best scope for a 16 inch barrel?

[jurassic]

Congrats, the NF 2.5-10 is a very nice scope.

The NF is on my short list, good glass gets real important now that I'm almost 50.

[rick458]

OP where do you shoot
I use PSC in Alvin
I am looking at a 4 x 16 Mueller mildot in a LaRue SPR Mount

[Schwag173]

It boils down to how your going to use your 6.5 Grendel and how much weight your willing to add to your carbine. I decided on a Leupold Mark AR 3X9X40 mil dot reticle with 1/2 MOA clicks. Once sighted in the reticle has marks on the elevation dial from 100 to 700 yards. I have shot my 16" carbine out to 800 yards. On 9 power I could see a 6 inch black circle on a white 8.5 X 11" piece of paper at 800 yards. This scope is medium size and retails for about $350 IIRC. The scope seems to track and return to zero and is decent for the price. Vortex come highly recommended on this sight but depending on model can get pricey. For the way I use my Grendel I just didn't want the bulk of a 2.5 X 10 scope or other higher magnification scopes.

The main issue I see with the 3X9 Leupold is it does not gather light like some scopes I've used. I have a Vortex Strikefire red dot for my 16" 6.5 Grendel which works very well for close in low light shooting so this short coming on the Leupold is not a huge issue for me.

+1 on what VASCAR2 said. On my 16" Grendel, I mounted a Leupold 2-7x VX-II compact that I happened to have sitting on a shelf. The comprimise of weight/bulk/magnification is just about right for my purposes.

[LRRPF52]

I'm at SHOT right now and have been checking out some of the new optics.

Vortex: The 1-6x Razor HD is a great general-purpose scope, with daylight bright red dot built in, exceptional glass, great eye relief, large exit pupil, and cool illumination knob.

They debuted a new Viper PST which is a 2.5-10x32 FFP http://www.vortexoptics.com/product/...1-mrad-reticle

The Leupold Mk 6 1-6x20 is really nice as well: http://www.leupold.com/hunting-shoot...0mm-34mm-m6c1/

[Nukes]

I'm at SHOT right now and have been checking out some of the new optics.

Vortex: The 1-6x Razor HD is a great general-purpose scope, with daylight bright red dot built in, exceptional glass, great eye relief, large exit pupil, and cool illumination knob.

They debuted a new Viper PST which is a 2.5-10x32 FFP http://www.vortexoptics.com/product/...1-mrad-reticle

The Leupold Mk 6 1-6x20 is really nice as well: http://www.leupold.com/hunting-shoot...0mm-34mm-m6c1/

Care to offer any comparisons among those and the
Leupold 1.1-8x24mm CQBSS H27D
IOR 1-10x26mm dual focal plane/dual illuminated X1
US Optics 1-8x24mm ?

[LRRPF52]

I didn't look at the Leupold 1.1-8x24 this year, but I looked at it last year. It's pretty big, and the squeeze lock turrets are still mushy.

Didn't see the IOR, other than one for a .50 cal. I looked at the USO last year I think.

The others I saw were:
Sightron 1-7x, which didn't have forgiving eye relief or exit pupil
Elcan Specter DR 1.5-6x, which is the most compact x6 power scope, with a wide FOV and superb glass. I've been working with the 1-4 Specter DR, which is a nice optic for a streamlined, compact system. The red dots on them are very daylight visible.
I liked the Vortex Razor HD 1-6x and the Elcans the best.

I also stopped by Leatherwood/Hilux's booth to check out the M-1000 ART scope that David Fortier wrote an article on a while back. They build the new ART M-1000 using totally different manufacturing methods than the old 1960's-era ART scopes that broke easily. It is a heavy system, more appropriate for a 20" or longer gun.

[Nukes]

Much appreciated! One of the reasons I keep coming back to the Leupold CQBSS is the combination of two reticles I like. In 3-Gun I shot AUGs, mostly with the circle reticle, for several years. Loved 'em. Last year (took me long enough) I finally got around to buying a precision bolt gun and scoped it with the Horus H59 reticle. Love it. The CQBSS is available with the H27D, illuminating a circle for CQB distances, yet having a Horus "Christmas tree" to reach out precisely as far as the platform allows.

Mushy turrets are not at all appealing, but 43 mil of elevation goes a long way (pun intended).

Since my rifles are nearing completion, I must settle on a choice. I need to do some hard price shopping. Any Leupold vendors you guys respect? Good prices? (MSRP on the CQBSS is insane)

[LRRPF52]

Nukes,

What rifles are near completion and what are the intended uses with them?

What I have noticed is that with most of the intermediate-to-long range shooting I do, the Vortex Viper PST line covers all my bases at a price point that simply can't be beat, with a customer service & warranty reputation that can't be beat, although I haven't needed either.

I would really like them to do a 2-12x inside the 1-6x body, with an EBR reticle in the future. That would be sick, like the IOR 2-12 that Swarovski is trying to buy up from the customers who got them since it affects their patent (IOR produced and distributed the 2-12x before Swarovski even messed with the 6x magnification range).

Since the Viper PST line has more than decent glass, tough as nails turrets, options for Mil/Mil or MOA/MOA, and zero-stop, I really like them, and am hard-pressed to notice any difference when I jump over to a NF when shooting in sunny conditions. The Razor HD is clearly a peer with NF NXS.

[Nukes]

I want to scope AR types in 6.5G and .223 for 3-Gun and Tactical Precision competition.

This is the reticle image that really struck me for the Leupold CQBSS:



Here is a reticle that, for me, was in close competition with the Leupold:





These images are from this thread:

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3832028&gonew=1#UNREAD

According to what I have gathered from varied sources (God forbid that a manufacturer would update their website regarding their new products!):
USO has capped turrets, Leupold does not;
USO illumination controls are push-button, Leupold uses one rotating knob;
USO has 0.2 mil elevation increments; Leupold has 0.1 mil elevation increments; and
I haven't seen elevation range specs on the USO, but the Leupold CQBSS has 43 mil elevation available.

Notwithstanding the Leupold's reportedly mushy squeeze-adjust turret, the specs and reticles. for me, favor the Leupold.

Before I bought my precision bolt gun I compared all kinds of reticles, including the Vortex EBR, and settled on the Horus design. No buyer's remorse there—I really like the reticle for reaching out, but it is not at all suitable for 3-Gun competition unless paired with the circle reticle as in their H27D design. I recently looked at the new IOR 1-10x26mm with the X1 reticle, but did not like that the major elevation hashmarks were at 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 mil when my other scopes have major hashmarks at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc. even increments. Didn't like the idea of changing up between rifles.

Soooooo... I need to find a Leupold dealer with excellent reputation and excellent pricing. Any suggestions?

[Nukes]

Irrelevant to 3-Gun scopes since this reticle is only on a long range scope, but while we are on the subject of reticles, this is the promising AMR (Advanced Milling Reticle) jointly developed by Kahles and Desert Tactical Arms for the DTA SRS and HTI bullpup bolt guns:

[LRRPF52]

Looks like the USO 1-8x is getting great reviews, and the guys from S&B were pawing it for 30 minutes at SHOT, since it has true 1x...

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3826917#Post3826917

[Nukes]

Looks like the USO 1-8x is getting great reviews, and the guys from S&B were pawing it for 30 minutes at SHOT, since it has true 1x...

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubb...17#Post3826917

What a riot! Hilarious!

[LRRPF52]

The cool thing about some of the new reticles is that while you're vaporizing Clingons like a rockstar, you can calibrate the flux capacitor to 21.1 gigawatts for the intergalactic hybrid inertial navigation system for the Starship Enterprise, securing a 99% probability wormhole transfer with the tachyon drive, as long as your reactors are generating enough power for a hyperfield warp dump to the quartz capacitors, and the capacitors have sufficient charge to them to create the high voltage magnetic field necessary for the artificial magnetosphere shaping into your direction of travel.

You need to be up on your hyper-elliptic functions, however...