Optics Buying Guide

It wasn’t until the 1920s that telescopic instruments used as aiming devices began to be widely accepted in the United States, but since then scopes have become the primary means of aiming rifles. In fact, they have become so popular and there are so many choices, it is difficult to decide which to buy.

When the situation calls for shooting the same gun up close or hundreds of yards out, the Vortex Razor Gen III 1-10x has the features to allow top performance at either end of the spectrum. The 10 power gives that little extra to make things possible at greater distances.

The Vortex Fury HD 5000 is a compact unit that offers a crisp, clear view for spotting and evaluating game or targets and a powerful, fast rangefinder to determine a precise range to those targets. Two fantastic tools in one small package.

The little 1-8x is a scope that really can get the job done.

Recently, Leupold has been dropping a bunch of new products that are a direct effect of listening to what the their consumers want. This new VX-5HD 4-20×52 CDS-ZL2 is yet another great scope that many of you have been asking for.

There are some common rules of thumb about matching rifle and scope quality, but the 1:1 ratio is close enough. Hey, it’s even OK to drop down to 50% of the rifle price if you need to. The point is this: don’t buy a nice rifle and stick a cheap gun show scope on it.

So why would you want or need a very high magnification scope? There are two related reasons. You might need to see and hit a reasonably-sized target at very long range, or you might need to be able to see and hit a much smaller target at shorter ranges.

Matching the seemingly infinite number of AR rifles on the market is a multitude of suitable optics. Red dots, holographic sights, fixed-power scopes and variable-power scopes fill the shelves, so how do you choose? Let’s take a look at some factors to consider, then we’ll discuss some pros and cons of some of the common categories of AR-15 optics.

In this episode of the optics buying guide, we’re going to get a little bit geeky, but still practical, about the different types of “red dots” and how one might use them.