought into the Vortex marketing for a while, and they still make some ok stuff. But I think Leupold is better with their sub-$1000 glass.

 

[FA9]

Check out arken optics. Lifetime warranty and guarantee tracking.

Optics

arkenopticsusa.com

 

[Cerberus Group]

Trijicon makes some sub 1k glass

 

[goatpower]

Have a Vortex Strike Eagle on my AR10 and it seems to work just fine but my favorite is my Leupold VX-3i 1.5-5x20. The scope paired with an Aero lightweight mount is under 13 oz. if I remember correctly and it is rugged as hell. Scope MSRP is $520 but I think I got it for around $450 at Cabela's (had gift cards).

 

[Kruel J]

Trijicon makes some sub 1k glass

Good point. But does anyone REALLY consider them for scopes? Shoot does anyone really consider the ACOG anymore?They are good for sure, but I can't remember the last time I saw someone running one.

 

[Cerberus Group]

They make full lines of rifle scopes that will match other companies...hunting, tactical, red dots etc.

 

[titsonritz]

Good point. But does anyone REALLY consider them for scopes? Shoot does anyone really consider the ACOG anymore?They are good for sure, but I can't remember the last time I saw someone running one.

Think Accupower